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Bond’s car is back

Take a trip back to the 1960s thanks to vehicle kitted out with toy machine guns, revolving plates and other film spy gadgets.
Posted on 27 July, 2020
Bond’s car is back

The first customer car in the DB5 Goldfinger Continuation programme has come off Aston Martin’s production line.

Dubbed “Job 1”, it is the first new DB5 to be built by the company in more than half a century with fewer than 900 saloon examples being manufactured from 1963-65.

The most famous of the original owners was the world’s best-known secret agent, James Bond, who first drove the vehicle that is today inextricably linked with him in the 1964 film Goldfinger.

Fifty-five years after the last new DB5 rolled off the production line at Aston Martin’s then global manufacturing base in Buckinghamshire, England, work is ongoing there on a strictly limited number of new DB5 models.

Created in association with Bond filmmaker EON Productions and featuring a broad suite of working gadgets first seen in the film, the Aston Martin DB5 Goldfinger Continuation cars could be said to be history in the making. 

Its array of functioning gadgets created by Bond film special-effects supervisor Chris Corbould include rear smoke screen and simulated oil-slick delivery systems, revolving number plates front and rear and simulated twin-front machine guns.

Then there’s the bullet-resistant rear shield, front and rear, battering rams, simulated tyre slasher and, as an optional extra, a removable passenger-seat roof panel.

The interior includes a simulated radar-screen tracker map, telephone in driver’s door, gear-knob actuator button, armrest and centre console-mounted switchgear, under-seat hidden weapons and storage tray and, of course, a remote control for gadget activation.

Each of the 25 new vehicles are authentic reproductions of the DB5 seen on-screen with some sympathetic modifications and enhancements to ensure high build quality and reliability. All the Goldfinger edition cars are being built to one exterior colour specification – silver birch – just like the original.

The cars feature original DB5-styled aluminium exterior body panels cloaking an authentic DB5 mild-steel chassis structure. Under the bonnet there’s a four-litre naturally aspirated inline six-cylinder engine with a six-plug head, three SU carburettors and oil cooler. It’s all capable of generating about 290bhp. 

This is mated to a five-speed ZF manual transmission in the rear-wheel-drive DB5, which also features a mechanical limited-slip differential.

Servo-assisted hydraulic Girling-type steel disc brakes, rack and pinion steering, which does not feature assistance, and a suspension set-up comprising coil over spring and damper units with front anti-roll bar, and a live axle rear suspension with radius arms and Watt’s linkage, complete the package.

Marek Reichman, chief creative officer of Aston Martin Lagonda, says: “The DB5 is, without question, the most famous car in the world by virtue of its 50-plus year association with Bond. To see the first customer car finished, and realise this is the first new DB5 we’ve built in more than half a century, really is quite a moment.

“It is a genuine privilege and significant responsibility to have been involved in the shaping of this new DB5 and to be helping to lead the creation of new versions of this icon. I’m absolutely certain the 25 lucky owners who are beginning to take delivery will be thrilled with them.”

First deliveries of the DB5 Goldfinger Continuation to customers have started and will continue through the second half of 2020.