License to Thrill - Lx Magazine, Illuminating Luxury

WINTER '08

Through most of James Bond’s adventures, the fictional master spy’s means of transportation have ranked at the forefront of the guns and gadgets highlighted in the films. With tricks that range from the plausible (bulletproofing and the ability to lay oil slicks) to the utterly impossible (transforming into a fully functional submarine or turning invisible), these cars have usually featured makes produced in 007’s homeland, Great Britain. With the exceptions of a brief period in the 70s when he drove Fords and AMCs (if you can believe that) and a clearly sponsored period in the 90s that featured BMWs, James Bond’s mode of transport has either been a Bentley, a Lotus, or that most sublime of British automotive statements, the Aston Martin.

So central is the Aston Martin to the James Bond character that the make has become synonymous with the MI6 operative in the pop culture vocabulary. This is, in part, because Aston Martin helped create the Bond identity, metaphorically as well as literally. The car is smooth, powerful and rare, all qualities shared by agent 007. But is was not until the car’s appearance in the third James Bond film, 1964’s Goldfinger, that the character’s mannerisms and modus operandi became set in stone, creating a formula that the later films would follow. The first two films, Dr. No and From Russia With Love, feature a 007 still finding his identity, as cruel and cautious as he is suave and debonair. Similarly, the secret agent’s reliance on an arsenal of trick weapons and gizmos was not firmly established until Goldfinger. And the centerpiece of that film’s gadgetry was none other than the iconic Aston Martin DB5, a car that has become, by many experts’ assessment, the most famous car in the world.

The brand’s cachet was not always so. Founded in 1914 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford (the Aston part of the name deriving from a British hill-climb race venue called Aston Clinton), Aston Martin began as mostly a racing en- deavor, occasionally creating road cars that are little known today. The company never made a profit and almost folded several times. After World War II an auto enthusiast named David Brown, who had earned his fortune in the family business selling tractors, bought the company and started rebuilding its racing program. The models that immediately emerged from Brown’s stewardship, the DB1 and DB2, bore the initials of his name, a tradition that continues to this day.

The late-50s to mid-60s saw a run of beautiful Astons that elevated the company’s public perception, if not its bottom line. In 1958, Aston Martin created the DB4, a model that was eventually refined and released as the superlative DB4 GT. Twenty of the DB4 GTs were given bodies by Italian coach-building company Zagato, combining British engineering with Italian design. These are today regarded as the finest of the company’s output, and routinely bring the highest prices of all Aston Martins at collector car auctions. In the most recent example of a DB4 GT Zagato crossing the auction block, one of the cars sold for $2,695,000 in January 2005.

In late 1963, on instructions from 007 film producers Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to equip Bond with a gadget-laden car, production designer Ken Adam and special effects supervisor John Stears (who would later receive an Oscar for his work in Star Wars) visited the Aston Martin plant in Newport Pagnall, England. Said Adams of the choice, “I remember we initially discussed what kind of car we should give Bond. We considered the Bentley, which was in the Fleming novels. But then we decided it would be nice if he had the latest sports car and since this was a British production, rather than using a Ferrari or a Maserati, we decided on the Aston Martin. Johnny Stears and I went to Aston Martin to get two cars, one for the driving, one for the special effects. We encountered some resistance at first, but then Cubby and Harry talked to them and they did finally agree to let us use the car. And of course, after the film came out, their sales went up.

The original (and perhaps best) Bond, Sean Connery, leans on the Goldfinger SB5 that shared his path to stardom. Pierce Brosnan, who played Bond in four films between 1995 and 2002, leans on the Vanquish he drives in Die Another Day (2002).

Even though David Brown granted the producers’ wishes, he was not completely sold on the idea. Rather than giving any cars to the production, he offered to sell them one at the retail value of 4500 pounds (about $12,600). Eventually the two sides reached a compro- mise in which the car would be loaned to the produc- tion until the film’s completion.

The DB5 was such a new model that the loaner that Stears took possession of in January 1964 bore the chassis number DP-216-1, the DP standing for Devel- opment Project. In fact, the car he would transform into 007’s weapon-filled car was actually the first DB5 ever built. In a matter of six weeks, Stears transformed the stock vehicle into the car we know from Goldfinger. His finished product featured a multitude of tricks for 007’s use, some of which were entirely functional, others merely props that were brought to life by creative camera tricks or editing. The front machine guns, the in-dash radarscope, the electronically deployable hubcap “scythes,” and the raising rear bullet shield (actually made of plastic), were all non-functional. The rear exhaust-deployed smokescreen, the taillight oil slick dispensers, the passenger ejection seat and the rotating rear license plate, however, did indeed work. The last of these modifications may have been the most enviable. Director Guy Hamilton later commented, “I was getting a lot of parking tickets, and I absolutely dreamed of getting a ticket and, as I drove away, the license plate would revolve in the face of the meter maid.”

There are several ironies connected to the John Stears Aston Martin DB5. As it required a 300-pound hydraulic unit to make many of its gizmos work, the car was actually too heavy to use for most of the driving scenes. For these scenes, a second stock DB5 was purchased.

A second irony of the Stears car is that since it was loaned to the production, it had to eventually be returned to Aston Martin, at which point the manufactur- er removed all of the “improvements.” The car remained at the Aston Martin factory until it was sold in 1969 to a private collector who promptly hired a restoration shop to recreate, to the best of its ability, all of Stears’ gadgetry. The car was sold years later to a Florida collectorwho kept it in an aircraft hangar in Boca Raton until 1997, when it was stolen. The car was never found and the theft resulted in a legendary insurance settlement that may have netted the owner as much as $4 million.

With its prop weapons at ready, the Vanquish, produced from 2001–2007 was the Bond car in Die Another Day (2002)

Beginning to sense the iconic value of the car to James Bond’s identity, the producers bought two more DB5’s to help promote the next Bond film, 1965’s Thun- derball. Each car was outfitted with a number of pseu- do-gadgets, some of which were never even featured in the films. In January 2006, in the most recent instance of one of the early film Aston Martin DB5s changing possession, one of these two promotional cars was sold at auction to a Swiss collector for $2.1 million.

Below: Stylized design sketch of the new DBS.

Following 1967’s You Only Live Twice, in which no Aston Martins were used, Sean Connery bowed out of the James Bond films. Newcomer George Lazenby was cast for 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, in what turned out to be his one appearance as the master spy. Lazenby’s Bond was equipped with Aston Martin’s latest offering, the first generation DBS. The car was not outfitted for special tricks (most of the film’s action takes place in a mountainous redoubt high in the Alps) and its reputation today is just as lackluster. The DBS never caught on like other Aston Martins, and just 1,186 were built (including an upgraded V8 version) over a sixyear period (compared with 1,021 DB5s made over a 27 month span). With a subtle design whose timelessness is only now starting to be appreciated, the DBS can still be bought rather cheaply; one changed hands last May for 23,575 pounds (almost $46,000).

In 1972, Aston Martin once again faced financial insolvency, a situation with which David Brown had become all too familiar. Having lost his drive, and money, in the efforts to keep the marquee going, he finally threw in the towel and sold the company, this time to Company Developments Ltd. Similarly, the Aston Martin largely disappeared from Bond’s world for almost 20 years, making the briefest of appearances in a garage in the 1973 Diamonds Are Forever, a film that featured the temporary return of Connery.

In 1987, Timothy Dalton spelled the aging Roger Moore by making his James Bond debut, complete with new Aston Martins, in The Living Daylights. Dalton’s Bond got the benefit of two similar Astons, a V8 Volante and a Vantage fastback. (In the Aston lexicon a Volante denotes a convertible while a Vantage usu- ally means a high-tuned version of a base model.) Though interest- ing cars that were outfitted with some spy gadgets (retractable skis for snow use and a laser version of Goldfinger’s wheel hub tire shred- der) these are generally considered to be models produced at one of the company’s low points. From a design standpoint, they have far more in common with an American muscle car than with the curved European sophistication of their forebears. Dalton’s second and last film, 1989’s Licence to Kill, which did not feature an Aston, signaled the end of an era, as James Bond films ceased production for a 6-year hiatus. It was probably no coincidence that the master spy was put to rest as the Soviet Union fell and the Cold War ended.

While the fortunes of the James Bond franchise hung in the balance, those of Aston Martin were changing as well. Never profitable, the manufacturer was acquired by Ford Motor Company in 1987. Flush with cash and eager to enter a market segment in which it had no pres- ence, Ford almost instantly reversed the company’s poor financial track record. With its immense engineer- ing infrastructure and almost end- less access to cheap parts, Ford was able to lower production costs and increase the small British company’s dealership network. The models that emerged from this marriage over the next 20 years, most notably the DB7, DB9 and the Vanquish, were almost universally acclaimed as some of the most beautiful Astons since the company’s design heyday of the 60s.

By 1995, the producers behind James Bond cast Pierce Brosnan as the new 007 in GoldenEye. In the interest of reintroducing their product with its core values, the filmmakers gave Bond a classic Aston Martin DB5 to drive as his personal car. In one memorable sequence, Brosnan races his DB5 against femme fatale Famke Jannsen, who drives a Ferrari F355 GTS. Screen writer Bruce Feirstein summed up the motivation for the car’s use when he said, “On GoldenEye, I felt we had to bring back the Aston Martin DB5. For me, the car spelled out: we know who we are.”

Brosnan’s last Bond film, Die Another Day (2002), released on the 40th anniversary of Dr. No, marked a full-fledged return to Aston Martin as 007 took the wheel of a weapons-equipped Vanquish, one of the most beautiful and subtly muscular Astons to appear in some time. The Vanquish is featured in a stunning chase sequence on ice, in which it is pursued by a machine gun firing Jaguar. Several modifica- tions were made on the Vanquish to accommodate its “weapons.” Not actually a true Vanquish, the car utilized a Ford Boss 302 engine, which is placed further to the rear of the engine compartment than usual, to allow the implementation of a Ford Explorer 4-wheel drive- shaft and differential (to allow the car to handle capably on ice) as well as room for the weapons featured in the film. Four such special-effect cars were created, two of which were destroyed during filming. Another three unmodified Vanquishes were utilized as “hero” cars, that is, cars strictly for non-stunt close-up shots. The most filmed of the three “hero” cars was auctioned on May 10, 2003 at Bonhams’ annual Aston Martin sale for almost $338,000.

Produced from 1963–1965, the DB5 initiated Aston Martin’s relationship with James Bond in the film Goldfinger (1964). It has become largely synonymous with 007 in the greater public’s perception.

In 2006, a new era of James Bond began with Daniel Craig taking the role. Conscious that all of Fleming’s storylines and titles had already played out, the producers of the new Casino Royale chose to “reboot” the storyline. Rather than continuing from where Pierce Brosnan left off, Craig’s Bond was a depiction of the spy from his beginning days, though set in a modern world. Appropriate to this concept, the new/old Bond was bequeathed a brand new Aston Martin, one that was not even yet available in showrooms. Adopting the name DBS, the same as the car used by Lazenby in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the new car repre- sented another pinnacle in Aston Martin design. Featuring the com- pany’s first ever extensive use of the weight saving material carbon fiber, a 6 liter V12 engine and a new body design that tightened muscular lines first suggested in the DB7 and the Vanquish, the DBS is an extension of the company’s highly successful DBR9 Le Mans racecar. Claiming a 0–60 mph acceleration time of 4.2 seconds and a maximum power output of 510 horsepower, the DBS carries a base retail price of $265,000. In an attempt to endow the car with a veneer of rarity, Aston Martin will produce no more than 600 units per year, enabling dealers and brokers to raise the price to as high as $300,000. “The DBS continues our proud and lengthy association with James Bond,” said Aston Martin CEO Dr. Ulrich Bez in a press release several months prior to the release of Casino Royale. “The DBS…is explosive power in a black tie and has its own unique character which will equal that of James Bond.”

Though the DBS features a so- phisticated electronically controlled stability system, some of its most famous moments are actually con- nected with the car’s accidents, on and off camera. In Casino Royale, while attempting to save his love interest Vesper Lind, Bond rolls the car a record 7 times (a Guinness World Record) in a stunt performed ably by driver Adam Kirley. In a crash last April that the company was far less keen to publicize, an over-zealous driver delivering the car during a heavy rain to the set of the upcoming Bond film Quan- tum of Solace (the franchise’s 22nd installment) slid off the road and into Italy’s Lake Garda. The driver escaped with only minor injuries, but the DBS had to be fished out of the lake by a crane after being smashed by its submersion.

It is a very exciting time for Aston Martin. “2007 was another record year for [the company] with over 7,400 cars sold worldwide,” says Francesca Best, the Marketing Manager of Aston Martin North America. “This year we will sell approximately 200 DBS’s in North America.” Other recent notable developments include the company’s move last year to shutter its aging manufacturing plant at Newport Pagnell, where Aston Martins had been built for decades, and to open a new modern facility in Gaydon. In addition to looking forward to the DBS’s second Bond appearance when Quantum of Solace is released November 7, the company is just settling in to new ownership.

The recent struggles of American automakers are well documented, and Ford’s ownership experience of Aston Martin has seen the two companies swap fortunes. When Ford acquired Aston, the American company was a giant with con- siderable financial resources and strength, while the small British company regularly faltered. Now Ford faces debt and downsizing while Aston Martin has flourished. Ford announced in late 2006, after a year in which it lost $12.7 billion, that it would sell its British boutique, and began entertaining offers from various bidders. This process consummated with the sale of Aston Martin in early March 2007 to a consortium of companies for $925 mil- lion. Ford kept a $77 million stake in the company. The consortium is led by David Richards, chairman of a major racing and engineering company called Pro- drive, and includes two Kuwaiti invest- ment firms whose combined assets total $5.16 billion. As Ford is still a minority partner, it will continue to source the parts for the cars (primarily engines) that it always has.

The new ownership “has already demonstrated their commitment to future investments by approving production of the Rapide,” a first ever Aston sedan that debuted as a concept car at Geneva in 2006, “and building the first Aston Martin-dedicated design studio and test center at the Nurburgring,” adds Best, referring to the world-renowned test track in Germany that has served as an automobile development proving ground for over 60 years.

The futures of both Aston Martin and James Bond appear bright. Regardless of who deserves the greatest credit for the British car’s current success—David Brown, James Bond, Ford or Dr. Ulrich Bez—there is little doubt the new Aston Martins will leave drivers and passengers alike shaken and stirred.