James Bond Aston Martin DB5 driven by Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye could sell for record £1.6m
Current owner bought it for just £157,000 in 2001
THE ASTON Martin driven by James Bond in GoldenEye could become the most expensive DB5 in the world when it is sold at auction this summer.
The 1965 Aston will feature at the Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale on July 13 with an estimate of £1.2m-1.6m.
The car is most famous for the scene in which Bond, played by Pierce Brosnan in his debut as 007, takes on a Ferrari 355 piloted by villainess Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) along the mountain roads above Monaco.
The 1995 movie marked the first time an Aston Martin DB5 had featured in a Bond film since Sean Connery played the spy in the mid-1960s.
After filming, the car was used by Eon Productions for promoting GoldenEye and by Aston Martin to help publicise the retro-styled DB7, which launched around the same time.
In 2001, it was sold to entrepreneur Max Reid at auction for £157,000, thereby becoming the most valuable piece of Bond memorabilia ever sold.
The 2001 Christie’s Bond auction is reported to have attracted many famous car enthusiasts, including DJ Chris Evans, but the CarFest founder and former Top Gear presenter arrived too late to bid for the DB5.
Evans will no doubt be kicking himself; the car’s value has soared somewhat since then, of course, and Reid is set to make a tenfold profit if it reaches the top valuation given by the auction house.
Pierce Brosnan poses with an Aston Martin DB5 in a publicity still for GoldenEye, 1995. (Photo by Keith Hamshere/Getty Images)
The car, chassis number DB5/1885/R, has since been on display at both The National Motor Museum and the Bond in Motion exhibition at Covent Garden.
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Sholto Gilbertson, Bonhams Motor Cars Department Director, commented: “The DB5 is one of the most recognisable and desirable British classic cars in the world — it is also the ultimate Bond car.
“Every fan remembers Pierce Brosnan tearing through the hills in this car, and it must be up there as one of the most thrilling Bond car chases in history. This Aston Martin is something very special indeed.”
The car will be on display at Bonhams Aston Martin Sale on June 2 at Englefield House, Reading, before heading to the Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale on July 13.
