The appeal of this particular 1970 Aston Martin DBS lies not just in its gorgeous shape, its sorted V-8 engine or in its luxury interior. Rather, what sets it apart is its background as a press car when new, then its restoration laid bare for British magazine readers. From the seller’s description:
This DBS V8 has been in the media spotlight since 1971 when, as a press car for Aston Martin, it was tested at an average 160 mph over a measured mile on the as yet unfinished, M4 in Wiltshire. This was an extended test of over 3,000 miles on behalf of Motor magazine and over 20 years later one of their testers, Tony Dron, now editor of Classic Cars magazine, was re-acquainted with the car when they undertook an overview of the car’s restoration.
Little is known about the car’s history from when it left Aston Martin 1973 and was spotted by long time enthusiast, Gordon Burns, in a field in Scotland. With grass grown up around it, and a wrecked engine that had a con-rod sticking out of it, the car’s restoration was going to challenge anyone, but Gordon took a sensible approach of mixing his own efforts with those of experts like Andy Chapman of Chapman Spooner. Andy undertook engine work, while another acknowledged Aston expert, Gary H Wright, took on interior refurbishment.
What is perhaps even more interesting was a follow up article in the same magazine in September 1999. By then, the current owner had taken possession of the car – he purchased it from Gordon Burns through a broker in February 1996. The new owner had used the services of Jon Armitage, an Aberystwyth based restorer, to address some major faults. The first was to do with the aftermath of someone incorrectly jacking the car up on the steering rack and the second was the known Achilles heel of the early V8′s – the injection system.
John was equipped with the tools and expertise to sort out the chassis issues but sought assistance to address the injection system. The owner attributes the final achievement of making the fuel system work as its designers’ had intended to David Reed from Aston Martin specialists, Davron. In the words of Classic Cars’ journalist, Mark Dixon, all the gremlins on the injection system of SKX 11 J were exorcised.
Furthermore, he recorded that the current owner had put the finished car through its paces, driving 2,000 miles to his Swiss base and back to the UK – over 2,000 miles – without a problem. Sustained cruising at 130 mph – high points of 150 mph – and a return of 17 miles per gallon spoke volumes for the work of John Armitage and Devimead.
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