Posted on 06/14/2019 4:14:38 PM PDT by ETL
An original Aston Martin DB5 built to James Bond’s specifications is heading to the auction block this summer.
The silver 1965 coupe is identical to the one 007 drove in “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball,” complete with all the gadgets.
The car wasn’t used on-screen, but was one of a pair ordered by Eon Productions to promote the latter film.
Last sold in 2006 for $2,090,000, the car has been fully restored and the features installed by Q Branch, including its bulletproof screen, extendable bumpers, rotating license plates and smoke screen all function, although the machine gun barrels that emerge from the front marker lights only spit flames, not rounds.
There’s also a removable roof panel to accommodate the passenger-side ejector seat, and a red button in the gearshift to activate it, but you’ll have to press it to find out if it actually works.
The car will be offered at the RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction in August and will be making a U.S. tour before then.
It comes up for sale just as Aston Martin is building 25 brand-new recreations of the car that will be sold for $3.5 million each and aren’t even street legal.
As for the vehicle that appeared in the film, there were actually two.
One of them was auctioned in 2010 for $4.6 million and is currently in a private car museum in Ohio, while the other was stolen from a hangar at Boca Raton airport in Florida and hasn’t been seen since.
The two movie cars and two promotional cars are the only ones commissioned by the production company at the time.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
They were the same thing except the Tiger had a V8 engine.
Sort of a poor man’s Cobra.
Ejector seat? You must be joking.
Ejector seat? You must be joking.
Those would be rather big and heavy.
30 caliber would make more sense.
Nice! Thanks.
During the 60s, my mom used to buy me one Matchbox car a week. Couldn’t wait for that day. Had a great collection at one time. Years later, figuring I was grown and didn’t need or want them anymore, threw them in the garbage!
I would have loved to still have that collection, solely for the memories. I doubt I would ever have sold them.
I never joke about my work.
Had the Matchbox car when little. Working features.
Wish I still had that one.
My father took me and my sister to see this car at the Norfolk, VA Sears around 1965. It was absolutely beautiful. I remember the trunk was open. There was a tank, like an oxygen tank inside. Sears was giving away toy DB5’s (post #34). My sister won one. I got it for Christmas. If you pulled the antenna up and down, the rear tag would rotate. I think there’s a picture of this feature on the box. The picture on the upper left.
Boy Toy for the kid who has everything else.
I can’t count the number of times I wished I had some of the “improvements” that Aston Martin had!
I was shocked that not only do they still make a lot of the old-school Matchbox type toy cars, they're making them cooler than ever.
For example...
Not only is the hobby still around, but they're building them better than ever...
Check out this thread I posted last year. There's way too much to re-post here....
Plastic model car hot rods & customs (many pics)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3696532/posts
Not only the models, but the paint as well. Testers makes some of the old Chrysler colors, Plum Crazy, Purple Passion, etc as well as the authentic engine colors, Ford blue, Chevy orange, under license from the carmakers.
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