The Iconic DB5 Aston Martin’s James Bond Legacy

With an extensive track record overseeing museum operations, Ian Oldaker served as general manager of SPYSCAPE in New York City from 2017 to 2020. SPYSCAPE’s core content focuses on harnessing a visitor’s espionage skills through a variety of spy challenges. The first special exhibition at SPYSCAPE opened in 2019, while Ian was leading the museum’s daily visitor experience. This exhibition focused on a particular aspect of the James Bond film legacy, the iconic DB5 Aston Martin.

The Aston Martin DB5 was initially featured in the third film of the Sean Connery franchise, 1964’s Goldfinger, and also appeared in the next film Thunderball. With only 900 of the car produced from 1963 to 1965, it has increased dramatically in value over the years because of its association with Bond. Surviving cars in good condition can sell for more than $1 million.

The three most coveted examples of the Silver Birch DB5 are the actual car driven in the movies, as well as two DB5 publicity cars that traveled the globe promoting the films. The actual car used in the driving scenes was a modified DB4, or a DB5 prototype, that was stripped of its gadgets in 1968 by Aston Martin and sold as a used vehicle with an odometer reading of 50,000 miles. The new owner promptly reinstalled the gadgets, in honor of its film legacy. In 2019, one of the DB5 publicity cars sold for $6.5 million at auction.

Because of the continued demand for the 55-year-old DB5, Aston Martin created a unique legacy program in 2019 and built 25 DB5 Goldfinger Continuation vehicles to 1965 specs. Outfitted with many of the classic movie gadgets, these sold out at a price of $3.5 million each. Among the extras included were revolving license plates, a rear delivery system for oil slick, and a simulated tire slasher. In addition, these iconic cars were fitted with simulated front machine guns and a removable roof panel perfect for ejecting unwanted passengers.