A fully updated version of the Aston Martin DB5, also known as one of the most iconic-pop culture specimens for being the vehicle James Bond drives in the 1964 movie "Goldfinger", is going to be auctioned by RM Sotheby.
The car, which is the only remaining out of the four that were made exclusively for the film by Aston Martin, will be auctioned by RM in Monterey in August. It is expected to fetch between $4 million and $6 million.
Described as "the most famous car in the world", the car is introduced as one that is outfitted with hidden weaponry and cutting-edge spy technology by fictional weapons mastermind Q in the film.
RM revealed that the car will be equipped with 13 fully functional Bond modifications including:
Fender-mounted Browning .30-caliber machine guns
Wheel-hub-mounted tire slashers
Oil-slick and smoke-screen dispensers
Caltrop dispenser
Revolving license plates
Ejector seat system
Rising rear bulletproof screen
Radar-tracking GPS system
Centre-console defence-mechanism controls
Originally only two were used in the making of Goldfinger. The car that was equipped with the special 'effects' including the gadgets was stolen from a hangar in Florida in 1997 and never recovered, reported TopGear.
However, this Bond car "Chassis 2008/R was one of the two built with Bond gadgetry was last used in promotions for the fourth movie in the James Bond series, "Thunderball."
EON Productions had previously bought the car for promotions and then put it on sale in 1969. Initially bought by British multinational corporation, JCB's Lord Bamford, it was later resold to BH Atchley, who put it on display in his Smokey Mountain Car Museum in Tennessee for the next 35-years.
The car was restored by official Aston Martin heritage specialists Roos Engineering in Switzerland, according to Sotheby's, with all Stears-designed Bond modifications refurbished to function as originally intended.
In 2018, EON and Aston Martin announced that they will be making would build 25 new Bond DB5.
