You could own James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 – for £4m

For that you will get a DB5 that can trace its 007 heritage right back to the day it left Newport Pagnell in 1965, if not a car that appeared in any film or was driven by Sean Connery. For RM Sotheby’s it’s still “the most famous car in the world”.

The car in the sale is one of four DB5s commissioned in period by Bond movie producers Eon Productions. The first pair of the Snow Shadow grey cars was used for filming Goldfinger. When that movie took off Eon later ordered two more to go on a tour of North America to promote the follow-up film, Thunderball. It is one of these promotional cars that RM is selling at its Aston-only sale in Monterey on 15^th August.

RM Sotheby’s says only three of the original four DB5s survive and the car in the sale is one of only two of them to have been equipped from new with the Goldfinger gadgets – the ejector seat, rear bullet-proof screen, machineguns, hydraulic overrider rams, wheel-hub mounted tyre-slashers, smoke screen dispenser and revolving registration plates of automotive movie legend.

And, says RM Sotheby’s, they all function, just as movie special effects man John Stears designed them to and as Q explained them to a sceptical 007 in the movie. There are 13 “fully functioning” gadgets, including the .30 calibre guns (we’re not sure about the ejector seat though…).

After their US tour, the promotional cars were bought by Anthony Bamford who subsequently sold one of them to the Smokey Mountain Car Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where it was the museum’s star exhibit for the next 35 years. RM Sotheby’s then sold the car in 2006, and since then the James Bond DB5 has been restored by Aston heritage specialists Roos Engineering in Switzerland – ensuring all 13 of the John Stears-designed Bond modifications functioned as originally built.

So, 007 fans queue here… every DB5 secretly wants to be James Bond’s car but this one really is – or as close to it as you’re likely to get. As RM Sotheby’s Barney Ruprecht told us: “No other car in history has played a more important leading role on film and in pop culture than the Aston Martin DB5. This is an unbelievably rare chance to play secret agent.”