Overview

The Aston Martin DB5 is a luxury sports car manufactured by Aston Martin. The DB5 was introduced in 1963 and production ended in 1956. The Aston Martin DB5 is famous for being a “movie car”. The most notable films in which the DB5 was featured are Goldfinger, Thunderball, Golden Eye, Tommorow Never Dies and Casino Royale.

Variants

The Aston Martin DB5 was equipped with a straight six 4.0-Liter engine designed by Tadek Marek. The engine had a total output of 282 horsepower and 288 lb-ft of torque and it was mated to a five speed manual transmission. In performance test the car accelerated to 60 mph from standstill in 6.4 seconds and ran the quarter mile in 14.8 seconds. The maximum speed recorded was 144 mph.

A DB5 Vantage model was introduced in 1964 and only 123 vehicles were ever produced from which 19 were left hand drive. The DB5 Vantage was equipped with a 4.0-Liter engine with three Weber twin-choke side draft carburettors. This engine had a total output of 314 horsepower and 290 lb-ft of torque and it was mated to the same five speed manual transmission. The DB5 Vantage sprinted from 0-60 mph in 6 seconds flat and ran the quarter mile in 14.5 seconds. A maximum speed of 152 mph was recorded.

An estate variant or wagon was also built. The prototype DB5 wagon was named Shooting Brake and it was custom produced by the factory for David Brown. 12 coupes were modified into wagons for Aston Martin by the independent coachbuilder Harold Radford. The DB5 Shooting Brake was equipped with the standard 282 horsepower 4.0-Liter engine hooked to the five speed manual transmission.

Standard equipment on all models included electric windows, full leather upholstery, magnesium-ally body built to superleggera patent technique, oil cooler, wool pile carpets, reclining seats and reclining seats. The starting price for an Aston DB5 was 4,248 including Purchase Tax.

Additional Information

The Aston Martin DB5 is one of the most famous and sought after cars thanks to the movie James Bond:Goldfinger. In the novel writen by Ian Fleming a DB III was featured however the director decided to use Aston Martins latest model, the DB5. The car that was used in the movie was actually the prototype DB5 and for the stunts a standard DB5 was used. Another two DB5 Goldfinger edition cars were built for promotional purposes. One of the two DB5 Goldfinger Edition cars was sold in January 2006 at an auction in Arizona for US $2,090,000. The other car can still be found at the Lowman Museum in Netherlands.

The standard DB5 used in the movie Goldfinger was bought in 1969 by Jerry Lee, president and owner of WBEB Radio for a price of US $12,000. On the 1^st of June 2010 RM Auctions announced that Jerry Lee is selling the car and that it was expected that the car would reach a price of US $5,000,000. At the auction the car was sold for US $4,103,000.