James Bond Aston Martin DB5 (Goldfinger gadget car)

The car that sold a sequel

Goldfinger opened at London's Odeon Leicester Square on September 17, 1964, and reached New York's DeMille Theatre on December 21. It cost $3 million to make, earned that back within two weeks, and turned Sean Connery's silver Aston Martin DB5 into the most famous car on any screen. A die-cast toy version became the biggest-selling toy of 1964.

When Eon Productions prepared to release the next film, Thunderball, it wanted the car on the road in front of American audiences. Eon bought two new DB5s directly from Aston Martin for the purpose, one for each coast of the United States. They are counted among four DB5s built to the Goldfinger specification: the original prototype and a second car were used in filming, and two were built only for publicity. Chassis DB5/2008/R is the second of those publicity cars.

DB5/2008/R was built with all 13 of the film's modifications functional from new. The DB5 itself was a grand tourer built from 1963 to 1965, with a 4.0-liter straight-six and a body designed by Federico Formenti at Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera. Aston Martin made 1,059 of them.

Ken Adam, John Stears and a hesitant carmaker

The gadget car was the work of Goldfinger's production designer, Ken Adam, and special effects engineer John Stears. Adam chose the DB5 because it was the latest Aston Martin. The company initially hesitated before agreeing to the placement. Several of the gadgets came from the crew: director Guy Hamilton thought up the revolving number plate, and his stepson suggested the ejector seat.

Sources credit the gadget design differently. The 2019 sale catalog calls them the Ken Adam-designed modifications, while other accounts credit Stears. Both men worked on the car. Stears went on to win the Academy Award for visual effects for Thunderball.

The list on this car runs to hydraulic over-rider rams on the front and rear bumpers, a Browning .30-caliber machine gun in each front fender, tire slashers in the wheel hubs, a retractable bulletproof screen behind the rear window, an in-dash radar-tracking scope, oil-slick, caltrop and smoke-screen dispensers, revolving license plates and a passenger ejection seat. Accounts also list a telephone in the driver's door and a hidden weapons tray under the driver's seat.

America, 1965

The car arrived in a United States that was changing fast. During 1965, Marines landed at Da Nang, marchers walked from Selma to Montgomery, Ed White became the first American to walk in space and President Johnson signed Medicare and the Voting Rights Act into law.

Bond was at the center of the era's popular culture. Thunderball had its world premiere in Tokyo on December 9, 1965, and opened in the United States on December 22. Made for $9 million, it took $141.2 million worldwide. On screen the DB5 returned briefly in the opening sequence, now fitted with rear-firing water cannon.

Off screen, DB5/2008/R did its publicity work on the road. Its sale catalog records that it appeared at the Laguna Seca circuit in California as a pace car, driven by Jackie Stewart.

From a museum cage to Monterey

In 1969, Eon's holding company sold the car to British collector Anthony Bamford, now Lord Bamford. He kept it only briefly. In 1970 he sold it to B.H. Atchley, owner of the Smokey Mountain Car Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. For 35 years the DB5 was the museum's centerpiece, displayed inside a wire-mesh enclosure. One account reports that Bamford paid £1,500 and sold it for £5,000.

On January 23, 2006, the museum sent it to auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, with an estimate of $1.5 million to $2.5 million. After about 15 minutes of bidding before a sold-out room of 1,500, it went for $2,090,000 to a Swiss businessman bidding by telephone through a friend. By then the original ejection seat with its removable roof panel had been replaced with a standard seat.

The new owner sent the car to Roos Engineering in Switzerland for a four-year restoration, finished in 2012, in which all 13 modifications were brought back to working order. The car was offered for sale in 2013 at $4.7 million.

On August 15, 2019, it crossed the block in Monterey, California, against an estimate of $4 million to $6 million, and sold for $6,385,000, about £5.27 million at the time. It was reported as the most expensive DB5 ever sold at auction and the most expensive piece of Bond memorabilia. The buyer was not named. One report dates the sale August 16.

How to tell the four cars apart

The four Goldfinger-spec cars are identified by chassis number. DP/216/1, the original prototype, once painted Dubonnet Red, was the first filming car; it was stolen from its owner in Florida on June 18, 1997, and was reported found in the Middle East in 2021. DB5/1486/R was the second filming car, used for driving scenes; it sold in 2010 for a reported $4.6 million (another report gives $4.1 million). DB5/2017/R, the first publicity car, belongs to the Louwman Museum in The Hague.

DB5/2008/R is the second publicity car, engine number 400/1995. Reports describe it as having had only three private owners in its first five decades before the 2019 sale.

It is not the only gadget DB5 in the world. Aston Martin built 25 new Goldfinger-themed DB5 continuation cars in 2020, and eight replica stunt cars were built for No Time to Die. Those are new cars; DB5/2008/R is a 1965 original.

The numbers

Car

1965 Aston Martin DB5, chassis DB5/2008/R, engine 400/1995

Engine

4.0-liter inline six (DB5 range: 282 to 325 bhp depending on version)

DB5 production

1,059 cars, 1963 to 1965

Working gadgets

13

Goldfinger (1964)

$3 million budget; $124.9 million worldwide gross including reissues

Thunderball (1965)

$9 million budget; $141.2 million worldwide gross

Timeline

1. 1963

   Aston Martin begins DB5 production.

2. Sep 17, 1964

   Goldfinger premieres in London, introducing the gadget DB5.

3. Dec 21, 1964

   Goldfinger has its U.S. premiere in New York.

4. 1965

   Eon Productions buys two new DB5s, including DB5/2008/R, built with all 13 gadgets to promote Thunderball in North America.

5. Dec 22, 1965

   Thunderball opens in the United States.

6. 1969

   Eon's holding company sells the car to British collector Anthony Bamford.

7. 1970

   Bamford sells it to B.H. Atchley, who displays it at his museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, for 35 years.

8. Jun 18, 1997

   Sister car DP/216/1, the prototype filming car, is stolen in Florida.

9. Jan 23, 2006

   Sold at auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, for $2,090,000 to a Swiss businessman.

10. 2012

    Four-year restoration at Roos Engineering in Switzerland is completed; all 13 gadgets work again.

11. 2013

    Offered for sale at $4.7 million.

12. Aug 15, 2019

    Sold at auction in Monterey, California, for $6,385,000, a record for a DB5.

13. 2020

    Aston Martin builds 25 new Goldfinger-themed DB5 continuation cars.

The world in 1965

• Jan 30, 1965

  Winston Churchill's state funeral is held in London.

• Mar 8, 1965

  About 3,500 U.S. Marines land at Da Nang, the first American ground combat troops in Vietnam.

• Mar 25, 1965

  Martin Luther King Jr. and 25,000 marchers complete the Selma to Montgomery march.

• Jun 3, 1965

  Gemini 4 launches; Ed White makes the first American spacewalk.

• Jul 30, 1965

  President Johnson signs the law creating Medicare and Medicaid.

• Aug 6, 1965

  The Voting Rights Act is signed.

• Aug 15, 1965

  The Beatles play Shea Stadium.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, James Bond Aston Martin DB5 (Goldfinger gadget car) is number 13 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (11 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• This car never appeared in a Bond film. It was built to promote one.
• Director Guy Hamilton came up with the revolving number plate; his stepson suggested the ejector seat.
• The car spent 35 years behind wire mesh at a car museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
• Its sale catalog says it once paced the field at Laguna Seca with Jackie Stewart at the wheel.
• The DB5 prototype used in Goldfinger was stolen in Florida in 1997 and was reported found in the Middle East in 2021.
• A die-cast toy of the Goldfinger DB5 was the biggest-selling toy of 1964.
• When it sold in 2006, the ejection seat had been swapped for a standard seat; the restoration made all 13 gadgets work again.