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“Are you free next week?” said the editor. “I’m a little busy,” I replied. “Why?” “Well, we’ve got an Aston Martin DB5 we need someone to drive. It’s an original James Bond car. And all the gadgets work.”

Suffice it to say my book-keeping could wait. Chances like this don’t come along often. Indeed, it occurs to me, as I stand at the side of the test track watching as the back of a nondescript delivery lorry opens to reveal the DB5’s iconic Snow Shadow Gray posterior, that not only might this be the best thing I’ve done in a sickeningly fortunate career thus far, it might turn out to be the best thing I ever do. 

You might know this car, if you’re a Bond buff, a classic car buff, or simply a buff-coloured DB5 buff, as DB5/2008/R – its chassis number, to which can be traced its history. It was built after the release of Goldfinger (1964), for which Bond producer Eon Productions had borrowed two DB5s from Aston Martin, the first of these retrofitted with all of the now-famous gadgets with a view to using it for close-up shots; the second kept standard, and therefore lighter and more drivable, so that it could be used for action sequences. 

Of course, Goldfinger’s success – and the reception of Q’s Aston Martin – exceeded anyone’s expectations, and so with plans to reuse the DB5s for its sequel, Thunderball (1965), Eon Productions commissioned Aston Martin to build two more. Both would feature all of the gadgetry, and all of it – with the exception of the ejector seat – working, inasmuch as was safe and viable. Both would be sent to America to be driven by and pictured with the film’s stars on their promotional tour for the new film; 2008/R was the first of these.

The big difference with these later cars was that they were, in a way, built to last. The original gadget car – modified in-house at Eon by production designer Ken Adam and special effects guru John Stears – only had to do its thing for one take. So it was more fragile, more intricate; by contrast, the two later DB5s had their gadgets built-in by Aston Martin, and therefore emerged from the factory with all of them on board, all designed to operate repeatedly, which is part of the reason they still do so today. 



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