1970 Aston Martin DBS Sports Saloon

This car, Lot 222, sold for $889,166 at Bonhams’ annual Aston Martin sale at Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell, U.K., on May 17, 2014.

As the catalog had it, “PPP 6H represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire a true automotive icon, which is also of popular cultural significance.” Or, let’s see how far celebrity appeal can bump a car’s value over what it’s technically worth.

“The Persuaders!” didn’t do well in America, so it might have passed you by, but this 1971 playboy action-adventure series teamed a pre-James Bond Roger Moore, playing Lord Brett Sinclair, with Tony Curtis as self-made oil millionaire Danny Wilde.

The show was filmed in France, Italy and England. The smooth and suave Sinclair drove Britain’s finest, of course, while the flamboyant, “rough diamond” Wilde was issued a flashier Ferrari Dino. Moore fancied the DBS possibly because one had already appeared in the 1969 James Bond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (bizarrely, trivia fans, Moore never drove an Aston in his seven outings as Bond), but a new V8 wasn’t available from Newport Pagnell. So, a DBS “Six” nearing the end of the production line was dressed up with V8 badges and wheels.

One story doing the rounds was that Aston supplied only two of these alloy wheels, which were bolted to whichever side of the car was nearest the camera, with the steelies out of sight on the other. But that would have required a hub change too.

The BS 1 registration was real, belonging to circus owner Billy Smart, who permitted its use during filming — except for two brief scenes in one episode — “The Gold Napoleon,” when the crew forgot to put the BS l plates on the car and its true identity of PPP 6H was revealed.

Great condition — and TV memorabilia

After filming, the car was sold into private ownership via HR Owen of London (they’re still going), and since restoration was been serviced every year since 1997 by Aston Martin, except for the four years 2007–10 when it was handled by ex-Aston Martin Works Service Manager and engineer David Eales at marque specialist Oselli.

The DBS comes with a large file of photographs and memorabilia, and the underside of the trunk lid bears the signatures of both stars of “The Persuaders!” Moore provided his autograph in 2002, and Curtis signed in 2008.

Remaining in perfect, as-restored condition, it hasn’t been out much in recent years except for the Aston Martin Owners’ Club’s Spring Concours in May 2011, where it appeared with a new owner. In the run-up to this sale, it appeared at the 2013 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este at Lake Como, and the Salon Privé Concours in London — as well as several Aston Martin Centenary events.

There was a pragmatic — and slightly sad — reason for the sale. The vendor, who’d owned the car since 2010 and clocked up some of the 6,000 miles since restoration, told me he was selling after family events had opened his eyes to the bigger picture: His brother had sadly passed on the day he retired from work, which rather concentrated our seller’s mind. He now intends to make the most of his retirement, partly funded by selling the Aston.

It easily surpassed its $580k lower estimate, although that still represents only about a fifth of the price of the “Goldfinger” DB5.

Semi-Bond shaking and stirring

So, does the Bond effect rub off on the vaguely related? Almost. This DBS sold for about seven times what it was really worth, which is fairly consistent with 007 provenance. As we have seen from earlier sales of the Bond DB5 (February 2011, p. 48) and “The Spy Who Loved Me” non-submarine Lotus Esprit (that Bonhams sold for $165k in December 2008), a starring role with 007 behind the wheel multiplies the price of such distinctive cars about tenfold. Never mind that Roger Moore hadn’t yet become 007 when this DBS ripped around in “The Persuaders!”

Interestingly, the only other DBS to have approached this level is the one-off shooting brake, DBS5730R, that Bonhams sold at the Works Service sale in May 2012, in similar restored condition, for $533,864. This was a big surprise, as only $100k was predicted pre-sale.

The previous year, a Vantage (DBS5148R) restored and replicated at huge expense to resemble the “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” Bond car fetched $172,068, but these are the exceptions.

During the past three years, the going rate for a normal DBS in perfect, restored order — and they are becoming more numerous as values slowly rise — has stabilized around £75k, or $140k, which is about half a DB6. This week at least, because the DB5’s replacement is climbing fast, and we expect the DBS to follow it.

So, well sold for now, and perhaps well bought in the future. ♦

(Introductory description courtesy of Bonhams.)