‘ If I mess up my
stunt, then that’s
a £20,000 shot
gone down the
drain. Everyone
has to do their bit’The roof-mounted
pod on the DB5 allows
stuntman Mark Higgins
to drive via an
extended steering rack>> Aston’s svelte coupé (also wearing an Italian suit – it was
designed by Milanese coachbuilder Touring) first appeared
in 1964’s Goldfinger, then again in the following year’s
Thunderball. It has defied the odds and 56 years of tech-
nological development to become not just the Bond car,
but also the most famous car in the world. Sure, there were
cameo appearances in other Bond films, but No Time To Die’s
director, Cary Fukunaga, insisted on having the DB5 back
in pole position.
It’s not alone: fellow double-O agent Nomi, played by
Lashana Lynch, gets a shiny, new DBS Superleggera; Bond
dusts off another classic, the Aston Martin V8, last seen
in 1987’s under-appreciated The Living Daylights, and the
still-under-development Valhalla supercar has a brief scene.Meanwhile, the all-new Land Rover
Defender features in an epic chase set in
Norway, which, Morrison tells me, is the
toughest ever devised for a Bond film.
“These sequences are story-driven,” he
says. “The Norway chase is pivotal for
Bond.” Elsewhere is a retinue of Jaguar
XFs, an I-Pace and a handful of Range
Rover Sport SVRs, several of which get
absolutely trashed. In all, Jaguar Land
Rover supplied 44 cars.
But it’s the DB5 that provides the
automotive through line and really
raises the heart rate. The one in the
film is even more special than it looks.
Well, I say “one”. Through an archway
on Doughnut Square and past a trestle
table the film’s armourers have covered
with a load of semiautomatic rifles, we
find six of the eight DB5s that have
been constructed for the film by AstonMartin, in collaboration with long-
standing Bond special effects supervisor
Chris Corbould and his car specialist,
Neil Layton. They look identical to the
original but use a bespoke chassis, are
clothed in carbon-fibre body panels
and are powered by a contemporary
six-cylinder engine good for 360bhp.
They were all shaken down by endur-
ance racing driver Darren Turner before
being sent into duty.
Engineers often talk about fitness
for purpose; rarely has this been more
apposite. Each of the octet has beenNo Time To Die’slicence to thrill
In Daniel Craig’s final outing as 007, at the cast’s
service is an impressive lineup of heritage
and state-of-the-art vehicles, six of which include... Aston Martin DB5 Aston Martin V804-20CarsBond_3432424.indd 94 04/02/2020 18:28
104 GQ.CO.UK APRIL 2020