A 1964 Aston Martin DB5 graced by none other than 007 himself is set to hit the auction block in London on October 27th, 2010. The luxury car is expected to rake in an estimated $5 million dollars when it changes hands at Sotheby’s.
Wow, $5 million smackaroos is a bit more than the $12,000 paid by the current owner, Jerry Lee, when he purchased the DB5 from Aston Martin in 1969. It certainly seems that Mr. Lee stands to make a profit! Of course, the fetching price is steep for this particular Aston Martin as it hit the big screen with James Bond in both early films “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball”. So if it is a 1964 yet Mr. Lee purchased it from Aston Martin in 1969, what happened in the interim?
The Aston Martin DB5 was not exactly in top form when he acquired it; he said it was literally buried with a spare tire on the backseat, at the headquarters in Newport Pagnell, England. Since that time, Lee has gently refurbished and repainted the car, keeping it in a special “James Bond room” in his home where he dazzles guests with the secret agent gadgets on the car. The gadgets are both functional and nonfunctional, and include:
• Revolving license plates
• Driver door mounted telephone
• Dash mounted tracking device
• Bulletproof rear shield
• Smoke screen
• Oil spreader
• Ejection seat
Which ones do you think are actually functional? Leave comments below. The Aston Martin DB5 registers a mere 30,000 miles on the odometer, which Lee claims were on it before he bought it. Lee says he always considered the Aston Martin a work of art, and only drove it a couple of blocks the entire time he owned it. To me, this is a tragedy! These exotic cars are made to be driven!
Many cars can claim some degree of James Bond involvement, like the Lotus Esprit and the flying AMC Matador, thought this is the first authentic James Bond Aston Martin DB5 to go on sale for years.
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