Welcome Back: 1964 Aston Martin DB5 Vantage

The best Bond car is always the one that started it all. It remains one of the all time Bond car greats; the Aston Martin DB5.

Alpine escape

This car is famed for being the first ever James Bond car when it was first appeared in the Bond movie, Goldfinger. The DB naming was named in honor of David Brown, the head of Aston Martin from 1947 to 1972.

The DB5 served as the replacement for the DB4 and unlike the DB4, the all-aluminium 6-cylinder engine was enlarged from 3.7 L to 4.0 L as well as adding three SU carburetors, generating 282 bhp (210 kW) of power and a top speed of 145 mph (233 km/h). It was mated with a ZF five-speed transmission (except for some of the very first DB5s).

This car was produced from 1963 to 1965, with a total of 1,023 produced (123 convertible DB5s were produced). There was a shooting brake DB5 made by independent coachbuilder, Harold Radford, via modifiying 11 or 12 DB5 coupes.

This car was featured in Top Gear Season 6 Episode 5 and it was driven by Jeremy Clarkson alongside the immaculate Jaguar E-Type. In the drag race portion, both the DB5 and the E-Type were lost to a Honda sedan. When handed to The Stig, the DB5 did it in 1:46.0.