Famous Cars

The Aston Martin DB5 is the first car seen in the James Bond movies, and will forever be known as the original and Iconic bond car. This is despite the fact the in the James Bond Novels, the author Ian Flemming wrote bond as owning a grey 1930′s Bentley convertible, owned by Bond himself and never modified by Q division.

Aston’s offering of a free DB5 for the movie (whereas Bentley wanted to charge for their car) cemented it’s place in history well before product placement in movies was heard of, and is estimated to be worth millions to the brand and is the reason that BMW offered so much to replace Aston Martin as Bonds car of choice for movies in the 1990′s.

The DB5 features in 5 separate Bond films: Goldfinger, Thunderball, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies and Casino Royale. In the latter film a new explanation is given as to just how Bond gets the car by winning it in a game of poker.

The Aston DB5 has gadgets differing for each movie, but perhaps the best known use of the car was in Goldfinger, where the car was fitted with pop out gun barrels behind the front indicator lights, a bullet shield behind the rear window and a 3 way revolving number plate.

One of the promotional cars used during the movie launch was bought for £5000 from the owner, and was sold at auction in 2006 for $2,090,000.

The production car used a 4.0 litre engine producing 282 horsepower.

The first Aston DBS was used in the 1969 film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service starring George Lazenby. The car was not seen much in the film – only before the opening credits and towards the end of the movie as the wedding car. The car can also be seen in the background of one scene in the later film Diamonds Are Forever, when bond visits Q branch.

There is little known about the movie car, as other than that it had a hiding place for a sniper rifle in the glovebox.
The production car was built by Aston Martin from 1967 – 1972 and was the successor to the DB6, and shared its 4.0 litre V8 engine.

The Aston Martin Vantage Volante featured in the 1987 James Bond film ‘The Living Daylights’ starring Timothy Dalton and was the last Aston used before BMW paid a fortune to take it’s position in the franchise.

The car’s appearance in the film was somewhat confusing as at the beginning of the film it is a convertible which Aston classify as a Volante. Later in the Film the car is Winterised by Q branch, and turns into a hardtop coupe.

The production car is fitted with a 5.3 litre V8 capable of 0-60 mph in 5.3 seconds. In the film the Aston has a full compliment of Bond gadgets and weaponry, including tyre spikes, a Jet engine fitted behind the rear numberplate, retractable outriggers in the style of skis to help on the ice, heat seeking missiles behind the front headlights, side firing lasers in the front wheels which are used in the film to slice enemy cars in two, bulletproof windows, a fireproof body and a self destruct system.

The Aston Martin Vanquish was used as the Bond car for the film ‘Die Another Day’ released in 2002 starring Pierce Brosnan, and was a very welcome return to the Franchise using the Aston brand after BMW paid a fortune to replace it in several eariler films. The car featured heavily in the movie in a showpiece sequence where the car was chased by a Jaguar XKR convertible across a huge frozen lake.

The Aston Vanquish was probably the pinnacle of car fitted gadgets and featured some rather outlandish technology such as what was described as active camouflage – a cloaking device that rendered the car invisible. It also featured a retractable front grill which rockets were fitted behind, retractable spikes in the tyres for driving on ice, and target seeking machine guns built into the front wings that could lock onto moving targets. It also had the traditional ejector seat which was used in the movie when the car was sliding upside down on its roof to flip the car back onto its wheels.

The Aston Martin DBS V12 was featured both in the remake of Casino Royale in 2006 and the following Film – Quantum Of Solace, both starring Daniel Craig.

The DBS is itself a pumped up version of the DB9, which although recognised as an iconic Bond car, has never actually featured in a James Bond film or been driven by James Bond. The standard production car was not released for sale until 2007, using the movie as an excellent promotional tool, and featured a 5.9 litre V12 engine that produces 510 horsepower and it’s top speed is 191 mph.

The car was only lightly modified for movie use, with different alloy wheels, and a slightly reworked interior that featured storage for bonds Walther P99 gun in a slide out storage tray where the glove-box would be, and a medical kit that included a defibrillator that was used as part of the films plot.

This was a departure from previous Bond films and a deliberate attempt to revert back to a real life more gritty Bond style and to move away from the more outlandish fantasy inventions that had been fitted to previous movie cars in an ever escalating manner – and won Casino Royale international plaudits. The DBS also featured in the following film – Quantum of Solace, and was involved in a high speed car chase early in the film, and was destroyed in a Quarry at the end of the sequence.