Aston Martin built for James Bond heading to auction

 

An original Aston Martin DB5 car, one of just three surviving examples, fitted with James Bond specifications as pictured in the film Goldfinger which will be offered for auction by RM Sotheby's, is shown in this photo provided June 12, 2019. Simon Clay © 2019 Courtesy of RM Sotheby's/Handout via REUTERS

 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A 1965 Aston Martin DB5 outfitted with special gadgets for James Bond, such as tire slashers, machine guns and a bulletproof shield, will go up for auction in August, the auction house announced on Wednesday.

 

The vehicle painted grey is expected to fetch between $4 million and $6 million, according to a statement from RM Sotheby's.

 

The car was never seen in Bond films, but matches the one that "007" - the code number by which Bond was often known - drove in the movies "Goldfinger," and "Thunderball."

 

The vehicle was commissioned by filmmaker Eon Productions and used at promotional events for "Thunderball" in the United States, the auction house said.

 

An original Aston Martin DB5 car, one of just three surviving examples, fitted with James Bond specifications and gadgetry as pictured in the film Goldfinger which will be offered for auction by RM Sotheby's, is shown in this photo provided June 12, 2019. Simon Clay © 2019 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s/Handout via REUTERS

 

It includes 13 modifications created for Bond, including a Browning .30 caliber machine gun in each fender, tire slashers mounted on its wheel hubs and a bulletproof rear screen that can be raised and lowered.

 

RM Sotheby's said the Bond modifications had been "properly refurbished to function as originally built," and has had three private owners over 50 years.

 

The auction will take place on Aug. 15 in Monterey, California.

 

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine, editing by G Crosse)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-06-13

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Neat!

Sounds like the perfect car to fight traffic in Bangkok. ???? 

Such an iconic car, one has to wonder though why the producers  gave him a such an old fashioned Mauser C96 pistol that was made somewhere between  1896 and 1937 

If a yank buys it he will get in and wonder where the steering wheel went.

Sad really. Some rich <deleted> will get it and it will be lost to the public forever.

Pity the movie company that owned it didn't donate it to a museum where the fans could see it. They made enough out of us, the ones that pay for their big houses and expensive wives to give a little back.

<deleted> deleted>.

2 hours ago, Rimmer said:

Such an iconic car, one has to wonder though why the producers  gave him a such an old fashioned Mauser C96 pistol that was made somewhere between  1896 and 1937 

Valid question, and why not give him the magazine to go with it?

20 minutes ago, animalmagic said:

Valid question, and why not give him the magazine to go with it?

It has a breech fed rectangular internal magazine.

 

No ejector seat, sigh. Looks like I'll have to get a divorce after all. 

29 minutes ago, Inepto Cracy said:

It has a breech fed rectangular internal magazine.

 

My apologies, I didn't see one fitted and presumed they would have given him the longer magazine with greater capacity.  Completely forgot about the smaller capacity one and assumed they wouldn't have given him a gun with a magazine already inserted.  But, it's the movies.

And it looks like you have to pull out the grenade from the insert by the pin!

Spent a lot of time at the Aston Martin factory when it was at Newport Pagnell. According to the guys there everything worked on the car except the tire slashers which this article claims this car has fitted. The reason was that the hydraulics needed to make the slashers come out of the center of the axles didn't exist then.....and I wonder if it would even be possible now. If you remember in Goldfinger you only saw a closeup of the slashers working.