Aston-Martin
DB-5 - Customized gadget-ladden sports car first issued to
British Secret Service agent James Bond (007), in the espionage
thrillers Goldfinger (1964) and Thunderball (1965).
The car featured revolving license plates numbers, bulletproof
front-and-rear wind screen, dashboard equipped with a radarscope,
homing devices (magnetically attached), armrest with left and
right front-wing machine guns (acetylene gas was sparked to
created the look of gunfire), smoke screen, oil slick, electronic
tire shredders (a la the chariot race in the 1959 film Ben Hur),
and a passenger ejection seat activated by a red button hidden
atop the gear shift. License plate reads: BMT 216A. All of the
car's gadgets were created by weapons officer Major Boothroyd,
a.k.a. "Q" (Desmond Llewlyn) who worked for British Secret Service.
In the Bond sequel film On Her Majesty's Secret Service
(1969), James Bond (George Lazenby) drove a 1968 Aston Martin in
the opening scene as he raced onto a beach to save the life of a
distraught Tracy Draco (Diana Rigg) who was bent on killing
herself in the surf. At the conclusion of the film, Tracy, now
Bond's wife, is killed by machine gun fire as a passing car
occupied by James Bond's nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly
Savalas) strafes the Aston-Martin.
The Aston Martin's rear bulletproof shield in action
A few years later, James Bond (Timothy Dalton) in The Living
Daylights (1986) is given a new 1986 Aston Martin equipped with
retractable skids for gliding on snow, axle-mounted laser beams,
windshield targeting display and rocket launchers. Pierce Brosnan
as the latest James Bond drove an Aston Martin (License No. BMT
214A) in the spy thriller Goldeneye (1995). He was later upgraded
to a customized BMW 750 sedan. in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).
The new car included "all the usual refinements"
like a machine gun, rockets, GPS
tracking system, as well as a female computer voice with German
accent, a fingerprint scanner, a 20,000 volt security system, and
a miniature computer remote control for the car (tap twice to
start; draw your finger across the pad to steer and drive the
car).
TRIVIA NOTE: James Bond's original Aston Martin now resides in The
Smoky Mountain Car Museum located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. See
also - SUBMARINES
> - "Lotus Esprit Submarine Car"
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