The most famous car in the world is for sale

Friday, 14 June 2019

Been toying with the idea of dropping a cool NZ$5.3 million on one of those Aston Martin DB5 'continuations' packed with James Bond gadgets? You know, the ones that can't be driven on the road?

Well how about stretching things a bit (well, possibly a lot) further and getting the real thing?

UK auction house RM Sotheby's has announced that the headline attraction of its 'An Evening with Aston Martin' special single-marque sale session at the company's 2019 Monterey auction will be one of just three surviving DB5s commissioned by by Eon Productions and fitted with MI6 Q Branch specifications as pictured in the James Bond movie Goldfinger.

It is incredibly unique - one of just three original James Bond Aston Martin DB5s still in existence - but it won't be cheap.

Originally two near-identical DB5 prototypes were built by Aston Martin (the DB5 hadn't actually been released then) and loaned to Eon Productions for the filming of Goldfinger; one lightweight one with no gadgets for stunt driving and chase sequences, and the other for interior shots and close-ups, to be equipped with functional modifications created by special effects expert John Stears (who would go on to create Luke Skywalker's Land Speeder in Star Wars, along with the Death Star and R2D2 and C-3PO).

**READ MORE:

All of the gadgets are present in the car, including ones originally fitted but never seen in the films.

* Gadgets all go for next year's Goldfinger Aston Martin DB5

* Aston puts Goldfinger DB5 into production - but it's $5.3m and not road legal

Every car needs the optional machine guns. Sadly non-functional.

* The five coolest Aston Martins James Bond has ever driven**

The close-up car was later stripped of its gadgets and sold (it was rediscovered and refitted with gadgets by subsequent owners, but was stolen in 1997 and has never been seen since), but when it came time to promote the next Bond film, Thunderball, Eon and Aston Martin realised the massive promotional opportunities of what, by that time, had been dubbed 'The most famous car in the world', so built two more cars fitted with Stear's modifications.

James Bond was apparently terrible at parking, hence the bumper additions.

Chassis numbers DB5/2008/R and DB5/2017/R were built and shipped to the United States for promotional duties, and it is DB5/2008/R that is going under the hammer at Sotheby's auction, with an expected sale range of between US$4 million and US$ 6 million (NZ$6 million and NZ$9 million).

Following their promotional run the two cars were quietly offered for sale in 1969, as subsequent Bond films had used newer cars - 1967's You Only Live Twice had featured the Toyota 2000GT as its hero car, while George Lazenby's 1969 debut as Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service used the newer Aston Martin DBS.

Both DB5s were purchased by well-known collector Anthony (now Lord) Bamford, whose British registration for chassis number 2008/R remains on file. The Aston Martin build record lists Eon Productions as the original purchaser, with the important designation of being a 'Bond Car' also being noted.

Bamford then sold DB5/2008/R to the owner of the Smokey Mountain Car Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The Aston Martin was featured as the museum's centrepiece, remaining in a pristine state of display for 35 years before being sold again by RM Sotheby's in 2006 in a largely unrestored state.

Since then the car has undergone a well-documented, no-expense spared restoration by Switzerland's Roos Engineering (one of 13 specialists Aston Martin has appointed as official 'Heritage Specialists') in which not only were the chassis and body completely refinished to original standards, but all thirteen of the John Stears-designed Bond modifications were properly refurbished to function as originally built.

These, of course, include front and rear hydraulic over-rider rams on the bumpers, a Browning .30 calibre machine gun in each fender, a raising rear bullet-proof screen, an in-dash radar tracking scope, oil, caltrop and smoke screen dispensers and revolving license plates.

The car is also fitted with recreations of the wheel-hub mounted tire-slashers and passenger-seat ejection system, even though both were never fitted to the original car, instead being shot as on-set special effects. Also included on the original car, but never used during the film, was a telephone in the driver's door and a hidden compartment under the driver's seat containing several weapons.

James Bond himself has even commented on the sale of this legendary car - reached through his son, Stephane Connery ahead of the sale, Sean Connery said: 'These DB5s are amazing – I remember the Furka Pass tire shredding as well as the promotional events with these cars – they have become increasingly iconic since Goldfinger and Thunderball, in fact I bought a very fine DB5 myself relatively recently.'

That's right - Sean Connery owns a DB5!

The 'An Evening with Aston Martin' event will be a special third auction evening on 15 August during RM Sotheby's flagship Monterey sale and will feature more than 30 of 'the world's most sought-after road-going and track-ready Aston Martin sports cars from across the marque's illustrious history'.