Eight and Twelve Overture: Aston Martin Vantage GT8 v GT12

It’s amazing how quickly you forget. These two Aston Martins, with their naturally aspirated engines and interiors that are as terrible to use as they are beautiful to behold, feel like they belong to another era. Classic cars almost. And yet even the older of the two has yet to celebrate its tenth birthday.

Their production numbers seem charmingly, even naively old school. Total production of the Aston Martin Vantages GT8 and GT12 combined is less than the number of Valkyries Aston Martin has made, each of which costs a minimum of 10 times the price of even the GT12. Just 250 in total of both, comprising 100 GT12s and 150 GT8s. All of which sold at once. They must have been kicking themselves around the boardroom table.

Aston is making 999 Valhalla coupés for £850,000 each, and that’s before the roadster version and one other variant (expected to be a powered-up, pared-back track day monster) have been announced. But just because cars are rare – unbelievably so in the case of the GT8 and GT12 – does not guarantee they will also be special. So that’s what we’re here to find out.