James Bond at 60

CONTROL DB5 has a bespoke chassis, plus controls for miniguns (left) and revolving reg plates

Tristan Shale-Hester

tristan _ shale-hester@autovia.co.uk @tristan _ shale

IT’S not only actors who can be movie stars – in some instances, a car can take as big a role in a film as the person behind the wheel. Take the DMC DeLorean from Back to the Future, for example, or The Ghostbusters’ famous Cadillac Ambulance, Ecto-1.

One film franchise that has always known the value of putting an automobile at the centre of attention is James Bond. We all remember the Lotus Esprit that turned into a submarine in The Spy Who Loved Me and the gorgeous BMW Z8 that got sawed in half in The World is Not Enough.

But even though Bond opted for a Bentley in Ian Fleming’s novels, there’s no manufacturer more closely associated with 007 than Aston Martin. In fact, we’d go as far as to say there’s no stronger on-screen brand relationship than that of the fictional MI6 agent and his favourite British sports car maker.

And of all the Aston Martins to appear in the Bond films – including two different generations of DBS, a V8 Vantage, a V12 Vanquish and even the one-off DB10 –none will ever be as iconic as the DB5.

Sporting the number plate BMT 216A, this classic first appeared with Sean Connery in 1964’s Goldfinger, and has so far featured in 13 Bond flicks, most recently Daniel Craig’s final outing, No Time to Die.

As anyone who has seen that movie will know, the DB5 plays a fairly prominent role, particularly in an action sequence towards the beginning. To film this, eight stunt cars were required, but what happens to them once their purpose has been fulfilled?

We know the answer for at least one of them, because we were invited by Aston Martin to Christie’s 60 Years of Bond auction, where a DB5 that appeared in the film and a whole host of other 007 vehicles and paraphernalia were being put under the hammer.

Many of these were on pre-sale display at Christie’s flagship auction house on King Street in St James’s in London. At the centre was the DB5, looking as though it had just been driven out of a car chase.

This DB5 was designed and built by Aston Martin Special Projects to handle the immense demands placed on a stunt car. Under its bonnet is a 3.2-litre straight-six petrol engine, paired with a six-speed manual gearbox. Its body panels are all carbon fibre, with decals making it look like it’s been scratched and scraped, and it features bespoke suspension and braking systems.

Inside, the steering wheel and dials are similar to that of an original DB5, but that’s where the similarities end. The car is set up for performing stunts, so its dashboard is 3D printed and the driver sits in a firm bucket seat surrounded by a roll cage.

The most exciting feature inside, though, is an array of buttons that control the DB5’s miniguns that appear from behind the headlights – complete with light and sound effects – and digital number plate that can display various different letters and numbers. And of course, these can be activated via remote control as well.

Sadly, you’d be right to assume that this car isn’t road legal. Christie’s listed it as a non-runner collector’s item, with responsibility lying fully on the buyer to determine whether it’s suitable for use on private land or to be converted for public roads.

With these large caveats in mind, it may have seemed ambitious for an estimate of £1.5million to £2million to be placed on the DB5. However, if anything this was an underestimate; at the auction the price of the stunt car rose from a starting bid of £1million all the way to a final winning bid of £2,922,000.

“The DB5’s body panels are all carbon fibre, with decals making it look like it’s been scratched and scraped”