FROM GAYDON WITH LOVE
The DB10 has been created specifically for the new Bond film, but it hints at a new era for Aston Martin
‘W hat’s that?” James Bond director Sam Mendes asked of a sketch on the studio wall of Aston Martin design chief Marek Reichman. He was pointing at an early drawing of the Aston Martin Vantage sports car replacement, not due until 2017 at the earliest.
No longer, though, for ‘that’ has now become the Aston Martin DB10, James Bond’s new car for the upcoming Spectre movie. It’s the first time that a car has been specifically created from scratch for a Bond film.
Mendes had come to Reichman’s design studio along with Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli from Bond film production company Eon in April 2014 to look at “what was cooking in the kitchen” of the Aston Martin design studio as a new Bond car was sought post-DBS and the destruction of his DB5 in the previous film, Skyfall.
Reichman had shown them everything he was working on and assumed that the team would go for the DB9 replacement (the DB11, due to be launched next year) as a replacement for Bond’s DBS.
“They loved it,” Reichman told me of the DB11. “But then, as we turned to leave the design studio, Sam Mendes pointed at the sketch on the wall and said: ‘What’s that?’
“It was a sketch, but Sam loved it and instantly had a vision of it as an icon for Bond in the same way the DB5 was. It was exactly what he was thinking about for Bond in the movie, making him a little bit naughtier. He asked if we could make the sketch, and I said of course we could…”
The usual time taken to get from a sketch to a car finished to the DB10’s standard is around three years. After Eon commissioned the DB10 in April 2014, Aston handed over the first working example bang on time for the start of filming, just five months later in September. It was straight into action, taking on jumps on 2m ramps.
In total, just 10 DB10s have been made, and there will never be another one. Six and a half of them have been left in various states of disrepair (two of them ending up in the Tiber river in Rome following mishaps during filming) after the kind of heavy filming workloads that you’d expect in an action movie where all the stunts are real. Remaining are three ‘hero’ cars, one each to be kept by Eon and Aston and the other to be auctioned for charity for what will probably be a hefty sum.
Reichman says creating a car that was fully resolved in its design and engineering was a challenge not only because of the short time they had in which to do it, but also because it went against usual business instincts, given that it wasn’t destined for sale.
But he points to the fact that the DBS, Bond’s most recent car, was in fact the most successful Aston in history as proof that normal rationale doesn’t apply here.
“How much of the DBS’s success can you put down to Bond? There’s no equation to it,” says Reichman.
“It’s just a car that looks right, is exceptionally well proportioned, sophisticated and desirable. And James Bond drives it. We had it with DB5, now DBS, and that works for a lot of customers.”
The DB10 is underpinned by the firm’s current VH architecture rather than the next-generation one that is being readied for the DB11 onwards. It is longer than the current Vantage and has a longer wheelbase, and it uses the V8 Vantage’s 4.7-litre engine rather than the 5.9-litre V12 from elsewhere in the range.
It’s hooked up to a manual gearbox — Mendes wanted Bond to drive a manual — and the cabin in which he sits is much sportier and more driver-focused than the current Vantage is, a clue to the future interior direction of Aston’s sports cars.
The DB10’s sportier, more aggressive look is the first clue that Aston will have greater design distinction between its future DB GT models and the Vantage sports cars, creating two visually distinct lines.
The brief to Reichman from new Aston boss Andy Palmer is simple: Palmer’s mother must be able to tell the difference between a DB model and a Vantage.
Indeed, the Vantage-previewing DB10 — with its low grille, sharklike face, slim lights, dramatic falling shoulder line and more rear-set cabin — is already a radical styling departure from any Aston, present or past, while still retaining the perfect proportions for which Aston Martins are famed.
But Reichman plans to make the Vantage replacement more radical still and is not tempted to merely create a full-blown production version of the DB10.
“Now we have DB10, we have to use the work and effort put into it to inspire the next generation of future products, which will be even better than the DB10,” he says.
There are more clues all over the DB10 as to the future direction of Aston sports cars: the understated finish to the brightwork, the design of the 20-inch alloy wheels, the low rear that emphasises the width of the tyres, the unusual shape of the rear lights, the slimmer front LED light clusters, cooling holes in the bonnet, and that shoulder line and grille.
But before the next Vantage arrives, the DB10 will exist as a car in its own right. So has a precedent now been set for Aston to make Bond a bespoke car for every future movie?
“It’s a difficult one,” says Reichman. “But I’d love to. James Bond and Aston Martin are now unbreakable.”