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This Aston Martin DBS spent 30 years in a barn. Now you can buy it

Dilapidated, 1968 barn-find Aston is going up for auction. Will need quite a bit of work

Published: 10 May 2016

In 1968, a brand new Aston Martin DBS would have set you back £4,473. Today, in a ruinous state and left untouched for 30 years, one is expected to sell for between £50-£60k.

Needs a bit of work, as you'll spot from the pictures above. But then this Aston Martin DBS - which is going up for sale at Silverstone Auctions' May sale - hasn't been driven since 1986. You see, it was delivered to its first owner on 5 November 1968 (in Surrey), finished in mink bronze, and sporting a red 'Connolly' leather interior. Said owner specced it with a Motorola radio, a Borg Warner automatic gearbox, power steering, fog and spot lamps, and air conditioning.

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In 1970, it passed into the ownership of a Mr Pasqua, who took it over to Jersey and enjoyed the DBS until 1986. At this point, it had done 30,565 miles. Then, one day, he rolled it into a barn, and it has stayed there ever since.

So everything on the Aston is as it was in 1968. Only worse. Naturally, it will need a thorough restoration, and Silverstone Auctions tells us the mechanical condition is "unknown". Great. It's the early DBS, which means it gets a 4.0-litre straight-six and whatever's left from the factory 280bhp (later DBSs had a V8). When new, it was capable of going from 0-60mph in 7.1s and a top speed of 140mph. Today? You're in luck if it even starts...

Still, it's a gorgeous, classic old Aston Martin DBS. A car originally planned as the successor to the DB6, and the second Aston after the DB5 to star in a Bond film; 1969's underrated On Her Majesty's Secret Service with George Lazenby.

Fancy it? It'll go up for auction on Friday 20 May. That upper estimate matches that of a Mercedes-AMG C63 saloon. Which would you rather have?

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