The three unique features of the car are 1/500 front wing badges, 1913 sill plaques and a signed vehicle inspection plaque in the engine bay.

Optional features also offered as part of the package consisted of 16 way electric front seats with memory, heated and ventilated front and rear seats, heated sports steering wheel and a pair of AM designer keys. The owners were also given a signed build book of the car and were invited to regional celebration cocktail parties with AML executives.

This particular car was photographed at Aston Martin Works at Newport Pagnell in late 2020.

The Cygnet Black had a unique Magic Black metallic paint finish offset by twin front to back matt body stripes, matt black bonnet louvers, matt black meshes on the side vents and black enamelled AM wings badges. The door mirrors featured chrome caps and the 16 inch 16 spoke wheels were gloss black painted with the spokes diamond turned.

The interior was finished in a Pure Black leather (even darker than Obsidian Black) with perforated seat inserts whilst the trim on the dash was finished in dark chrome. One point to note is that it was also possible to spec the ‘Black’ with the all white interior of the ‘White’ car  (and vice versa). The launch cars all featured unique ‘swan head’ badging with contrasting eye colour on the door pillar; these badges are intended only to be used on special and limited edition Cygnets. In addition, the Launch Editions came many optional features as standard such as a 5 piece Bill Amberg luggage set, first aid kit, garage door opening rear view mirror and special launch edition sill plates.

The brand new platform chassis was engineered under the watchful eye of Harold Beech. Topping this, the body frame is made up of a cage of small diameter tubes which is covered by hand made aluminium body panels. This method of construction is known as ‘Superleggera’ (Italian for super light) and was, to a greater or lesser used under license by AML from Touring right the way through into the DB6 Mark 2 in 1970. This is why DB4’s and DB5’s (and a few DB6’s have a pair of Superleggera badges on their bonnets.

The DB4 was powered by an aluminium straight six cylinder 3670 cc engine; the work of Aston Martin’s Polish designer, Tadek Marek. When fitted with the standard twin SU HD8 carburettors, the engine was said to produce 240 bhp at 5,500 rpm, sufficient for a dash to 60 mph in 9 seconds and a maximum speed of 140 mph. Nowadays, the declared power outputs from the 1960’s are considered a little inflated and it was probably closer to 200 of todays variety. This was mated to a 4 speed manual gearbox made by the gearbox division of the David Brown Corporation.

These early and desirable Series 1 DB4’s are characterised by simple bumpers usually without over-riders and the rear hinged, front opening bonnet. Only the series 1 DB4 have this feature as the risk with a front opening bonnet is that if the catch was to fail, the bonnet could fly up at speed and obscure the drivers view of the road. The first 50 cars also had no window frames around the door glass (frameless coupe style). This caused whistling at speed and so frames were added on later cars to combat this. Unfortunately for a GT designed for high speed continental cruising, early cars suffered from overheating, a problem not fully sorted until much later in the production run. This problem was eventually cured in much later examples with the fitting of an oil cooler and a much enlarged sump. The Series 1 DB4 was in production from October 1958 to January 1960 (chassis numbers DB4/101/R to DB4/249/L) with a total of just 149 cars completed. Of these 149 cars, 73 were built with left hand drive for export. The improved Series 2 became available from January 1960. Despite the early problems associated with introducing such a revolutionary new car, around 100 examples are thought to still exist with maybe a few more awaiting to be discovered having been locked away in barns and garages for many years.

The series grouping of the DB4 from series 1 to series 5 was not actually devised by the factory at all, but was retrospectively devised within the Aston Martin Owners Club for use in the Register of Cars. It is a useful way to describe the evolution of the DB4 and has been universally adopted by the all including AML themselves.

Below is a rather unusual early DB4 which ended up being the special personal project car for the works engine designer, Tadek Marek. Eventually this car featured a DB4GT nose, DB4GT dash, a five speed gearbox and an experimental  4 litre Vantage engine with triple Weber carburettors probably producing close to a true 300 bhp. Marek was a smoker so even the rear quarter lights were electrically operated to extract his cigarette smoke.

One point to note is that it was also possible to order the all black interior of the ‘Black’ car even if the car was painted Snow White. The launch cars all featured unique ‘Cygnet head’ badging with contrasting eye colour; these Cygnet badges are only used on special and limited edition cars, not on the regular production versions. In addition, the Launch Editions came with a number of options as standard

• Magnum Silver bonnet louvers
• Magnum Silver meshes on the side vents
• Unique all white enamelled AM wings badges
• 16 inch, 16 spoke wheels, gloss white painted with faces of the spokes diamond turned
• Chrome caps on the door mirrors
• 5 piece Bill Amberg luggage set
• First Aid Kit
• Garage door opening rear view mirror
• Special launch edition sill plates

The picture above was taken in the VIP customer area of the AML stand at the 2011 Geneva Salon.

But, AML had also decided upon a new 170mph 2 seater sportscar to be unveiled at the 1967 London Motor Show, and again, Touring was invited to style the new vehicle, codenamed MP226. Two chassis were built, based on the DB6 chassis, but with de Dion rear suspension and capable of taking the forthcoming V8 engine. Unfortunately by mid 1966, the economy had taken something of a downward turn and demand for the DB6 had dipped considerably. So it was decided that one way to stimulate sales was to bring the new car to the Paris and London Motor Shows in September and October 1966 – one whole year earlier than initially planned. Needless to say, Touring had to work flat out so that an acceptable rolling shells could be displayed for the shows. Initially, as the car was intended to be sold alongside the DB6, plans were made for limited production – but this would have needed much more development time and would have affected development on the important four seater DBS. Another problem was that the long 6 cylinder engine could only have the cylinder head removed with the engine out of the car – it had to be fitted so far back that it was hard against the bulkhead. So the Touring cars were cancelled – and a short while later, Touring of Milan ceased trading. Two cars were completed; the car shown here is the second example (LHD) and was photographed in the reception at Works Service ai Newport Pagnell.

Initially, when the cars was first shown, they were called ‘DBS’. When the true production DBS was shown a year later in 1967, the Touring prototypes were re-named as DBSC to avoid confusion.

Whilst there were many minor modifications on the series 2, many of these were under the skin. Maybe the only easy way so separate a Series 1 from a Series 2 is the adoption of opening rear quarter lights made with flat glass rather than curved. Also if a DB4 Series 2 is displayed with the bonnet up, it is clear that it is hinges from the front, a feature that was used right through to the end of production of derivatives of the Virage in 2000. The risk of a front opening bonnet is that if the catch was to fail, the bonnet could fly up at speed and obscure the drivers view of the road. The series 2 car also was fitted with uprated front brake callipers.

In order to aid vital engine cooling the sump was enlarged from 14 to 17 pints and the oil pump was also uprated. The much needed oil cooler was only an optional extra (indicated by a scoop under the front bumper) and was only fitted to a small number of cars at the time, although many have had them retrofitted more recently. Other options offered was overdrive and electric windows. Both Series 1 and 2 cars were fitted with the same rear Lucas light clusters as the DB Mark 3. These originated from the Humber Hawk but were also used on the Alvis TD21 and some special bodied Rolls Royce and Bentley motor cars. For some reason, this design are sometimes known as cathedral rear lights.

In total 349 of the Series 2 DB4 were built until the Series 3 was introduced in April 1961.

These are the specifications for the JWW Edition – two versions

• Q Lennox Green Metallic coachwork
•

Both increased weight and a greater frontal area dented performance slightly although the DBS was still fast for (almost) a full four seater (141mph, 0-60mph in 7.1 seconds). Identification of the DBS over the later DBS V8 is easily afforded by the attractive wire wheels. The torque produced by the V8 needed stronger alloy wheels to be fitted.

A distinguishing feature of the DBS and DBS V8 are the four quartz iodine headlights set into a new interpretation of the Aston Martin grille. The view of the front shows clearly that the DBS was a very wide car at 183cm (15cm more than the DB6).

There are two distinct series of DBS as distinguished by the AMHT, both of which are illustrated here. The earlier cars, sometimes known as the Series 1 have louvers in the ‘C’ post behind the rear side windows and a plain panel under the rear screen. On introduction of the DBS V8, the 6 cylinder DBS was modified in line with the new car; these later cars are easy to spot as they have no louvers in the ‘C’ post, but do have louvers under the rear window. Other changes to the Series 2, introduced in January 1970, are deepening to the panels under the nose and tail, and a deeper stainless steel sill covers.

Production run of the DBS stretched between September 1967 and April 1972 during which 803 examples were produced.  A few chassis numbers remained unused as the body-in-white initially intended to become the six cylinder cars were actually finished as DBS V8. Thus the DBS, even through it was in production for almost 5 years, they are rarer than the DB5. Although no convertible DBS Volante was made at the Newport Pagnell factory, specialist coach building firms such as Banhams

In the 1969 James Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, George Lazenby made his first and last appearance as 007 and drove what appeared to be standard DBS. This car is celebrated in this wonderful site dedicated to the rebuild of a highly accurate 007, DBS replica. – ww.ohmssdbs.com. Another very interesting site featuring the DBS is www.dbsvantage.com. But the most famous DBS was not the Bond car but a car driven by a future Bond, Roger Moore, in the ITC TV programme, The Persuaders. The Bahamas Gold car was adorned with the cherished registration plate BS1 and featured alloy wheels as fitted to the DBS V8 to make the more humble 6 cylinder look like its more powerful younger brother.

The DBS has for many years been seen as the Cinderella of the Aston Martin world, outshone by the earlier seminal DB5 and the more powerful later AM V8 models. Many were cannibalised for their precious engine and gearbox, the rest of the cars were parted out. Nowadays the DBS is very much in the ascendancy and prices have firmed up for both rough barn finds to concours examples.

The first series of DBS and it’s identifying features

This is a later DBS Vantage, a series 2 if you wish, showing the features introduced alongside the DBS V8

There are some people that call the six cylinder DBS, ‘DBS6’ as a way to distinguish the car from the DBS V8. This cannot be in anyway encouraged – the name DBS6 was never been used by the factory and is not recognised by the Aston Martin Heritage Trust.

Most of the updates from the previous series are hidden from  view, such as five windscreen demister vents instead of three, twin bonnet stays and an electric tachometer. The principle external change is to the rear light clusters which are the only really noticeable change in appearance from the earlier cars. Instead of the cathedral rear lights, a polished plate houses the separate indicator, rear/brake light and a red reflector lenses each on heavy polished chrome bases.

With only 165 examples built during 1961 only, the series 3 is one of the scarcest of the DB4 saloons. It was superseded by the series 4 in September 1961. As an option, the DB4 series 3 could be specified with the twin plug, triple Weber GT engine and it is believed that three highly desirable cars were built this way.