A picture can fool anyone. The above image is of 1963 Aston Martin DB5 coupes being manufactured. But this is not a shot from 1963 or 1964. It’s a recent image shot at the Aston Martin workshop in Newport Pagnell, England. As amazing as you can imagine Aston Martin is building 25 “continuation series” DB5s. These are brand new cars. They do not start with a donor car. 

What’s even more amazing is that they are a copy of the DB5 used in the James Bond movie Goldfinger. Each DB5 is built from scratch. Though most of the components and methods of assembly are just like 1963 there have been a few exceptions. Then there are the working movie gadgets.

Jame Bond’s smokescreen delivery system, oil slick delivery system, and revolving license plate are all accounted for

Things that are seen in the Goldfinger movie like the rear smoke screen delivery system, oil slick delivery system, and revolving license plate are all accounted for. They will even come with the twin machine guns behind each headlight. They’re fake, but they’re there just like in the movie. For a bit more Aston Martin will add a hatch above the passenger seat to make passengers be a bit kinder. 

The bodies are all aluminum just like the originals. Under the aluminum hood resides a 4.0-liter straight-six engine with three SU carbs. A five-speed manual transmission shifts the gears to spin the mechanical limited-slip differential. Combined with the manual rack-and-pinion steering this will run, handle, accelerate, and smell like an original Aston Martin DB5.

Inside it is the same program. Everything from an integrated telephone in the driver’s door to a radar screen map tracker and a tray under the seats to store weapons is all there. Buttons to engage some of these movie features are found in the armrest like the original movie car.

The Goldfinger DB5 is not cheap at 4,500 man-hours to create

As one can imagine the price is not cheap. Nothing is cheap that takes 4,500 man-hours to create. That averages out to about six months each. So a continuation series DB5 will cost $3.3 million at current exchange rates. Aston Martin is finishing up the first ones right now. 

The first finished DB5s were set to debut when the next James Bond movie was released. With the COVID-19 pandemic shuttering manufacturing facilities not to mention movie theaters we’ll have to wait and see when it will be released. 

The original Goldfinger movie car sold for $6.4 million

Just last year the original movie car sold for $6.4 million. So a similar DB5 at about half the price seems like a bargain. The only thing is that it is not street-legal. Knowing that we wonder what the appeal will be for what is essentially a $3.3 million door stop?

Regardless of the practicality, we must say that the images of these continuation cars being assembled are quite amazing. Could you imagine Porsche building a new 1969 911 coupe? Or 1963 Jag XKE? Miura? Testa Rossa? 

Bentley is making 12 1929 Team Blower models too. Maybe this continuation series idea will sweep through the brands that have something worth bringing back. Ferrari GTOs maybe?