The motoring world does not remember Aston Martin’s glorious past for the DB4… despite the fact that it was the first model built at the Buckinghamshire plant in the late 1950s. That distinction is reserved for his successor. This is the incredible story of the Aston Martin DB5.
TEST: Aston Martin DBS Superleggera
It was the year 1963 when the Aston Martin DB4 relay was conceived. A model that was even more elegant than its predecessor, however complicated this may seem. The silhouette was signed by the Italian bodybuilder Touring Superleggera body, who was in charge of putting the wrapping to that British engineering.
Bond, James Bond
The truth is that the DB5 was nothing more than an update to DB4: the engine became 4 liters instead of 3.7, it delivered 282 horsepower, it had a new 5-speed manual transmission, and it was obviously faster. Taking this into account, it is inevitable to ask the question: how did that Aston Martin become one of the most famous and beloved models of the British brand?
The answer is Bond, James Bond. One year after being introduced to the world, Aston Martin DB5 debuted on the big screen as if it were a movie star. John Stears, the film’s special effects director, convinced the British to let him have a unit: at that moment they could not guess that this car would share the limelight with Sean Connery himself, who at the time was in charge of giving life to the British secret agent created by Ian Fleming.
A role in six movies
His first appearance occurred in the film ‘Goldfinger’ of the saga and, in addition, two Aston Martin DB5s participated in the New York World’s Fair that year to promote the feature film. The combination of the two caused sales to skyrocket from then on. However, the idyll has just begun: since that debut, the British car has appeared in six more James Bond films.
Aston Martin’s decision to introduce the DB5 as a companion to the British Secret Intelligence Service agent created an image that has not been available to almost any other brand. And it is not a car that offers scandalous levels of power or stratospheric speeds, but its charm is unique. Aston Martin continued to release new versions of its DB line in subsequent years, but none of them came close to the character of the DB5.
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