7 Must-Know Facts About Bond's Aston Martin DB5 From Goldfinger

Few heroes get by on skill and good luck alone; some fancy gear and a fly ride go a long way. Batman has the Batmobile, Wonder Woman has her invisible jet, and even the Ninja Turtles take the fight to the Shredder in a van that Donatello somehow pieced together in their sewer lair. It's a fact: Any self-respecting action icon needs a distinctive ride to chase down or escape from the bad guys.

As iconic as some of these combinations are, few figures in big-screen action are more closely associated with their ride than James Bond. Few imagined that the fictional superspy's debut in 1962's Dr. No would lead to more than sixty years of iconic silver-screen action.

Bond pilots a Sunbeam Alpine in the original film, while in the following release, From Russia With Love, Q Branch equips him with an elegant but somewhat stodgy 1935 Bentley. Bond has wreaked havoc from behind the wheel (or yoke, or handlebars) of many vehicles over his impossibly long and destructive career, but one vehicle is linked to Bond above all others: the Aston Martin DB5. 

Suave, stylish, and as quintessentially British as 007 himself, Aston Martins have made several appearances in the film canon. Bond has racked up miles in a V8 Vantage, V12 Vanquish, DB10, and a handful of DBS models. They have all struck a chord, but none has proven to have the staying power of the DB5. Decades after its debut, the 1965 Aston Martin DB5 became one of the top five most expensive Aston Martins ever sold at auction. 

Join us as we review the must-know facts about Bond's Aston Martin DB5, the car that started it all.

The Bond universe can get confusing. With Fleming writing a dozen novels beginning in 1953, a film franchise spanning six decades that kicked off in 1962, and a massive array of content in the intervening years, parsing the chronology can be tough. Just know that despite being the sixth novel, Goldfinger was the third film, and it debuted Aston Martin as Bond's primary ride.

Goldfinger sees Bond facing off against Auric Goldfinger, a gold dealer who uses gold to murder people to meet his goal of stealing... gold. Okay, it's not exactly subtle symbolism, but it's fun, and it features the absolutely bizarre yet iconic bowler-hurling Oddjob as the primary henchman, not to mention the debut of Bond's DB5. 

Fans get their first glimpse of the Aston Martin when Q introduces Bond to his gear. Bond inquires about his Bentley, but Q assures him his Bentley days are over as he leads Bond across the lab to a DB5 painted in Silver Birch. Q details his modifications to the DB5, including bulletproofing, revolving license plates, a homing device, smokescreens, machine guns, and an ejection seat.

No word on how the extra weight impacted the car's performance, but Bond makes full use of the gizmos and gadgets in a later chase scene. By today's standards, the chase is positively sedate, but it firmly cements the Aston Martin as the Bond car of the future.

Most movie productions can't get away with keeping a single model of a film car, but one DB5 rises above the rest as the true original Bond car. Goldfinger required two Aston Martin DB5s.

One, with the chassis number DB5/1486/R, was the "road car." It lacked the specialized props to make it a Q car and was used for standard driving sequences (though it was later equipped with the gizmos to meet promotional demands).

The other, a 1963 Aston Martin DB5 with chassis number DP216/1, received the full suite of Bond's unique gadgets. After filming wrapped on 1965's Thunderball, EON Productions returned DP216/1 to Aston Martin, as Bond switched to a Toyota 2000GT for You Only Live Twice. Aston stripped the special equipment and sold the to collector Gavin Keyzar.

Keyzar returned it to form before selling it to Richard Losee, who ultimately auctioned it off for a cool quarter million to memorabilia collector and mogul Anthony Pugliese III in 1986. It sat in the Pugliese collection alongside Indiana Jones' whip and Superman's cape until June 18, 1997, when it disappeared. Pugliese's insurance paid out $4.2 million.

The car's fate remained a mystery for 25 years until it suddenly resurfaced. An anonymous tip led to verification that DP216/1 was in private hands somewhere in the Middle East. The ultimate fate of the car remains murky; the law dictates that those who buy stolen goods in good faith may have a claim to those goods.

John Stears may have been the closest thing to a real-life Q the franchise ever got. As the master special effects practitioner, he was in charge of turning the gorgeous yet underarmed DB5 into a weapon worthy of the world's greatest superspy.

Although Bond's car in the book was the DB Mark III, EON Productions improbably convinced Aston Martin to let it use the prototype DB5 for the film. Stears promptly brainstormed a number of upgrades appropriate to Bond. When he took the ideas to Aston, he was informed it was impossible. Stears went back to the studio and promptly began modifying the prototype.

Stears' additions include:

• .30-caliber Browning machine guns
• Tire-slashing extensions a la Grease
• Radio telephone (high-tech, indeed)
• Homing radar scanner
• Bulletproof windscreen
• Retractable bulletproof shield
• Revolving licensed plates
• Smoke machine to obscure getaways

• Oil slick ejector and spiked caltrops

Bond puts most of the devices to good use in the film, kickstarting a long tradition of silver screen Aston Martins that are more than they appear.

Stears passed away in 1999, but not before creating some of Hollywood's most epic special effects props, including Luke Skywalker's land speeder, a number of light sabers, the flying Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car, and even designing the beloved R2-D2.

[Featured image by Dcs57 via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]

Ian Fleming, the author of the Bond novels, was something of a Bond-like character himself. A former British intelligence operative during the Second World War, he retired to Jamaica after the war to write. Drawing inspiration from his wartime experiences, he created the superspy we have all come to know and love.

When he wrote the seventh Bond novel, Goldfinger, in 1959, he presented Bond with a choice: Would he prefer a Jaguar or an Aston Martin? This decision was not just about cars; it was about shaping the image of a superspy. Both were British icons that would suit Bond's cover as a young, adventurous playboy.

The Jaguar 3.4 offered to Bond in the novel was in production from 1955 to 1959. The 3.4 designation indicated the displacement of the 3,442 cc in-line six-cylinder under the hood (er... bonnet). It could hit 120 mph and knock out a zero-to-60 mph time of 11.2 seconds. It was not earth-shattering by today's standards, but that was before Q Branch got ahold of it. Not that it ever would. Bond chose the Aston.

Though a timeless beauty by any standard, a young secret agent might identify the Jag's bulbous curves as belonging to a previous generation. It looked more suited to a gentlemanly drive on the estate than a running gunfight. Whatever the reason, book Bond chose Aston Martin, thus beginning a relationship that would last decades.

[Featured image by SG2012 via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0]

Bond chose Aston Martin in the book, but it was not a DB5. Rumored to be a fan's suggestion, the Aston Martin in the novel was a DB Mark III. It appears significantly more Bond-like than the Jag, but that could be decades of marketing at work.

Introduced to the world in 1957 at the Geneva Motor Show, the Mark III came with the first iteration of the Aston Martin grill as designed by Bert Thickpenny, whose name belongs in a Bond movie. Powered by one of the last twin-cam six-cylinders built by luxury car builder Lagonda, the 2.9L engine put out 164 hp and 180 lb-ft of torque. Its power specs might not be mind-blowing, but it could hit 120 mph at a stretch and included a smooth and fashionable design just right for Bond. Even so, Bond was earmarked for something newer and better by the time Goldfinger went into production.

Aston Martin debuted the DB5 at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September 1963. The Milanese Carozzeria Touring Superleggera company built the body, which covered up a 3,996 cc in-line six-cylinder that made 286 hp at 5,500 rpm and 288 lb-ft of torque at 3,850 rpm. The elegant coachwork and a top speed of 142 mph, along with the cachet of being a Bond car, led to a flock of celebrities seeking out the DB5.

The likes of Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Ralph Lauren, and other members of the glitterati plunked down the original MSRP of $12,775 (about $130,000 in 2024) to get one of their own.

[Featured image by Calreyn88 via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]

Though 007 has piloted several iconic cars throughout his career, the series keeps returning to the DB5. While the originals used in Goldfinger and Thunderball are scattered to the winds, DB5s have popped up in no fewer than eight Bond films, including:

• Goldfinger
• Thunderball
• Goldeneye
• Tomorrow Never Dies
• Casino Royale
• Skyfall
• Spectre
• No Time to Die

The Aston Martin DB5 has had its moments in the spotlight, serving as a seductive prop in Goldeneye's mountain race against villainess Xenia Onatopp in a Ferrari F355 supercar. It also played a significant role in Casino Royale, where Bond wins a DB5 from a minor henchman in a poker game, making it a key plot point before he switches to a 2006 Aston Martin DBS for the rest of the film.

Bond's car collection spans a surprising range, which we've ranked from worst to best (some might surprise you). However, the Silver Birch DB5 always reigns supreme. This stylish, gorgeous, and timeless sports car made a stunning debut on the Goldfinger set, and its appeal has only grown with time, evoking a sense of nostalgia for Bond fans.

Aston Martin presented a new DB5 in 2020. It wasn't a restoration or rebuild but a continuation car. A true continuation car is a brand-new edition of a vehicle that stopped production many years ago. With Bond's original DB5's lasting reputation, the only surprise is that it took Aston Martin so long to build one.

The British carmaker did not quite build it to the original specs of the DP216/1 prototype as sent to the Goldfinger set, but rather as Bond's gadget-laden vehicle after John Stears customized it. You can't deploy smoke, oil, or machine guns against that car that cut you off, but Bond prop veteran Chris Corbould teamed with Aston Martin to get as close as legally possible.

Beneath all the props, Aston Martin made a picture-perfect rebuild of its most famous car. It still includes the 4.0-liter straight-six engine, period tire specs, and an imperfect chassis that combine to provide the driver with all the charmingly flawed performance of a sixty-year-old vehicle.

If you've been waiting your whole life for a chance to own your very own superspy sports car, this might be it — if you're among the top one percent. The asking price from Aston Martin is around $3.5 million, and it's only producing 25 of them. With the original DB5, reportedly still shrouded in mystery in the Middle East, having an estimated value of $25 million, we don't expect this one to depreciate on the used market like a Honda Accord.