VIN: the Eon Productions James Bond 007 Aston Martin DB5 chassis DB5/2017/R
History of chassis DB5/2017/R
Chassis DB5/2017/R was one of four DB5s built in period to Q-branch specification for Eon Productions.
The first pair (DP/2161/1 and DB5/1486/R) were used in the making of the 1964 smash hit, Goldfinger.
The second two (DB5/2008/R and DB5/2017/R) were commissioned by Eon ahead of the release of Thunderball which would be the second 007 movie in which James Bond’s gadget-laden Aston Martin would appear.
Whereas the original Goldfinger special effects car (DP/2161/1) had its Q-branch extras installed by the team at Pinewood Studios, work on the pair of 1965 promotional vehicles was carried out by Aston Martin themselves. Supplied at a reputed $62,500 each, these cars cost Eon around five times the price of a standard DB5.
Both DB5/2008/R and DB5/2017/R were painted Silver Birch and upholstered with a Black interior.
The Q-branch extras fitted by Aston Martin included:
a Browning machine gun concealed behind each front indicator
a retractable bullet-proof screen behind the rear window
hydraulic bumper over-riders that projected for use as battering rams
an oil spray device housed in the left-hand side rear light cluster
a caltrops nail ejector housed in the right-hand side rear light cluster
smoke-emitting exhaust pipes
a radar scanner in the exterior mirror
revolving British, French and Swiss licence plates
a concealed button underneath the gear lever which (theoretically) would jettison the roof panel before firing a Martin-Baker ejector seat (not actually fitted)
an illuminated radar tracking display screen
a telephone in the driver’s armrest
a centre console-mounted weapons switchboard
an armaments draw under the driver's seat
Upon completion, chassis DB5/2008/R and DB5/2017/R were shipped out to the USA for promotional duty.
They later returned to Europe and in 1969 were sold by Eon’s Swiss-based holding company, Danjaq SA.
Both cars were purchased by noted collector Anthony Bamford of Ashbourne, Derbyshire, whose father was the founder of JCB Excavators.
Bamford paid Danjaq just £1500 apiece for the pair of cars and promptly traded chassis DB5/2017/R to his friend, Sandy Luscombe-Whyte, for a Ferrari 250 GTO (chassis 4399 GT).
Later in 1969, Luscombe-Whyte sold the DB5 to Vancouver-based restaurateur, Frank Baker, for $21,600 plus an all-expenses trip to New York aboard the QE2. Baker went on to display the car in a plastic-windowed installation outside the foyer of his Attic restaurant until 1983 when it was sold to Alf Spence who paid $7000 for the by now quite tired-looking machine.
Spence subsequently had DB5/2017/R restored and later in 1983 sold it to Ernest Hartz, a lawyer from San Francisco.
In 1984 the Aston Martin was sold at a Newport Beach collector car auction for $80,000. The buyer was racing driver and team owner, Dick Barbour, who a year later sold it to Robert Pass of Pass Transportation.
Five months later, Pass in turn sold the DB5 to Robert Littman who, when he discovered it was not the actual screen car used in Goldfinger or Thunderball, put it up for sale again.
By 1989, chassis DB5/2017/R was being stored at a Jaguar dealership in New Jersey which went into receivership. After disappearing for a short while, the car was subsequently sold to the Louwman Collection (the Dutch National Automobile Museum) in Raamadonksveer, Holland, where it has resided ever since.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Alf Spence
