ONE OF THE THINGS that disappoints us here are seniordriveraus is the fixation exhibited on the James Bond connection with Aston Martin.
There’s no doubt it was a seminal moment in the history (and eventual revival) of the brand, but we always feel it tends to overshadow the qualities of the cars themselves.
However, nothing we say is going to change that.
Now, Aston Martin has announced that after 55 years, the company is once again building the most iconic of its models, the DB5, the same car that featured in the original 1964 Goldfinger film.
Aston Martin and EON Productions will build 25 new cars, officially “continuation” cars, that will include an array of “fully functioning” gadgets first seen on screen in the Goldfinger DB5 (just the thing for driving through Sydney’s gridlocked traffic – imagine the path you could carve with front headlight-mounted machine guns, battering rams front and rear and revolving number plates).
Okay, the machine guns won’t be “fully operational”, and the rear oil slick delivery system will be simulated, as will the radar screen tracker map (odd, since this technology is now far more freely available than it was in 1963-65 when the original DB5 cars were on sale), but the door-mounted telephone will work and the under-seat hidden weapons tray will more likely house an owner’s iPad.
The continuation cars will be built at Newport Pagnell (Buckinghamshire, UK) where all 898 originals were built.
All will be authentic reproductions of the DB5 as seen on screen, with some “sympathetic” modifications to ensure build quality and reliability, and all will be finished in Silver Birch, just like Bond’s car.
However, reliving your Bond fantasy won’t come cheap. Each continuation car will be priced at a hefty £2.75 million ($AU5.1 million) plus taxes.
Of course, if you’d prefer one of the original 898 cars, you could bid at the upcoming Bonhams Aston Martin auction, coming up on 19 May, where a 1964 “Bond-spec” DB5 is listed with a pre-sale estimate of £620,000 to £680,000 ($AU1.2 million to $AU1.3 million), coincidentally, the same price expected for a 2019 Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake, just two of the many desirable (and expensive) Astons that will be auctioned.
First deliveries are expected in 2020.