Bond DB5 sells for £5.25m
RM Sotheby’s found a new home for the third of three remaining James Bond Aston Martin DB5s – chassis DB5/2008/R – fetching nearly $400,000 over its top $6million estimate ($6,396,656.73). The hammer went down for the equivalent of £5,258,462.52 – a record for a 007 Aston.
Billed as ‘the most iconic car of all time’, 2008/R is the most functional of all of the Bond DB5s; it was ordered for promotional duties after the success of Goldfinger, and used to promote its successor, Thunderball, in the US.
Unlike the other gadget-laden Bond DB5s, 2008/R’s equipment was installed by Aston Martin itself and works to this day. Its predecessor, Aston Martin development chassis DP/216, was stolen in 1997; chassis 2017/R, was once owned by JCB magnate Anthony (now Lord) Bamford, who owned 2017/R and 2008/R at the same time.
2008/R lived in the Smokey Mountain Car Museum in Tennessee, when RM Auctions, Sotheby’s parent company, sold it with a partially working complement of gadgets. A four-year restoration by Swiss Aston specialist Roos Engineering followed, bringing all of the car’s equipment back to full strength.
CCW’s auction guru, Richard Barnett, said: ‘I can only put this result down to the continued American obsession with James Bond; the books and films draw in moneyed collectors who aren’t even car fans. That very broad appeal no doubt influenced the final hammer price.’
The DB5 achieved its record ahead of RM Sotheby’s disastrous Porsche Type 64 auction, in which a claimed mis-pronunciation saw the car fail to sell at $17million, rather than the original $70million claimed. ❚ rmsothebys.com