Extras include twin machineguns, revolving number plates, a smokescreen, a bullet shield and a set of tyre-shredding blades that emerge from the hubcaps. There is only one gadget in James Bond’s silver Aston Martin DB5 that does not work — possibly to the relief of future passengers — and that is the ejector seat.
The vehicle, which had a starring role in Goldfinger and Thunderball with Sean Connery at the wheel, is to be sold for the first time at public auction. The DB5, for many still the ultimate Bond car, has been out of sight in a private American collection for the past four decades since it was bought from the manufacturers for $12,000.
Jerry Lee, the owner and a radio broadcaster in Philadelphia, decided to sell when he found out that his prize vehicle, which he kept in a “Bond-themed” garage, was likely to be worth at least $5 million (£3.4 million). There was no computer-generated imagery in the mid-1960s and all the gadgets, described by Q as “rather interesting modifications”, were installed by the manufacturer and still work, although the machineguns do not actually fire.
Phillip Haynes of RM Auctions said: “There isn’t much room in the boot because most of it is taken up by the machinery for the bullet shield.”
Only the ejector seat was a special effect, though the car does have a removable roof panel over the passenger seat. The story of Bond’s DB5 has as many twists as one of Ian Fleming’s novels. The car being sold, known to Bond enthusiasts by its original registration number FMP 7B, is one of two Astons used in the filming. One was the “gadget car”; the other was used for road shots. The gadget car was too heavy for the hard driving scenes, particularly the chase between Bond and Tilly Masterton along twisting Alpine roads to Goldfinger’s lair. By the time Thunderball was made, a year later, the original gadget car had been decommissioned and the gadgets were installed in FMP 7B. The other DB5, fitted with replica gadgets, disappeared from an aircraft hanger in 1997.
Mr Lee said Aston Martin agreed to sell him the car if they could use it for promotional purposes from time to time. He drove it occasionally in the 1970s but it has been in storage since with only 30,000 miles on the clock.
The auction will take place in Battersea, southwest London, on October 27.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 142190.ece
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