Aston Martin DB10
Gadgets: 7/10 Speed: 9/10 Pulling power: 7/10 Skids: 9/10 Stunts: 8/10 Star status: 7/10 Total: 47
IN SPECTRE, BOND GOES BESPOKE. NEVER MIND Q’S VARIOUS modifications, this time 007 ends up with a clean-sheet car, the DB10. Originally allocated to 009, Bond snaffles it, uses it to gatecrash an emergency meeting of the world’s most evil villains, gets embroiled in a startling car chase through the streets of Rome, unleashes a flamethrower, then parks his Aston at high speed in the River Tiber having just parachuted to safety. Hell of a test drive.
Ten DB10s were created for SPECTRE, three hero cars and seven stunt units, each running a set-up according to its role in the chase sequence. The one you see here is a seriously naughtysounding, super-slidey example, beefed-up with a roll cage and a hydraulic handbrake sprouting out of the centre console.
Effectively a 2006–18 Vantage underneath, it moves with the same urgency as a Vantage GT4 race car I once hammered around Paul Ricard – only with less grip. It’s clearly had a tough life, but it also feels, um, bulletproof. Over to Aston Martin’s chief creative officer Marek Reichman on how it came to pass.
“We were trying to do what we did with the DBS. We had the DB11 all lined up to show [the Bond bosses], because we hadn’t launched it yet. So I was explaining how it was a continuation from the DBS in Casino Royale, and Sam [Mendes, director] thought it was wonderful and Barbara [Broccoli, producer] said ‘these guys always do great cars.’ But I could see in Sam’s face he wasn’t 100 per cent sold on it, that he wanted something different.
“And as we were leaving, he spotted a sketch on the wall, a car I described as more of a hunter, more aggressive, a bit hedonistic, perhaps. His eyes lit up, and he said, ‘It sounds like the Bond I want to create.’ But I said, ‘Yep, but it doesn’t exist, and you need the cars by September and it’s April now, so there’s not much chance of that.’ And he said, ‘Why not?’ So we did it – we went from a sketch to 10 working cars in six months. Sam wanted a very simple graphic, which is why the cooling was done as a dot matrix on the bonnet. I said to him, ‘People will look at this car, and if it doesn’t vent air and suck air, they’re going to say it’s not real, it’s an electric car, it doesn’t really work.’ But he knew what he wanted, and it was brilliant working with him. And it’s definitely real.”