Sean Connery’s James Bond car sells for AED8 million

Los Angeles: A silver Aston Martin DB5 that had been owned by actor Sean Connery was sold at an auction for $2.4 million (AED8m).

It was a 1964 Aston Martin DB5, just the type of car that British secret agent James Bond drove in the 1960s films played by Connery.

The Bond character has been played by several actors who’ve driven many different cars in the more than two dozen films in the series, but the 1964 Aston Martin is still the best-known “Bond car.” The one that Connery first drove in the 1964 film “Goldfinger” was an Aston Martin DB5 replete with gadgets like machine guns, an ejector seat and an oil slick maker. Almost 50 years later, Connery purchased a 1964 DB5 for himself, though it lacked the movie car’s guns and gadgets, in early 2018.

Connery died almost two years later at the age of 90. It was only DB5 he ever actually owned. At $2.4 million (AED8m), which included fees to the auction company Broad Arrow, the car fetched more than originally projected. The company had expected it to sell for between $1.4 million and $1.8 million at its collector car auction in Monterey, California. The buyer was not named. The auction is one of a number of collector car sales during Monterey Car Week, an annual series of classic car events on California’s Monterey Peninsula.

A 1964 Aston Martin DB5 in this car’s pristine condition would typically be worth about $1 million, as per the classic car insurance and event company Hagerty, which recently took full ownership of Broad Arrow.

During his life, Connery had often told his children of his fond memories of driving the Aston Martin in films, his son Jason Connery said in an interview. When they were grown they suggested to their father that he buy one, but he was resistant to the idea. “He’d say, ‘I don’t want to because it feels a bit obvious, you know, with me,'” Jason Connery said. “I said, ‘But forget it, it’s not about that.'”

Barney Ruprecht, an Aston Martin specialist with Broad Arrow who had also consulted with Connery on making the purchase, advised Connery against getting a car in need of restoration since the work would probably take a couple of years, he said. Instead, he and Connery sought out a car that was in as near-perfect condition as possible. The car remains in very nearly that condition, according to Ruprecht, with only some creases in the seat leather as evidence it has been sat in.

Source: Agencies James Bond Car Auction James Bond Car Auction