Aston Martin Begins Building The Ultimate Bond Fan's Dream Car

The DB5 from Goldfinger lives again.

James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 from the film Goldfinger is often called "the most famous car in the world," which is why the actual example in the movie sold for more than $6 million. The DB5 is so popular, in fact, that Aston Martin is putting the car back into limited production equipped with all of the gadgets used by Bond himself. The DB5 Goldfinger Continuation cars were announced last year as a set of 25 units but Aston Martin has just announced that it has begun construction of the 'Job 1' car.

This continuation DB5 will be constructed exactly 55 years after the last original car rolled off Aston's former global manufacturing base in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire where fewer than 900 examples were built from 1963 to 1965. The DB5 is the second model in Aston's Continuation car program, which began in 2017 with the DB4 GT.

The cars will be built with help from the producers of the James Bond films, EON Productions, who will equip these DB5s with all of the gadgets used by Bond in Goldfinger. Some of these gadgets include a rear smoke screen and oil slick delivery system, revolving number plates, (simulated) front machine guns, a (simulated) tire slasher, (optional) removable passenger seat roof panel, a door-mounted telephone, hidden weapons tray, gear knob actuator button, and a (simulated) radar screen.

All 25 examples will be painted in Silver Birch, like the original car, and will be powered by a 4.0-liter naturally-aspirated inline six-cylinder engine with three SU carburetors. This engine sends 290 horsepower to the rear wheels through a five-speed manual transmission with a limited-slip differential. The Girling-type steel disc brakes are hydraulically-assisted but the rack and pinion steering is completely unassisted.

Customer deliveries will begin in the second half of 2020 with each car priced at 2.75 million pounds ($3.36 million), plus taxes. That's roughly 10 times the cost of a brand-new 2021 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera but then again, even the DBS doesn't require a 4,500-hour build process. It is also worth noting that the car will not be street legal.

"Seeing the first customer car move painstakingly through the intricate production process we have created really is quite a thrill," said Clive Wilson, Heritage Program Manager. "Obviously we have not, as a business, made a new DB5 for more than 50 years, so to be involved in the building of these cars, which will go on to form part of Aston Martin's history, is something I'm sure all of us will be telling our grandkids about!"