Aston Martin 1967-’ 72
DBS
BY MARK J. McCOURT
PHOTOGRAPH Y BY DAVID LaCHANCE
BRITAIN’S CONSUMMATE CONTINENTAL GRAND TOURER OFFERS GRACE, COMFORT Aston Martin was already in with the sporting spy set by the mid 1960s, as the Touring-bodied DB5
and its DB6 successor had become the
cat’s meow with millionaire playboy
types and the fashion models who flocked
to them. These cars’ shared platform was
reaching its limits in terms of the buying
public’s increasing demand for speed,
comfort and passenger accommodations,
so the automaker aimed higher with the
stunning DBS.
Aston Martin had built what many
consider to be the first proper British
grand touring car in the form of the 1958-
1963 DB4, an expensive (almost $10,000 by
1960) car whose beefy 240hp dual-over-head cam, 3,670cc straight-six engine
and sinuous Superleggera bodywork by
Carrozzeria Touring made it an instant
classic. The DB5 and slightly larger DB6
were showing their age by 1967, when the
$16,850 DBS made its debut at Blenheim
Palace on September 25.
The new coupe combined a striking
body, styled by William Towns, that was
a beautiful update of the family styling
cues. The DBS’s most notable attributes
were its full-width grille, which incorporated quad round headlamps, and its
trim rear end with delicate horizontal
taillamps; standard center-lock wire
wheels added a classic touch. The aforementioned DB5/DB6 platform had been
lengthened by an inch (to 102. 75 inches)
and its track widened 5 inches (to 59
inches). Combining this with the new
semi-independent De Dion rear axle
setup, the results were a more composed
ride and increased seating comfort for
four adults.
The engine bay of the DBS had been
designed to accommodate the new V- 8
engine that the automaker had shown on
John Surtees’s stand at the Racing Car
Show in London the previous January,
but because development work on that
unit was still ongoing, the DBS arrived
sharing the DB6’s 3,995cc straight-six
engine. This DOHC, seven-main-bearing
aluminum block and head unit used a 96 x
92mm bore and stroke, 8.9: 1 compression
and three SU carburetors to make 282hp
at 5, 500 RPM and 288-lbs.ft. of torque at
3,850 RPM. The no-cost-optional Vantage
specification brought a 9.4: 1 compression
ratio and three Weber carburetors, with
the results being 325hp at 5,750 RPM and
290-lbs.ft. of torque at 4, 500 RPM. The
straight-six was coupled to a five-speed
gearbox or three-speed Borg-Warner
automatic.
The result of the roughly 500-pounds
heavier new body and no increase in
engine output was a drop in performance, although it’s hard to call a 0-60
MPH time of 7. 1 seconds and a 141 MPH
top speed “slow.” The cure for this was
waiting in the wings in the form of that
twin-cam V- 8, which would be installed
in the DBS V- 8 (sold alongside the DBS)
starting in 1969. The DBS V- 8, which
would be renamed the Aston Martin V- 8
after David Brown sold the company in
1972, would continue in production in
closed and open forms for an impressive
20 years. Although the 787 DBSs built
between 1967 and 1972 were soon overshadowed by their big-engine successors, they were treated to an homage by
Aston Martin in 2008, as theirs became
the name of a new V-12-powered flagship—incidentally, the new ride of a certain sporting spy.
