An exceptional example of the convertible with a superb colour combination between the hood and coachwork, photographed during the concours at the AMOC Horsfall meeting, 2000.

This early DB5 Convertible, the fourth built and finished in Acapulco Blue was auctioned at the 1999 auction at Coys Festival, Silverstone. The DB5 convertible is blessed with the same six cylinder, 4 litre engine of the standard car, occasionally with triple Webers making it Vantage spec.

Another blue car, but this time with stone leather and the correct pleated seats. DB6’s had seats with distinctive V stitching. The DB5 convertible continued with the tradition started with the DB4 convertible with a body coloured dashboard.

In two years of production, only 123 convertible versions of the DB5 were built, with only 39 with left hand drive.

Modifications performed by Works Service, Newport Pagnell include –

• Chassis shortened by 5 inches to DB4GT specification
• Six point removable roll cage fitted
• Prototype independent rear suspension
• Engine enlarged to 4.7 litres, twin plug DB4 GT head, (351 bhp @ 6000 rpm with 334 lb/ft of torque @3500 rpm)
• 5 speed ZF gearbox
• Enlarged brakes with 13 inch front discs with Brembo callipers

The car was entered into the AML/Brooks Auction in May 2000 and sold for an astonishing £161,000 including buyers premium – a figure in excess of what one might have expected for a DB4GT at that time.

DP2155 was again sold at Bonhams AM Works auction in May 2010, for the sum of £485,500

At that time, the factory was way too busy just making the regular DB5, so David Brown made an arrangement with the coachbuilding firm of Harold Radford (Coachbuilders) Ltd. to make further shooting brakes to meet the demand. Radford were already experienced in building the not wholly dissimilar Bentley Countryman shooting brakes. The conversion was extensive and affected the whole car from the windscreen backwards. One problem with the conversion was that the tubular structure of the roof was cut away and the new extended roof was supported by steel fabrications thus reducing the inherent rigidity of the Superleggera system. The rear hatchback was a single piece hinged from the top and assisted by springs.

The interior was cleverly designed to hold as much as stuff as possible. With the rear seat folded down, the car offered an uninterrupted payload platform of 1.75 meters by 1.05 meters and a volume of 1.1 cubic meters, although with suspension unaltered, it would have been unwise to carry a large deal of additional weight.

As the mechanical and chassis specification of the car remained the same as when first built, the car was still claimed to reach 150 mph and was marketed with the tag-line ‘The world’s fastest dual-purpose vehicle’. Also Radford claimed the Shooting Brake would be able to brake from 100 mph to a standstill in 6 seconds, although we must assume this is without a heavy payload in the back. As each shooting brake began life as a completely finished saloon, priced at £4,412, the price of a finished shooting brake was boosted by £2,000 when ordered through AML. In some cases, customers also sent pre-registered cars to Radford for conversion too. Thus it is hardly surprising that only 12 were built (8 RHD and 4 LHD), all of which are believed to survive, making them the rarest DB5 variant.

Following on from the DB5 Shooting Brake, Radford went on to build another six similar cars based on the DB6.

The Silver Birch DB5 was crammed full of secret gadgets – many of which are total fiction, whereas some have become commonplace in modern cars. Modifications to the DB5 for the film were………..

• Front and rear extending over-rider rams
• Front firing .30 calibre Browning machine guns behind the front indicators
• Retractable tyre slashers (three eared spinners)
• Retractable rear bullet proof screen
• Radio telephone concealed in secret door compartment
• Radar scanner in racing type wing mirror, tracking screen in the cockpit
• Passenger ejector seat – roof panel jettisoned just before the seat is fired
• Oil slick ejector from nearside rear light cluster
• Triple spiked nails (calthrops) from the offside rear light cluster
• Cartridge for smoke screen released through the exhaust pipes
• Revolving number plates (BMT216A – UK, 4711-EA-62 – France and LU6789 – Switzerland)
• Armaments drawer under front driver seat
• Bullet-proof front and rear screens

Initially, the effects car, DP216/1 was the only car with the extras fitted by the film production company, DB5/1486/R was in effect just a standard road car used for much of the driving sequences. But such was the demand for the 007 DB5 to appear around the world to publicise the films, the road car, DB5/1486/R  had the 007 extras fitted by the Aston Martin factory.

Both Goldfinger DB5’s also appeared in the 1965 James Bond film, Thunderball, with the addition of a Jet pack in the boot and rear firing water cannons. By 1968, the full effects car, DP216/1, still owned by AML, was returned to the Works and all the film company fitted special effects were removed prior to sale as a normal road car. Shortly after this DP216/1 was then refitted with replica effects by a Kent coachbuilder before being sold to an American collector. This car was stolen in June 1997 from a hanger in Florida and it’s whereabouts remain unknown. It may never be seen again.

The road car, DB5/1486/R, was privately owned in the USA by a collector from 1968 for more than 40 years and was seldom seen in public. Then in 2010, the owner decided to sell and the car was offered at the RM sale in London for £2.6 million (pictured here) – to another US collector.

As demand for the original movie cars to appear at events during the 1960’s was huge, two further DB5’s were converted by the factory for promotional work.

In writing this web page I have made great use of the book ‘The Most Famous Car in the World’ by Dave Worrall, the complete history of the James Bond Aston Martin DB5 which I can highly recommend.

So far as I can reasonably say, all of the cars here are ‘real’ Aston Martins. That is that they are based on a genuine Aston Martin DB4/5/6/S chassis and an Aston Martin straight six cylinder engine as designed by Tadek Marek. I have steered away from featuring re-bodied DB7’s and avoided like the plague absolute fakes with no disenable Aston Martin parts whatsoever.

As FAS302 is on sale, it has it’s very own website. This particular car is quite interesting as it is a accurate replica of DB4GT/200/R, the very first Aston Martin Zagato.  The original front of 0200/R was damaged in a racing accident early in its life and was never repaired to it’s original ‘shark-nose’ shape. All other Zagatos had a simplified nose, so FAS302, with original spec ‘shark-nose’ is quite unique and genuinely attractive.

I must though issue a small note of warning over Zagato replicas based on genuine DB4 chassis. As the chassis has to be modified by having some length cut out, DVLA in the UK have considered theses cars of indeterminate age. As such, they would probably not be eligible for the rolling 40 year exemption from annual MOT testing and vehicle excise duty. Worse is that they may apply a ‘Q’ non-age related numberplate. 

DB5/2008/R

DB5/2008/R was for many years on display in the Smoky Mountain Car Museum but was offered for sale by RM auctions in January 2006 where it achieved a price of just over $2 million. It is believed to have been sold to a Swiss collector and was restored in Switzerland by Roos Engineering in 2010. It is now part of a private collection in the UK and was spotted at the 2023 Hampton Court Concours of Élégance.

DB5/2017/R

The final works replica, DB5/2017/R is part of the Dutch National Motor Museum, the Louwman Collection, which I have photographed both in its home and at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in August 2007.

The cars illustrated are genuine Aston Martins but were not originally built to GT specification. The process of modifying the chassis and other major modifications may make registration of these cars as ‘historic vehicles’ somewhat difficult.  As the chassis has somelength cut out, DVLA in the UK have considered theses cars of indeterminate age. As such, they would probably not be eligible for the rolling 40 year exemption from annual MOT testing and vehicle excise duty. Worse is that they may loose their original numberplate and DVLA may apply a ‘Q’ non-age related registration. 

When James Bond was reunited with the DB5, it was given the registration number, BMT214A, as if had come from the same fleet as the first car. This was, I believe that BMT216A couldn’t be used for legal reasons although it was used on the BMW 750i in ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’. The photographs below show what is believed to be DB5/1484/R of one of the 1995 stunt cars were taken during the travelling 007 exhibition whilst it was visiting the National Museum of Film, Photography and Television in Bradford during Summer 2002.

One of the stunt cars, DB5/1885/R, was sold at auction in 2001 and at that time, it became the one of the most expensive pieces of film memorabilia ever sold. The car has thankfully remained in private ownership in the UK and even has it’s own website, db5.co.uk.

The second stunt car, DB5/1484/R has been retained by EON and is believed to have also been used during the filming of ‘Skyfall‘ in 2013 and also appeared briefly in ‘Tomorrow Never Dies‘ and ‘Spectre‘.