1971 Aston Martin DBS Vantage

Introduced at the October 1967 Motor Show, the DBS was the successor to the famed Aston Martin DB6, although the two ran concurrently for three years. Styled in-house by William Towns, the aluminium-bodied four-seater had a sharper, more Italianate look than the curvaceous DB6 but still exuded road presence and looks mighty impressive even today. Longer, wider and more luxurious than the DB6, the DBS employed a platform-type chassis with independent suspension all round: wishbone and coil spring at the front, De Dion with Watts linkage at the rear. Autocar judged it superior to the preceding DB6 in many areas, offering four full-sized seats in addition to transformed handling and road holding courtesy of the new suspension and standardised power steering.

Originally designed to accept an all-new V8 engine, this was not ready in time for the car's launch, so it was fitted with the legendary four-litre DB6 engine instead. As with the latter, the twin-cam engine was available in standard or Vantage tune - the former producing 282bhp at 5,500rpm on triple SUs, the latter 325bhp at 5,750rpm with triple Webers and hotter cams.

A five-speed ZF gearbox was standard with three-speed automatic transmission optional as was Brico fuel-injection. Performance was not quite as rapid as the DB6, the new car carrying extra weight, but the DBS was still no slouch: in its road test of a DBS Vantage, Motor recorded 141mph with 0-60 and 0-l00mph reached in 7.1 and 18.0 seconds respectively. Production of the DBS stretched between September 1967 and April 1972 during which time only 70 RHD Vantage examples were produced. Continuing Aston's famed 007 connections, the DBS was used by George Lazenby's James Bond in the 1969 film 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'.

Presented here is a 1971 Aston Martin DBS Vantage, chassis #5701/R, with a manual gearbox and one only 70 RHD Vantage specification cars built by the factory, and is offered from a small private collection.

Believed to have left the factory painted red, the early history of the car is not present but the first MoT, from August 1977, records the mileage as 46,655 miles. An invoice from renowned marque specialist, Robin Hamilton, dated October 1980 made out to a Mr S. Herbert of Stoke-On-Trent, documents bodywork repairs that were carried out at that time. These included stripping the paint on the left front wing & door, removal of rear wing panels and air vent to gain access to inner panels to remove rotten metalwork, strip down the left-hand door and re-weld and fit new metal, refit of door and repaint front & rear wings - all this work was done for the tidy sum of £970! Further invoices from the aforementioned specialist documents cylinder head work and engine tuning, for which the carburettors had to be rebuilt before a rolling road test was carried out, resulting in an indicated 160 bhp at the wheels.

In August 1988, the car was purchased by a Mr R. Foy of Romford from Autoclass Classic Cars of Finchley, London. A letter from the proprietor of the above-mentioned classic car dealer states that the odometer was reading 31,645 miles at the time, but in fact, the total mileage was 131,645 miles which correlates with the host of MoT certificates in the file. Before Mr Foy took delivery of the car, both floor pans were replaced and the car was given a full respray in Storm Red two-pack paint. In 1990, the Stratton Motor Company rebuilt the cylinder head, replaced a faulty piston and fitted all new pistons rings, along with fitting new big-end shells. At this time the carburettors were rebuilt and the engine re-assembled at a cost of £2,582.

A Mr M. Williams of Holywell was to be the next keeper of this DBS Vantage from February 1994 to 2014. Under his stewardship, he kept a log every time the car received attention and in 1998 an unleaded fuel cylinder head conversion was carried out by the Aston Workshop. Presumably off the road for a couple of years, the log shows the Aston was back in action in 2003. Our vendor then purchased the car in 2014 and has used the Aston sparingly, attending the odd local classic car show and studiously avoiding wet weather.

Now offered for sale and finished in Purple with a Cream interior, this is a fantastic opportunity to acquire a rare manual DBS Vantage that comes supplied with a UK V5c and an MoT. The perfect candidate for a full restoration, or simply a car to drive and enjoy, the choice is yours....!