If you happen to have a spare $3m lying around and don’t mind the fact it’s not road-legal, you could be one step closer to having your dream spy car.
Aston Martin has released a short video showing the progress of its Goldfinger DB5 Continuation model. This car, a limited run of 25 (plus three more vehicles not available to the public) recreates James Bond’s most famous car. Bond has used the DB5 in eight different movies so far — and it hasn’t always survived — but it made its debut in 1964’s Goldfinger.
That gadget-laden car very much established Bond as a technological spy. In From Russia With Love, Bond had a cool briefcase packed with knives and gold sovereigns, but it was the DB5 that proved Q Branch’s finest hour.
Chris Corbould, who’s been working on special effects for Bond films as far back as Roger Moore’s A View to a Kill, is the man responsible for fitting out the continuation car with Bond gadgets. He’s had to come up with a number of solutions for the project because the short-cuts taken for film special effects don’t really work on a $3m car Aston Martin is selling to customers.
As he explains, the original Goldfinger DB5 created its smokescreen in a pretty basic way. The system, designed by Ken Adam, simply dumped smoke fluid into the car’s exhaust. For the continuation model, Corbould has worked with an external manufacturer to create a custom smoke machine instead.
A similar thing applies to the oil slick dispenser. In the film, the tail lights pop up and pump an endless stream of oil to soak the road behind them. There’s a close relative of that system in the new car, but the team couldn’t fit a giant oil reservoir into the DB5’s trunk. Also it doesn’t pump out oil (although it could), because environment.
In the clip below, Aston Martin also shows the workings for the headlight-mounted machine guns to this car. You’ll not be surprised to learn there’s compromises here too. There’s no live ammunition here, only blinking LEDs to simulate muzzle flash.
When completed, the car will also feature Bond’s rotating number plates and the rear bullet-proof screen. There’s no word yet on the ejector seat and extending tire scythes, but we’re going to guess that safety regulations will prevent Corbould’s team from fully realizing those gadgets…
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