James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 expects to nab £5m at auction

A gadget-laden 1965 Aston Martin is expected to fetch up to £5 million when it goes to auction this summer.

Made famous by Sean Connery’s James Bond in 1964 movie Goldfinger – the rare spec DB5 was famously fitted with a Browning .30 calibre machine gun on each rear arch, among its many lavish touches.

Those with a (Golden) eye for detail will notice this particular model was actually made to promote the following year’s Thunderball, also starring Connery behind the wheel. It is one of just three surviving examples of the iconic car commissioned by Eon Productions.

It will be sold by RM Sotheby’s at its 2019 Monterey auction on August 15.

In its original guise, Bond’s spy car of choice was fitted with an array of gadgets which, as well as the machine guns, included hub-mounted tyre slashers, revolving registration plates, a bullet-proof screen, in-car radar tracking, an oil spill function, an ejecting passenger seat and smoke screen dispensers.

One of two 1964 originals though, was stolen in 1997 but the culprit was never (Gold) fingered and remains lost. The car offered by Sotheby’s never appeared on screen but boasts an identical specification to the starring vehicles.

For 35 years the DB5 was displayed as the centrepiece of the Smokey Mountain Car Museum in Tennessee, before being sold in 2006 in an unrestored state. Swiss firm Roos Engineering has since painstakingly returned the car to its original condition.

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When it heads to California in two months’ time, the storied car is likely to draw up to $6m (£4.7m) at ‘An Evening with Aston Martin’, which will see more than 30 cars from the firm go under the hammer.

Disappointed bidders may take comfort in the fact Aston Martin plans to make 25 replica Goldfinger DB5s, to be sold for £2.75m a piece before tax.

To be delivered in 2020, the facsimiles will come finished in the iconic Silver Birch paint job and feature a working revolving licence plate. They won’t, however, be road-legal.

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