1970 Aston Martin DBSV8
“ A fantastic opportunity to restore and enjoy one of the first and purest AM V8s. ”
Offered as part of a curated online auction in conjunction with the Aston Martin Owner's Club Festival at the British Museum on 21st June 2026.

Background
The Aston Martins that followed on from the DB6 were very obviously from the pen of a different designer.

They took their aesthetic cues from the design zeitgeist of the 60s and 70s, not the 40s and 50s. They also tipped an unapologetic and undisguised nod to America’s muscle cars – the Ford Mustang in particular.

After the DB6 came the DBS, still with a six-cylinder engine and patiently awaiting the arrival of a V8 that promised to give the car the grunt to go with the grace.

The DBS proved to be well worth waiting for. It was a proper muscle car and one that owed its squat, steroidal stance and sleekly aggressive profile to the design pen of Aston’s William Towns.

The engine was designed by Polish émigré Tadek Marek, a man whose inimitable engineering imprint stretches from the DBR2 racing car engine, through the redesign of Aston’s venerable, Bentley-derived straight-six, to the development of the 5.3-litre V8 for the DBSV8 in 1969.

The Aston Martin DBSV8 was manufactured between April 1970 and May 1972. It featured Bosch fuel injection and was capable of accelerating the 1727kg gentleman’s express from 0 - 60mph in 5.9 seconds.

Every car took around 1,200 man-hours to build and each was every bit as handmade as a Savile Row suit.

These Aston Martin muscle cars may have had more than enough testosterone to compete with the Mustangs, Chargers and Corvettes of their trans-Atlantic cousins, but they did so with all the unmistakably British pedigree and class of a St. James’ club.

The DBSV8 was, of course, made famous as Roger Moore’s car of choice in ‘The Persuaders!’. It had V8 wheels and looked like a V8 but, as no V8-engined car was ready in time for shooting to commence, the car was in fact a 6-cylinder DBS.

Overview
We know this car, because it’s been our way before.

We first encountered it when it came to us as part of an overseas collection in 2023.

The car had been in the collection since 2012, at which time the mileage was recorded as being 53,900 miles.

It came to us then with very little history save for some notes gleaned from the auction at which it was purchased for the overseas collection.

Those notes had the following to say.

‘This Aston Martin DBSV8 was the fiftieth car manufactured and believed to have been supplied to the Channel Islands, first registered in the United Kingdom in June 1973, and is finished in silver with black leather interior and fitted with the iconic four head lights and large full-width grille.’

Aside from incorrectly stating that the interior colour was then black (it was, and is, clearly green), we have no reason to doubt the veracity of that description.

The vendor bought the car through us in March 2024, at which time he had every intention of getting on with the job of restoring this project DBSV8.

As is often the way with even the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, his plans never quite got off the drawing board and he now finds himself selling it in the knowledge that, as he won’t have the time to finish the job, there’s not much point starting it.

So, the car has been kept safe, sound, warm and dry in storage ever since but its condition – aesthetically, mechanically and dynamically – remains unchanged from March 2024.

The car is a project waiting to be started…and deserving to be finished.

As we said in 2024, ‘The vehicle takes power to the dashboard but the engine doesn’t currently turn over or start. We've tried to hand turn it, and it does move several millimetres back and forth, but we haven't done anything further than that. So, as we haven’t driven the car, our appraisal of it is entirely based on its cosmetic appearance’.

We haven’t tried to start or drive it this time, either, so we can’t add anything to our earlier observations.

Estimate: £40,000 - £50,000

View Current Bid Price HERE