YOU’RE LATE, MR BOND!
With just weeks to go until you can watch Daniel Craig in gun-blazing action behind the wheel of a gadget-laden Aston Martin DB5 in the new 007 film No time to Die, i’ve beaten him to the punch. For i am one of the first and very few people in the world to enjoy an exclusive drive of the Aston Martin DB5 ‘Goldfinger’ Continuation car, of which just 25 are being built, costing £3.3 million each — a real-life version of the Corgi toy car that i and millions of other children played with over generations. Created by Aston in collaboration with EON Productions, maker of the Bond films, my DB5 was fitted with almost all the gadgets that made it the co-star of Goldfinger (1964) alongside Sean Connery as 007.
This is no movie stunt car, nor a replica, but a genuine continuation production DB5, reborn from where it left off 55 years ago. Fewer than 900 original DB5 saloons were built between 1963 and 1965, priced from £4,175.
Each car takes 4,500 hours to hand-build in the original Silver Birch paint and has nearly all the Goldfinger gadgets recreated by Aston Martin and Oscar-winning special effects guru Chris Corbould. that means hidden replica machine guns, a smoke generator, revolving number plates et al (tyre shredders for the wheel hubs come in a boxed display).
Sadly, health and safety jitters mean no real ejector seat. But there’s a nod to it with a flip-top red button on the gear stick and a removable roof panel.
this may be a car reborn into the 21st century, but it still uses technology from nearly 60 years ago — and feels like it does.
You have to be firm, rough even, and manhandle it or it’ll master you. Powered by a feisty 290bhp 4-litre naturally aspirated inline six-cylinder engine linked to a slick five-speed manual gearbox with a slim longthrow gear stick, its straight-line acceleration is an awesome zero to 60mph in 7.1 seconds up to a top speed of 148 mph.
this Aston really does have a licence to thrill.