Aston Martin DBS History

Launched in 1967 and styled by William Towns, the DBS replaced the curvaceous DB6 with a wider, squarer, four-headlamp fastback body that looked thoroughly modern. It initially used the familiar 4.0-litre straight-six.

The car had always been intended for V8 power, and in 1969 the 5.3-litre DBS V8 arrived — briefly the fastest four-seater production car in the world. About 787 six-cylinder DBS and roughly 405 DBS V8 cars were built before the line evolved, in 1972, into the long-running model known simply as the Aston Martin V8.