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https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24876/lot/370/?category=list&length=10&page=26
The Bonhams catalogue text also says that this car was in Spectre.
DB5/1885/R in Spectre with licence plate BMT 216A
Bonham's Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale 2018: With the Goldeneye licence plate BMT 214A
They must have had at least one other "corpse" of an Aston Martin, because I do not think they disassembled the old one:
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/5de880f864f3c28e85253c1e5/files/767f4a25-9d0b-40ce-80f1-a4850cfd8e0d/Theft_Alert_Aston_Martin.pdf
STOLEN CAR
Art Recovery International (ARI) requests assistance from the public to help recover this stolen 1964 Aston Martin DB5.
In June of 1997, this legendary classic disappeared from a hangar at the Boca Raton (Florida) Airport, and has never resurfaced.
Aston Martin is going to build 25 Aston Martin DB5 in the silver birch colour from scratch (so-called continuation cars) and with the Goldfinger gadget configuration.
Two small problems, though:
1. Expect to be billed up to 3.5 million Dollars.
2. They will not be allowed to be operated on public roads.
Three more will be built: One stays with Aston Martin, one will be auctioned for charity, and one will be delivered to EON.
This could be yours soon:
Well that sucks. I wonder if it’s because of not meeting modern safety and emissions standards, or just because of the rotating license plate.
I wouldn't buy it (if I had money, that is!) just to put it on a display and brag about it. I want to buy it, drive it and enjoy it. Otherwise, there's no point.
Especially when an original, drivable DB5 is cheaper.
https://classiccarsforsale.co.uk/aston+martin/db5
The chassis number is DB5/2008/R, therefore it is indeed on of the original cars used to promote Goldfinger and Thunderball. Restored (the dent in the rear bumper is gone) and refurbished with gadgets.
Some interesting bits of information are given on the auction website:
In typical moviemaking fashion, the producers wanted two near-identical cars to fulfill various roles during filming. One would be required for stunt driving and chase sequences, and therefore needed to be lightweight and fast. The other, to be used for interior shots and close-ups, was to undergo several functional modifications created by Stears, the kind that would furnish James Bond with an unprecedented amount of gadgetry.
Despite the filmmakers’ expectation that Aston Martin would happily give them two cars for promotional benefits, marque president David Brown insisted that the production company buy the cars outright. Eventually a compromise was reached in which two cars were loaned to Eon Productions for the duration of filming, after which they would be returned to Aston Martin.
In preparation for Thunderball’s release, the company ordered two more DB5 saloons, receiving chassis nos. DB5/2008/R (the featured example) and DB5/2017/R. The two cars were shipped to the United States for media duties for Thunderball. One was dispatched to the East Coast, and the other to the West. The latter DB5 even appeared at Laguna Seca as a pace car driven by Jackie Stewart.
After completion of Thunderball, the two cars were largely mothballed as yet two more Bond films followed with different automobiles in the hero roles. Accordingly, the production company’s parent financier, the Swiss-based Danjac S.A., quietly offered the two cars for sale in 1969, and they were soon bought as a pair by the well-known British collector Anthony (now Lord) Bamford. He quickly sold 2017/R but retained possession of 2008/R until 1970, and the British registration for the car in his name remains on file. The Aston Martin build record lists Eon Productions as the original purchaser along with the important designation of this being a “Bond Car.” Under Bamford’s ownership the saloon returned to the factory for service, and it received a host of freshening and mechanical measures, all of which are documented on the build record.
Bamford then sold DB5/2008/R to B.H. Atchley, the owner of the Smokey Mountain Car Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The unique Aston Martin was soon featured as the museum’s centerpiece in a rather unusual display, as the car was encased in a large wire-mesh cage that was bolted to the floor, ensuring it would never be idly touched or pawed by starstruck visitors. The DB5 remained in this pristine state of display for 35 years, receiving regular start-ups for exercise during this time.
In 2006, RM Auctions was privileged to offer this Bond DB5 for public sale. While some of the Bond contraptions were restored into functioning order prior to the 2006 offering, a majority of the car remained otherwise unrestored. Since that time a no-expense-spared restoration by the esteemed Roos Engineering in Switzerland was completed, as documented by numerous invoices and photographs. Roos Engineering is also one of 13 facilities whom Aston Martin have appointed as official Heritage Specialists who have the highest order of depth, expertise, and experience with the marque. Not only were the chassis and body completely refinished to proper standards, but all 13 of the Ken Adam–designed modifications were properly refurbished to function as originally built. Following completion of the four-year restoration, the Aston Martin was the subject of a feature article on the Bond DB5 cars that was printed in the October 2012 issue of Motor.
Being the third of just four Goldfinger-specification DB5 examples built, this Aston Martin is automatically endowed with a high degree of rarity. It should be noted that the first John Stears–modified car has been lost since 1997, narrowing the number of surviving examples to just three cars. Of these survivors, one car (chassis no. 1486/R) was originally unmodified, as it was used for driving sequences and only had gadgets added later.
And this is extra-sweet:
Reached through his son, Stephane Connery, ahead of the sale, Sean Connery said, “These DB5s are amazing. I remember the Furka Pass tire shredding, as well as the promotional events with these cars—they have become increasingly iconic since Goldfinger and Thunderball. In fact, I bought a very fine DB5 myself relatively recently.”
The fully restored James Bond Aston Martin DB5 promotional car from Goldfinger sold for $ 6.4 million Dollars at yesterday's RM Sotheby's auction in Monterey! The price even exceeded the expected maximum.
Given that the last owner purchased it for "only" 2.1 million Dollars and had it restored to former glory, he looks like a double-winner: He owned it for more than a decade, had fun with it and then finds a new home for it, cashing in a considerable profit on top.
And whoever is the proud owner now: If you are reading this (which is not unlikely), congratulations on the purchase of a lifetime!
That is a great example of the power the Bond brand has still after all these years.
As for the V8, who has intel about its past? Is it the same car from TLD?
There's definitely at least one real one for the beauty/arrival shots, yes. I would guess it's Eon's one from the previous films again, but I can't remember now if we've seen more than one. The Esquire link says they used two.
It seems like there were 8 new replicas built, two of them with roofpods, two gadget cars and four stunt ones for bashing.
https://www.esquire.com/uk/design/a31003673/no-time-to-die-aston-martin-james-bond/
So I guess all of the DB5s in this shot are replicas and the real one(s) were with Eon.
I'm pretty sure I saw Aston Martin Works talk about how they prepared those cars somewhere. I'm 99% sure they're not from TLD; most notable difference is the lack of sunroof on the NTTD versions. Looks like they had two or three (one of them in the above shot hasn' been converted to 007 spec; not sure if it was yet to be when the photo was taken).
This site also has some info about them: https://www.hotcars.com/heres-what-happened-to-james-bonds-aston-martin-v8-vantage-volante/
Meanwhile this old thread from Commanderbond.net features a post from 'Mark Hazard' who found the cars in storage and wrote about them in a magazine article:
Apparently one of the CotS fibreglass cars was acquired the Ian Fleming Foundation and went to the US (which you can see here) , and I think the other one went to Miami when the whole Cars of the Stars collection was sold off. He says One of the Cars of The Stars replicas had the gear for lowering (and raising) the outriggers and extending the road "spikes" of the snow tyres.
Here's the IFF fibreglass car:
Notice the boot shutlines are only moulded in:
Here is the Dezer Collection's ex-Cars of the Stars car in Miami, which from the dents in the bodywork looks to be a real, metal car:
It's missing its overriders for some reason.
According to the Making Of The Living Daylights book, to make the stunt sequence Eon had to buy three second-hand Aston V8s (AM themselves couldn’t supply them in time), and the first one they bought had a canvas sunroof, so they had to convert the other two cars to having sunroofs too. Apparently the upside of this was that it made lighting the interiors easier.
'Hazard' says that the cars were a mixture of manuals and autos, and the AML/Eon show car he borrowed was an auto (which contrasts with how it's portrayed in the film of course).
Pleasingly, having done an MOT check on the numberplate, I see that the convertible from the film is still on the road and doing about 200 miles a year :)
Here's a fun spot from the TV series 'Big Deal' airing in 1986: at 14m50s, Frank Butcher himself visiting a posh London hotel where a certain superspy appears to be visiting...
:D
Yes, I was thinking about that myself. Though I've sadly not seen the film myself I remember seeing a picture from it in Steven Jay Rubin's The James Bond Films (1981) where a man (possibly Roger?) is ejected from the DB5. I think it also mentioned there that Roger finally got to drive the DB5 in that film.
Really? That's an interesting detail. I'm probably showing my Bond car ignorance here but what happened to the original Aston Martin DB5?
It was stolen in the late nineties from an aircraft hangar I think. Never seen since, it either ended up in a very rich person's private collection or destroyed.
A good way of identifying the original BMT car is that it has side repeater indicators on the wings between the wheels and the side strake vents: no other DB5 has them. You can spot them in The Cannonball Run and even in its first appearance in The Saint, and the road tests in car magazines at the time as it was the press car.
So in the film, this car is BMT 216A (orange indicator lenses on the sides):
This car isn't (no indicators!):
(I think that's the car which carried the numberplate FMP 7B )
Here it is in The Saint with those indicators showing:
Of course the greatest secret about the original Bond DB5 is that it wasn't really a DB5! It was built as a DB4 and then converted into the DB5 protoype :)
Here's a fun advert from '63 or so :)