A thoroughbred of automotive engineering, and yet the DBS is one Aston you probably know very little about. Not rubbish then, just misunderstood.

History Channel:

That’s what this article would feel like if we covered all of Aston Martin’s ridiculously chequered past. Instead we’ve used some nice bullet points and kept it salient.

Read on class…

• 1914: Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford set up Aston
  Martin. Bamford didn’t like his own name much so opted to use Aston
  Hill, his favourite race spot.
• 1925: Lionel Martin walked away. Lord Charnwood and his wallet stepped in.
• 1947: Following World War 2 Aston Martin hit the doldrums and Sir David Brown took over. His DB initials are still in use today (i.e. the current model DB9).
• 1972: A group of rich men from Birmingham buy the company.
• 1975: Predictably the Birmingham boys had ideas above their
  station, so North American businessmen Pete Sprague and George Minden
  picked up the tab. Ha, there it is! Aston Martin was Americanised long ago.
• 1981: CH Industrial purchase the company from Sprague and Minden.
• 1983: Automotive Investments have a go at running things. Don’t last long.
• 1984: New owners Victor Gauntlett and Peter Livanos turn up, and this is getting daft.
• 1986: The Ford Motor company purchase 75% of Aston Martin.
• 1988: Ford buy the whole thing. Thank God.

And that’s how things remain today. Ford, like it or not, saved Aston Martin.

Thanks For The Masterclass. So What Of The DBS?:

In many ways the forgotten Aston. Now cheapest of the truly British V6s to purchase second-hand and no slowcoach by anyone’s standards.
7.1 seconds – a fully respectable 0-60 time – and a nerve shattering
top speed of 143 mph; those were the tantalising brochure figures back
when roads were clear enough to avoid Twiggy out on her
scooter. Try anything over a hundred in a DBS nowadays and you better
make sure you’ve uprated the brakes. Either that or get used to
hospital food and litigation.

The DBS
was designed by William Towns. His sketching pencil favoured square as
opposed to curvy. A factor horrifically evident in his later
glam-addled monstrosity the Aston Martin Lagonda. Even wives of the nouveau riche would only drive it at night.

A four-headlamped, wide-grilled DBS was not considered by many in 1967 to be Aston’s prettiest achievement. In hindsight this is still the case, though with Chris Bangle’s Tron-like BMW range currently copping similar criticism, who knows what another decade or so might achieve? The public will eventually like what they’re told to, it all depends on how much marketing money is in the pot. Take Jessica Simpson; blatantly an orange man in drag, but two thousand magazine covers later and somehow she makes your sex-fantasy wish list. It’s all wrong.

Changing tastes meant the DBS was already retro 40-odd years ago, despite a more than passing resemblance to the then all-prevailing Ford Mustang. Four headlamps would never really take off until Audi bolted them to the front of their Quattro rally car in 1980.

Aston Martin, as usual (up until 2003 when they finally got wise with the Vanquish), were completely ignoring the public and just doing what they damn well liked.

Enough With The Aston Bashing. This Car Is Famous After All:

It is and it isn’t. Of all the cars James Bond drove, the DBS is the one you’ll remember least. It skidded around a deserted beach in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service driven by who-the-Hell, completely forgotten, ready to be cremated, one-off Bond George Lazenby. His screen wife got shot dead in it too, which must have been a great sell in the Aston Martin investment literature.

The Persuaders provided without a doubt the car’s heaviest media exposure. This 1970’s TV crime show staring Roger Moore (as Lord Brett Sinclair) and Tony Curtis (as Danny Wilde) is presently being remade as a Hollywood movie featuring Steve Coogan and Ben Stiller. Sounds imminently forgettable to us, so check out Roge driving a ‘baby’s crap’ coloured DBS in the original series (DVDs).

Ignore how the car’s rear overhang appears to be scraping across the floor every time it accelerates and concentrate your attention on Roge’s dangerously coloured cravats instead. And that roar. The DBS sounded how every Aston should, deep, fat and unbelievably gassy. With Roge and a host of sixties bikini-babes warming up the brown leather a DBS was finally seen as a bit of all right. Certainly never stopped old Brett Sinclair getting laid every fifteen minutes anyway.

If Roger Moore Drove The DBS I’ve Gotta Have One!:

We at hecklerspray have driven an Aston Martin too, you know. Not a DBS but a 1966 DB6 – regulation silver and cogged with four clutch-killing gears. Apart from showing off we bring this up to unearth a common idiosyncrasy of old Astons; the accelerator feels as though a runaway ball of socks has made their way under the pedal. If all you’ve driven in the past is a Volkswagen Golf prepare to dislodge those James Bond fantasies quicker than last night’s curry. Piloting a classic Aston is an amazing experience, sure, but we strongly suggest you try before you buy.

To purchase a good DBS you’ll need no less than £20k in your savings account. That’s just the nuts and bolts outlay of course, we haven’t even touched upon Aston’s stop-your-heart-for-a-few-grand servicing costs. Two hundred quid a tyre – if you drink in the same pub as the garage owner. Unless you’re rich it’s just not worth the hassle.

We recommend you keep your body free of mercenary medical testing and buy a Corgi DBS from eBay. It’s less than ten spondoolies and you even get a tiny model of Roger Moore wearing a blazer thrown in for your trouble.

And if that doesn’t make Aston’s DBS cool again nothing will.

[story by Chris Laverty]