Ian Fleming’s famous secret agent and Aston Martin have developed a rather special connection over the decades: numerous Astons have featured as able sidekicks to the man with the license to kill but the Silver Birch DB5 that Sean Connery drove in 1964 in Goldfinger has remained in the spotlight ever since its debut.
While a stunning Sunbeam Alpine and stately but aging Bentley Mark IV had the honor of being used in the first and second films respectively, the DB5 was much more than just a means of getting from A to B. Q branch had equipped it with all manner of gadgets designed to foil pursuers, making it far more integral to the plot, and both the movie and car became an instant hit. The DB5 would inspire the creators to outfit future Bond cars with similar gadgets and it would also go on to feature in six more Bond films.
The popularity of the Bond DB5 has been so enduring that last year Aston Martin announced that it would build a 25-car run of DB5 continuation cars but, unlike the similar run of DB4 GT Zagatos, these would be fitted all of the gadgets that were featured in the movies. Something both continuation cars do have in common is that neither will be legal for on-road use. The car’s starting price is $3.5-million.
So the chance to own a piece of motoring nostalgia will remain as unattainable to most as it has ever been, yet to 25 lucky owners these DB5s will be the ultimate party piece and luring unsuspecting guests into the passenger seat before launching them through the air in the ejector seat is unlikely to get old. Chris Corbould, a Bond effects specialist, has been working closely with Aston Martin’s engineers to reproduce and integrate as many gadgets as possible into the cars. “We have license in the film world to ‘cheat’ different aspects under controlled conditions,” he said. “For instance, we might have four different cars to accommodate four different gadgets. We obviously don’t have that luxury on these DB5s, as all the gadgets have to work in the same car all the time.”
For those who don’t have their Corgi DB5 models handy these gadgets include revolving license plates, battering rams at both ends, a smoke screen and oil slick system as well as those headlight-mounted machine guns. These apparently won’t shoot real bullets; we imagine it could have something to do with pedestrian safety ratings… For now, though, Aston Martin has released some images of some of these gadgets in their development phase, The final list of what will actually be fitted will depend on what the engineers are capable of integrating into the cars and country-specific legislation. Deliveries of the first Bond DB5s are slated to begin next year.
Images courtesy of Aston Martin
