Sean Connery’s own ‘James Bond car’ sold for $2. 4 million – CNN
It was a 1964 Aston Martin DB5, just the sort of car that British secret agent James Bond drove in the 1960s films in which he has been played by Connery.
The Bond character has been played by a number of actors and has driven many different cars in the more than two dozen movies within the series. They’ve included everything from BMWs and Bentleys to Chevrolets and Fords. But the 1964 is still the particular best known “Bond car. ”
The particular one that will Connery first drove in the 1964 film “Goldfinger” was an Aston Matn DB5 replete with gadgets like machine guns, a good ejector seat and an oil slick maker. More than 50 years later, Connery purchased a 1964 DB5 for himself — though it lacked the movie car’s guns and devices — within 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, which incorporated fees to the auction company Broad Arrow, the car fetched a lot more than originally projected. The company had expected it in order to sell for between $1. 4 mil 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, according to the classic vehicle insurance and event organization Hagerty, which usually recently took full ownership of Wide Arrow.
DB5s directly associated with James Relationship films have people paid vastly greater than that. A gadget-filled DB5 that was used to promote the particular film’s original release sold for $6. four million within 2019 .
During his life, Connery had often told his children of his fond memories of driving the Aston Martin in films, their son Jason Connery said in a good 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 along 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 plus Connery sought out a car that had been in as near-perfect condition as possible. The car remains in very nearly that will condition, according to Ruprecht, with only some creases in the seat leather because evidence it has been sat within.
Once Connery purchased the vehicle, he experienced it repainted from black to Snow Shadow Gray, the color closest to that associated with the film car.
But after that work was done, there was little time left in order to actually drive it.
“Unfortunately as this individual got older, traveling, especially to Europe [became difficult] and then COVID hit plus…, ” stated Jason Connery. “You know, unfortunately, he or she never really got to enjoy the car that he’d bought. inch
The car was kept by Connery at his home in Switzerland, in accordance to Jerrika Connery. He was so fond of the car, he kept the photo of it on their desk.
The substantial portion of the proceeds from the sale will go to support the particular Connery Family Philanthropy Fund, according to the Wide Arrow Group. In addition to the vehicle itself, the winning bidder will receive a ride in the particular car from the famous retired Formula 1 racing driver Jackie Stewart.
Stewart, like Connery, is through Scotland, and the two had been longtime friends.
