James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 is for sale

There were only ever four proper Bond DB5s. Two were used in the making of Goldfinger, and one – the original ‘effects’ car fitted with all the gadgets – was stolen from a hangar in Florida in the late Nineties and never recovered.

This Bond DB5, which is being auctioned by RM in Monterey in August, is one of the remaining three. One of two ‘press’ cars bought by EON Productions to promote Thunderball in the States. Never used in an actual Bond film, but nonetheless equipped with some 13 different gadgets from new, RM expects ‘DB5/2008/R’ to fetch between $4million and $6million.

EON offered the two promotional DB5s for sale in 1969. Lord Bamford – from the family behind JCB – bought both. The next owner of 2008 was a chap called B.H. Atchley, who put it on display in his museum in Tennessee. It would remain there, the museum’s centrepiece, for 35 years.

In 2006 RM sold it for the first time, fetching a little over $2million. 2008 then underwent a massive restoration, which included involved recommissioning each of the 13 gadgets. Nowadays we’re told they all work, and reliably at that.

Aston Martin is building 25 ‘new’ Bond DB5 to original spec, working gadgets and all. You can read about those cars here. Cool as we’re sure they’ll be, there’s no substitute for an original…