by zteve t evans

Created on: August 27, 2009

One of the Worlds Smallest Car Makers

Aston Martin are rightly world renowned for their high quality, high performance, motor cars. In 1963, Aston Martin were hand-making around 200 cars a year. One of the world's smallest car makers they concentrated on satisfying a demand for expensive, exclusive, touring sports cars for the super rich jet set.

The Bondmobile

It was certainly iconic of the swinging '60s, roaring into public consciousness in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger. It played a principle role in the film's success becoming almost as synonymous with the Bond film as James Connery. It could also be said that the film was the essential event that made it arguably the most famous car in the world.

Stunning in elegance, with awesome hidden power, desirable to the extreme, with an air of intrigue and danger, the DB5 was a tangible expression of the personality of James Bond. It also appeared in Casino Royale, Tomorrow Never Dies, Thunderball, and GoldenEye.

Sir David Brown

The DB comes from the initials of Sir David Brown who headed Aston Martin between 1947 and 1972. In it's the day the DB5 was considered to be stylish to the extreme. Recessed headlights, sloping bodylines, stylish roof and slim tail lamps gave a sleek, streamlined look that was definitive, and many believe the outstanding British car of its era.

High Performance

Launched in 1963, the DB5 replaced the DB4 which it was developed from and made available as a sports saloon, or convertible. The DB4 was lighter than the DB5 which was longer and also heavier than its predecessor but the DB5 was given a 4 litre double overhead engine producing 282 bhp. Having a top speed of 142 mph and could reach 60 mph 7.1 seconds.

Aston Martin also produced a high performance Vantage version of the DB5 with a power out put of 325 bhp. The early models were had a 4 speed gearbox, and had an option of 3 speed automatic, or a 5 speed ZF manual unit.

On all DB5's the five speed gearbox became the standard and Aston Martin improved the DB5 over the DB4 by adding a better exhaust system, provided and alternator instead of a dynamo. A more detailed technical specification can be found on their Aston Martin Heritage DB5 web page.

All models had 2 door and four seats and rather than machine guns bullet proof windscreens, the DB5 came with pile carpets, reclining seats, a fire extinguisher, electric windows, as standard and an option of air conditioning was available.

Price

In December 1963 the price for the Aston Martin DB5 sports saloon coupe was 4,175, with the convertible priced at 4,490. In 1965 after producing around one thousand DB5 models, Aston Martin replaced it with the DB6.

References

http://www.astonmartin.com/eng/heritage/heritagecars /db5anddb5convertible

http://www.gbclassiccars.co.uk/aston_martin_db5.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_James_Bond_vehi cles

Learn more about this author, zteve t evans.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.