Trio of Aston Martin DB5 Models for Sale

From wristwatches to cars, from vintage to faux retro-vintage, the James Bond franchise continues to entice and entrance when connected to products that we can actually buy. From Rolex and Omega to Aston Martin, the lure of James Bond shows no sign of dissipating any time soon. With that thought in mind, here we have a trio of rare Aston Martins to be put up for sale from 8 June.

The three vehicles come from the Vantage DB5 family, with the Vantage DB5 Coupe surely garnering the most obvious interest here with its Silver Birch paint job and leather interior straight out of a scene from 1964’s Goldfinger, the film that saw the debut of the heavily modified Aston Martin DB5 that would go on to star in a further two Bond movies, Thunderball and GoldenEye as well as featuring in several others. That Goldfinger DB5 was the work of special effects guru John Stears, having persuaded Aston Martin to allow him to use the DB5 prototype rather than use the Aston DB Mark III which was used in the original Ian Fleming book of the same name.

Equally as sleek and beautiful is the DB5 Convertible in a lovely summer-ready Caribbean Pearl paint job matched with a White-Gold interior. The DB5 Convertible was offered to the public for a brief period from 1963 until 1965. From 1965 a further convertible model saw production with the Volante ‘short chassis’ models. Not every sports car lends itself well to becoming a convertible – clearly the DB5 does.

The third model on offer is the Shooting Brake, a DB5 arguably – in equal proportions – the least visually desirable model while also being able to lay claim to being a rare model that many may not know even existed. The Sage Green estate DB5 was an idea concocted by Aston Martin Chairman David Brown as a vehicle that would be appropriate for his love of polo and his gundogs. The task of creating such a vehicle was given to Harold Radford & Sons, a London-based company that sold Rolls Royce and Bentley, before developing into coach builders during the latter part of the Second World War. While the company disappeared in 1966, it has very recently seen a rebirth under the Finest Coachbuilding Group.

This particular DB5 Estate with red leather interior is likely to be one of only eleven that were ever produced, with a further 10 or so DB5s being converted by Harold Radford & Sons following this original hand-crafted aluminium body version that we see here.

Despite having the moniker of an ‘estate’ the DB5 Shooting Brake is perfectly capable of achieving a 0-60mph time in a very respectable 6.5 seconds thanks to triple twin Weber carburettors. Incidentally, the unusual term of ‘Shooting Brake’ comes directly from the horse-drawn wagons from the late 1800s which were used to carry shooting parties. While the term has been used to describe estate cars since the 1930s, it’s now generally accepted that a Shooting Brake estate needs to have a bit more swagger than your average family estate car, and during the 1960s several other automotive manufacturers created Shooting Brake versions from their existing sports cars line-ups.

You wouldn’t expect such a trio of classic Aston Martins to be available at a knock-down price, so be prepared to stump up a cool £4 million to have this lovely set of DB5 models in your garage space. All three cars are being offered by classic car specialist Nicholas Mee & Co with full service histories and all in as-new condition. Starting on June 8 2021 and running for 3 days, the London Concours is the place to view before you buy. As a marker, a Shooting Brake DB5 sold in 2019 for a record price of £1.4 million. The same year, a silver John Stears modified Goldfinger Aston Martin DB5 sold for $6 million.

Images: autoexpress.co.uk