Vehicles of Bond: Aston Martin DB5

The Aston Martin DB5 was the most popular and famous of all of Bond’s movie cars.  It strongly identified and was visually associated with Bond.  The car’s battleship grey colour complemented the elegant style, futuristic sleek design and innovative gadgets that made it special.  As part of Bond’s cover, the Aston Martin DB5 provided Bond with an image of a young adventurous man with good taste for fast things and success in life.   It was a rare car during its limited production run of 1,023 vehicles from 1963 to 1965.  This secret agent’s car was made to perfectly fit the needs of James Bond. 

The Aston Martin DB5 was originally going to belong to Q, who was Bond’s gadget man, as he needed a replacement car for his aging Bentley.  The car was filled with gadgetry which Q was famous for designing.  There were about seventeen known gadgets initially installed in the car and three more were added later on.  Some features included extending front and rear ramming bumpers for safety.  A secret drawer was also installed under the driver’s seat which was a one man arsenal containing a 7.63 mm Mauser, Armalite rifle, silencers and telescopic sights, a throwing knife and a hand grenade.  In addition, the front driver’s door contained a radio telephone.  An unseen homer receiver with a range of 150 miles based on radar technology was contained in the racing mirror so Q could track the location of the car at all times.  There was a moving map system behind the radio speaker grill which foreshadowed what is known as GPS maps today.  All the windows were bullet proof and there was a heavier armament screen that could be deployed behind the rear window for extra protection.  Even the license plates revolved to allow registration in Britain, France or Switzerland.  A caltrop dispenser was located behind the driver’s rear lights and this made it possible to damage the tires of enemy vehicles following too closely.  The passenger rear wheel hub also had an extendable tire knife.  Another feature was that smoke could be ejected from the tailpipe to create a smoke screen.  The passenger side rear lights contained an oil dispenser to make the road slick behind the vehicle on demand.  Wing machine guns were mounted behind the indicator lights at the front.  The Aston Martin DB5 was the first car fitted with a passenger ejection seat.  Later modifications included water cannons, a Champaign cooler, and a home office printer/fax/communicator which was installed as part of the upgraded CD radio.  Bond discovered the car by chance during a visit to Q’s lab and talked Q into letting him use the car.  Even with all the offense weapons, Q added many protective and safety features to the car making it a unique secret agent car for Bond.

Much of the gadgetry of this car ended up becoming standard equipment on today’s production cars.  For example, the moving map system found on Bond’s DB5, has evolved three decades later in our vehicles, as the commercial GPS system we use in cars today.  The internal cooler for a wine bottle now shows up as available fridges in many CUV’s.  The radio telephone found in the driver’s door is now the Blue Tooth radio link to driver cell phones for hands free communication.  Many of the safety features of the car were actually more advanced than safety features of that time in cars of the 1960’s.  Improvement in safety features to resemble Bond’s car became standard on new cars within a decade.  Perhaps the other features of this car have made it to the cars of secret services around the world.

This car showed up in seven Bond films during 48 years.  Sadly, the Aston Martin DB5 ended up being destroyed along with Bond’s childhood home in the movie Skyfall in 2012, but not before using its front firing machine gun to save Bond’s life by taking out a number of men trying to kill Bond.  The remaining models of this car are now the most well-known and sought after Aston Martin ever made.   This car defines the Aston Martin brand.  Even Ford, who once owned Aston Martin, adopted the front grill look in the current Ford Fusion to help sell this model of car.   The Aston Martin itself has become just as famous as its owner James Bond.