The most famous James Bond cars are easily the character’s Aston Martin DB5 first seen in “Goldfinger“ and the submersible Lotus Esprit from “The Spy who Loved Me.” But he’s had some other pretty nifty, gadget-laden cars that would delight any car or film buff. One of those is going to auction this August by RM Sotheby’s: a 1973 Aston Martin V8 from “The Living Daylights.” And perhaps most exciting, it actually has some of its gadgets.
The Aston was one of the more lavishly appointed by Q Branch. In the film, a plethora of gadgets are on display while outrunning Czechoslovakian police and military. Lasers fired from the wheel center caps and missiles from behind the fog lights. Most notably, it featured outrigger skis and a rear-mounted rocket booster for icy, snowy conditions. You can see it all in the chase scene below. Sadly, all the gadgets weren’t enough to save the V8 from a wreck in a snowbank. Still, the chase is a blast (literally in some ways), and is part of what made our resident Bond expert James Riswick rank it the fifth best Bond film ranked solely based on its cars (out of 25 total). Pretty impressive all things considered, especially when Riswick also feels that Timothy Dalton is the fifth best Bond (out of the six who’ve played him so far).
As for the car itself, four running examples and six fiberglass shell cars were used. They were all meant to be up-to-date Aston Martin V8 Vantage models with the carbureted engine for the 1987 film. However, according to RM Sotheby’s, Aston Martin had more than a year’s backlog of orders, so it couldn’t provide enough new cars for the film. As such, used examples were purchased and updated. This 1973 V8 was one of the runners, listed as car number 10, and was originally a green model with a fuel-injected engine and automatic. It got a new paint job, a fake sunroof, carburetor-spec hood and a fiberglass rear end to match the then-current model and the other cars for shooting. It even lost its powertrain to reduce weight so it could be shot for the end of the chase where it slides down a snowy slope into a snow bank. Of course it did gain outrigger skis and the fake rocket port at the back, so, maybe it was worth it?
Those skis and rocket remain on the car to this day, along with the other updated bits. The seller gave the car a thorough restoration with rust repairs and fresh paint. It also sports a Vantage engine and five-speed manual transmission like in the film. A console with all the gadget switchgear can be swapped in, and the fake rocket port has been upgraded to actually shoot flames. It’s actually better and more functional than it was for the film.
It may not be the absolute most iconic Bond car, but this Aston is certainly up there. And the fact that it actually has the gizmos that made it as famous as it is is awesome. RM Sotheby’s expects many people will think the same, and so it has a rather high auction estimate of $1.4 million to $1.8 million. It will cross the block during the auction house’s Monterey auction that runs from August 17 to August 19. If that’s a little or way out of your price range, you can get some of the look with just a plain 1973 Aston Martin V8, which Hagerty values around $95,000 for one in good condition.
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