The Aston Martin DB5, released in 1963, was a slight upgrade from the DB4 which preceded it. It is most famous for being the first and most recognised James Bond car, seen in Goldfinger, Thunderball, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and the most recent Bond film Casino Royale.

The major difference between the DB4 and DB5 is the engine — the DB5's was enlarged from 3.7 L to 4.0 L. Another addition was the 5-speed transmission option. The standard engine, with three SU carburettors, produced 282 hp (210 kW), propelling the car to 141 mph (238 km/h).

A very unusual DB5 was the "shooting brake" station wagon, a dozen of which were produced by independent coachbuilder, Harold Radford. A design flaw with the station wagon was that there was no change to the rear suspension. Drivers of the shooting brake would find this out when the load in the rear shifted at high speed in a corner with a resultant loss of control.

Specifications

• Weight: 1565 kg (3450 lb)
• Engine: 4.0 L (3995 cc/243 in³) straight-6
• Power: 282 hp (210 kW) at 5500 rpm
• Torque — 390 N•m (288 ft•lbf) at 3850 rpm
• Top Speed: 230 km/h (143 mph)
• 0-60 mph (97 km/h) Acceleration: 8.1 s

DB5 Vantage

The high-performance DB5 Vantage featured three Weber carburettors. This engine produced 314 hp (234 kW). Only 65 DB5 Vantage coupes were built.

DB5 Convertible

Just 123 convertible DB5s were produced, though they never used the typical "Volante" name. The convertible was offered from 1963 through to 1965. Only 19 of the 123 DB5 Convertibles made were LHD.

James Bond's DB5

The Aston Martin DB5 is the most famous Aston Martin car due to its use by James Bond in Goldfinger (1964). Although Ian Fleming had placed Bond in a DB Mark III in the novel, the DB5 was the company's newest model when the film was being made. The car used in the film was the original DB5 prototype, with another standard car used for stunts. Two more modified cars were built for publicity tours after the film's release. In January 2006, one of those cars was auctioned in Arizona for US$2,090,000. The same car was originally bought in 1970 for £5,000 from the owner, Sir Anthony Bamford, by a Tennessee museum owner. [1] The other car is located in the Netherlands in the Louwman Collection Museum.

When the movie came out in Asia, especially India, the car's name was incorrectly communicated as "DB2E3". The wrong name was reinforced when the replica of the car from the movie went on tour. The DB5 was unintentionally thought of as a version of the earlier DB2 and hence was known by the moniker DB2E3. While many think that "E" refers to Edition, it actually refers to the chassis model as part of the chassis naming system that automakers once used. As time passed, DB2E3 became an established reference, at least in India and parts of Asia, as a synonym for a DB5. Today, most car enthusiasts will not recognize the model DB2E3, instead preferring the official name of DB5.

Within the universe of James Bond, the same car was used again in the following film, Thunderball (registration BMT 216A). A different Aston Martin DB5 (registration BMT 214A) was used in the 1995 Bond film, GoldenEye in which three different DB5s were used for filming. The BMT 214A also returned in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and was set to make a cameo at Castle Thane in The World Is Not Enough (1999), but the scene was cut. Yet another DB5 appeared in "Casino Royale" (2006), this one with the steering wheel on the left side versus the previous British versions.

For Goldfinger, the car featured a number of "optional extras", as Q reveals to Bond:

• Front firing Browning .30 caliber machine guns behind the front indicators
• Retractable blades in the tire spinners
• Rising bullet-proof rear screen
• Radio telephone
• Radar scanner and tracking screen
• Passenger ejector seat
• Oil slick spray from rear light cluster
• Caltrops from rear light cluster
• Smoke screen from exhaust pipes
• Revolving number plates — "BMT 216A" UK, "4711-EA-62" France, and "LU 6789" Switzerland
• Front and rear extending rams
• Gun cabinet under driver's seat
• Bullet-proof windshield and rear windscreen

A rear water cannon was added for Thunderball.

The first DB5 prototype used in Goldfinger with the chassis number DP/216/1 was later stripped of its weaponry and gadgetry by Aston Martin and then resold. It was then retrofitted by subsequent owners with nonoriginal weaponry. The Chassis DP/216/1 DB5 was stolen in 1997 from its last owner in Florida and is currently still missing.