Aston Martin DBS V8
GENTLEMAN’S EXPRESS
This DBS V8 got into the Bond-equivalent position of being strapped naked to a chair while an evil mastermind took a swing at its swingers but, in the finest tradition, it turned out all right in the end
Martyn Jagusch didn’t intend to carry out a ground-up restoration on his 1971 Aston Martin DBS V8. Yet one glance at the car’s pristine condition shows he definitely changed his mind — or had it changed for him, which is nearer the truth.
The Aston Martin DBS V8 is a handsome car that only looks better with age. Enthusiasm for Aston’s earlier cars, especially the
James Bond–era DB5 and the earlier super-sexy Zagato models, has been skyrocketing for years, but appreciation for these larger and less iconic GT cars languished for a time. The V8 is less well recognized as a Bond car even though George Lazenby drove one in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969, as did Timothy Dalton in The Living Daylights (1987). However, the car is probably best remembered as Lord Brett Sinclair’s car in The Persuaders!, a ’70s TV series that ran for just two seasons, starring Roger Moore and a Dino 246 GT– mounted Tony Curtis.
GETTING BETTER WITH AGE
Martyn has owned his car since 2003. The decision to buy it then looks like a very wise choice now. Back then, while the badge still had the old magic, the cars themselves were seen as rather old school, with antique ergonomics running on uninspiring mechanicals.
It’s interesting to realize that the lines are now acquiring a distinctive ’70s elegance and character. Although those lines were drawn by the legendary William Towns, the car’s thin pillars and subtle curves add a bit of Italian finesse to its American muscle car–influenced proportions. And let’s not forget that these cars were hand built in a way that today’s Aston Martins cannot claim.
So what was it about this British bruiser that appealed to Martyn, who can also be found piloting more modern Porsches and BMWS about town and at track days?
It was young love. Martyn has known this car for almost all of its life in New Zealand. The father of a friend of Martyn’s imported it in late 1983, a man who also owned a Ferrari 365 GT4. The two lucky lads were allowed to take the two cars out on the weekend for runs along Auckland’s Northern Motorway, which in those days ended not far past the Harbour Bridge at Tristram Avenue. Martyn’s dad had owned Valiants, and Martyn says that at the time he thought the E49 Charger was the hottest car on the road. The Aston’s stance was similar to the E49’s, only better.
“I just fell in love with it,” he explains. Each year the boys also took both cars to the Ellerslie Car Show, where they would go on display with others in their respective car clubs.
“I’d always look forward to that, to be able to drive the Aston there,” says Martyn.
As time marched on, Aston Martin’s classic ’70s V8 was supplanted by the dramatic new DB7, which ushered in the modern era of tauter, sportier Aston Martins and made the DBS look instantly old-fashioned.
Martyn still had a soft spot for it, though. He asked his friend’s dad, Tony Parsons, to call him if he ever wanted to sell it. Tony took some time to come around to the idea.
“Twice I’d been around there to pick up the car and twice he’d said, ‘Look Martyn, I just don’t think I can let it go’.”
Martyn had an ally on the inside,
though. Some time later, Tony’s wife, Mary, who had decided it really was time to move it on, called him up. She told him that Tony was away and asked to come and collect the car.
Martyn was happy, though. He was determined to keep the car that he had coveted as original as possible, if he could just make it more reliable and usable. After all, it was a five-speed manual, and almost all of the cars made in its 20-year production run from 1969 to 1989 were three-speed autos. Martyn enjoyed driving it as a classic GT counterpoint to his Porsche 911.
and take a look at his car. As Martyn was expecting to get his car back shortly, with the brakes fixed, he was surprised — to say the least — to hear a metal fabricator suggesting he come and take a look at it. Tony invited him to decide whether he wanted his car put back together.
These Aston Martins have handformed aluminium bodies on a steel chassis. The stainless-steel sill cappings looked sturdy but underneath — “it was rotten,” says Martyn.
More stripping of the chassis was ordered to get to the bottom of the issue. It was indeed a big problem. Tony estimated it would cost about $80K to fix it up.
Martyn admits to being rocked by the cost but eventually reasoned that, if the bills were spread out, he could live with it. He decided to give the car a proper birthday that would coincide with his 50th, which would roll around in a couple of years. The stripped-down and repaired chassis would have to go to another craftsman, John Lisle at Cascade Auto Finish, for a full rotisserie. That was just the start.
“It cost over $200K,” says Martyn. It also took five years. At least the longer time frame gave Martyn time to come to terms with and pay the extra cost. Some of the increase came from increases in charge-out rates, which have multiplied over time, but most had to do with scope creep.
“It worked out well,” Martyn says, “although at one time the car was costing me about $5K a week.”
It must have been love.
Once the chassis was done, the car went back to Tony to set up the body and reassemble.
“These cars are hand built; if you look at pictures, even the height and the shape and the degree of the body creases vary,” Martyn says. “We had to decide what we wanted.”
The windscreen looked fine, just the beginnings of a bit of fogging in two corners, but Tony got talking to a supplier, who said he had one — a snip at $800.
“The only problem was, it didn’t fit. Again, that was because they are all different. I still don’t know what they did to make it fit and I don’t want to know,” admits Martyn.
The final fairing at Cascade Auto Finish took that bill to $40K but the result is superb. The crease through the middle is oh so subtle and the telltale reflections in its flanks are spookily free of distortion. Before