This car’s speciality is not based on merit, meaning that it has no racing pedigree, nor it had decade-defining performance. At face value it’s just a pretty 2+2 GT car, but beyond the surface this car has starred more than once alongside one of the most iconic fictional characters in movie history. The car in question is the Aston Martin DB5.

Before talking about the car, let’s firstly talk about the character James Bond AKA agent 007. Bond originally was the brain child of the late British Novelist Ian Fleming. Bond is a Special Forces agent that belongs on the Secret Intelligent Service called MI6, he goes on multiple missions to protect important individuals as well as preventing life threatening schemes from villains. He is portrayed as charismatic, peerless, suave and a womaniser. There had been more than a dozen movie adaptations that are based on the novel along with multiple actors, chief among which were Sean Connery (the most memorable James Bond) and Daniel Craig (the most recent James Bond). Bond on each mission uses new form of gadgetry that assists him on completing missions, the gadgets are made by his talented colleague and friend Q. Another tool Bond frequently uses is his trusty vehicle an Aston Martin.

The reason why Aston Martin is the standard vehicle for agent 007 stems from Ian Fleming’s encounter with the Aston Martin DB Mark 2/4 owned by an RAF veteran sir Ingram Cunlife. He started incorporating the later generation DB4 on his 7th novel Goldfinger, the movie adaptation version was the DB5, from that point on the rest was history.

The DB5 was the 5th generation of the DB series under the stewardship of late British Industrialist David Brown, hence each model having the letters “DB” representing his initials. Introduced in 1964, it’s more of an evolution of the DB4 with a different design, improved engine and better luxury features. The car’s external design was improved thanks to Carrozzeria Touring signature styling cues. The engine was enlarged from 3.6 litres to 4.0 litres inline six, power originally was 282HP/210KW while some performance variants were pushing 325HP/242KW. The genius behind these engines was Tadek Marek. The transmission was either a 5-speed manual or a 3-speed automatic. The car mainly came in two body styles, 2+2 GT coupe or 2+2 Convertible (Volante). The DB5 ended production in 1965, replaced by the larger DB6.

Now that you are familiar with the brief history of both the character and the car, here are two reasons why the Aston Martin DB5 is so special.

1. It started a life-long legacy for the brand.

As mentioned earlier that the DB5 made an onscreen appearance on the 1966 cult classic Goldfinger, the audience quickly fell in love with it. On its own It kick-started a lifetime legacy (or lifetime advertising if you want to be corporate) for Aston Martin, where the public in general perceived both the brand and fictional character as inseparable. However it was a slow progression for the public to catch on, but during the Pierce Brosnan era it became the established norm. Today if a new Bond film is about to be released, it’s impossible not to feature at least one Aston Martin. A perfect example is the 2015 film Spectre, where Aston Martin exclusively made the DB10 for the film. The DB10 was based on the outgoing 2014 V8 Vantage, only 10 were made 8 of which were used in the movie, 1 was sold on a private auction for $3.5 million, only 1 is left.

2. It became a movie Star

If you had to ask any Bond fan their favourite Bond car, there is a high chance that most of their answers would be the DB5. The DB5 has the priviledge to be placed on a special pedestal where it is no longer perceived as a 2+2 GT car from the 1960s but the quintessential Bond car. It is no longer a movie prop used to solidify the plot of the film, it’s more like a supporting cast for the film. To prove this statement, the DB5 made reoccurring appearances in a lot of Bond movies, chief among which were Casino Royale, Skyfall, Spectre, and the more recent No Time To Die. In the film No time to die, the DB5 driven by Bond himself had a lot of screentime where you get to see it in full action with all of its gadgets and weapons, some of them paying homage to the original Goldfinger film.

The DB5 in my opinion could be the most important car Aston Martin has ever made, not due to its performance merit, nor its motorsport accolades (or lack thereof). Its importance mostly stems from being immortalized in the pop culture zeitgeist.