By An Aston Martin specially refurbed and tricked out to match the one James Bond drove in Goldfinger and Thunderball is going up for sale, and is expected to fetch somewhere between $4 (£3.2) million and $6 (£4.7) million.
"No other car in history has played a more important leading role on film and in pop culture than the Aston Martin DB5," said Barney Ruprecht, car specialist at RM Sotherby's.
The 1965 Silver Birch DB5 is "properly refurbished to function as originally built" according to RM Sotheby's - but it also comes with all the weaponry and gadgets that Bond had at his disposal. Eon, the production company behind the Bond films, commissioned the car in 1965 for promo events in the United States and while it didn't appear on film, it's exactly the same as the one Bond drove in Thunderball.
That means it's fully stocked with the latest developments from Q branch. All 13 modifications the car had in the film are faithfully replicated in this one. You've got your Browning .30 calibre machine guns behind the front indicator lights, your retractable tyre slashers, your bulletproof screen to the rear, your revolving number plates, your passenger side ejector seat, your oil slick squirter and the rest.
While this gadgetry might be realistically built into the model, those hoping to gun their nemesis down on the M40 after winning the auction should be advised that it seems rather unlikely that Sotherby's are selling a car with functional machine guns.
More useful for punters might be the armaments drawer under the front seat of the DB5, originally intended for storing guns in, it can still serve as a lovely drawer for the modern driver to store his churros flavoured vape pen in.
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