1965 Aston Martin DB5 Coupe

Two individuals from the movie business by the name of Ken Adam and John Stears visited Aston Martin's Newport-Pagnell plant in late 1963. Their job was to source a pair of the latest Aston Martins for use in Eon Productions' third adaptation of an Ian Fleming novel, about a MI6 superspy with a license to kill, named James Bond. The movie was called Goldfinger. The producers wanted to near-identical cars for various filming roles. One would be used primarily for stunt driving and chase sequences and would need to be fast and lightweight. The other was for interior shots and close-ups. It was to be given several functional modifications and gadgetry created by Stears.

The first James Bond car was also the DB5 prototype and had a special chassis number prefix denoting it as a development project, DP/216/1. It was finished in Snow Shadow Gray paint and equipped with front and rear hydraulic over-rider rams on the bumpers, a Browning .30-caliber machine gun in each fender, wheel-hub-mounted tire slashers, a retractable rear bulletproof screen, an in-dash radar-tracking scope, oil-slick, caltrop, and smoke-screen dispensers, revolving license plates, and a passenger-seat ejection system. There was also a telephone in the driver's door to communicate with MI6 headquarters. Additionally, there was a hidden compartment under the driver's seat containing several weapons.

For the James Bond film, Thunderball, the company ordered two more DB5 saloons, receiving chassis nos. DB5/2008/R and DB5/2017/R. These two cars were sent to the United States for media duties for Thunderball. One resided on the East Coast and the other on the West Coast. DB5/2017/R even appeared at Laguna Seca as a pace car driven by Jackie Stewart.

Both of these cars were given Adam's Goldfinger modifications, but this time the gadgets were installed by Aston Martin and intended to be more durable than those on DP/216. After these two cars had served their promotional purposes, they were offered for sale by the company's parent financier, the Swiss-based Danjac S.A. They were purchased as a pair by Anthony Bamford. He quickly sold 2017/R but retained possession of 2008/R until 1970.

The next owner was B.H. Atchley, the owner of the Smokey Mountain Car Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It remained in the museum for 35 years, receiving regular start-ups for exercise during this time. In 2006, RM Auctions offered it for public sale. At the time, it remained in mostly unrestored condition.

Since entering the care of its current caretaker, it has been given a no-expense-spared restoration by Roos Engineering in Switzerland. After the four-year restoration, the car was the subject of a feature article on the Bond DB5 cars that was printed in the October 2012 issue of Motor.

This car is the third of the four Goldfinger-specification DB5 examples built. The first John Stears–modified car has been lost since 1997. Chassis number 1486/R was originally unmodified and was used for driving sequences. It later had the gadgets added. This particular example was built with all the gadgetry from new.

By Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2019