What's all this about?
First, Aston Martin announced it was resurrecting the DB5 for a short Continuation run of 25 cars, all based on James Bond's car from the 1964 film Goldfinger. Then it confirmed it was working with EON Productions, the company behind the Bond movie series, and special effects guru Chris Corbould OBE to fit each example of the DB5 Goldfinger Continuation with a full array of secret-agent gadgetry that renders this £2.75 million icon unsuitable for legal road use. Well, now it's the biggest announcement yet for the 25 people eagerly awaiting their MI6-related toy: production has begun on the cars in earnest at the Newport Pagnell Heritage Division. Aka, Aston Martin Works, the place where the original run of fewer than 900 DB5s was put together between 1963 and 1965.
Excellent. And, aside from the oil slick and fake machine guns, what is the DB5 itself like?
Each one takes 4,500 man-hours to build and blends the traditional craftsmanship of the Sir David Brown-era of Aston Martin with some modernisations of engineering, to make these Continuation vehicles easier to drive, as well as all of Corbould's toys. Every DB5 Goldfinger Continuation will be finished in Silver Birch, as per the film car, and has an aluminium-panel body on top of an authentic mild-steel chassis. Up front, the 4.0-litre inline-six with a six-plug head, three SU carbs and an oil cooler develops around 295hp, which it sends to a rear axle equipped with a mechanical limited-slip via a five-speed ZF manual gearbox. The steering's unassisted rack-and-pinion stuff, while the brakes are assisted and are hydraulic Girling-type steel discs. Suspension is provided by coilover spring-and-damper units with a front anti-roll bar and a live rear axle with radius arms and Watt's linkage.
Sounds tasty. Any thoughts from the team behind this?
Indeed there are. Heritage Programme manager Clive Wilson, one of the people most closely involved in the process of bringing the new DB5 Goldfinger Continuation cars into production, said: "Seeing the first customer car move painstakingly through the intricate production process we have created really is quite a thrill. 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!"
Paul Spires, the president of Aston Martin Works where the original DB5 was built and the new cars are also being created, added: "We are making, perhaps, some of the most desirable 'toys' ever built for 25 very lucky buyers worldwide. Creating the DB5 Goldfinger Continuation cars and working with EON Productions and special effects supervisor, Chris Corbould, is something truly unique and a real career highlight for everyone involved here at Aston Martin Works."
Aston's Continuation series are popular with collectors, as the DB5 Goldfinger follows on from the DB4 GT Zagato Continuation cars. First deliveries of the James Bond-inspired machine will take place in the second half of this year.
Matt Robinson - 28 May 2020