Ever since Goldfinger was released in 1964, Britain’s super spy James Bond has driven five models of the Astonishing Martin through 11 blockbusters. So no surprises then that when the Bond movie Spectre (worldwide release on November 6) was announced on December 14, 2014 (during the 50th year of the Bond-Aston Martin Partnership), fans were left expecting astounding. What they got phenomenal.
In Spectre, James Bond drives an all new Aston Martin DB-10, a limited model of a 10 car production run. The car eventually be commercially available as the DB-12 in 2016, but the one design specifically for Bond (the DB-10) was used only for filming Spectre. The DB-10 was therefore unveiled by Andy Palmer, CEO, Aston Martin, not as a car but as a full-fledged cast member of Spectre.
At first glance, the DB-10 looks as a classic product from the Aston Martin stable. It is a a bespoke sports coupe, oozing charisma, personality and Bond oomph, and has been designed by Martin Reichman, Aston Martin’s Chief Creative Officer and Studio Head, who has a long history of award winning designs, including the Vantage and Vanquish, under his belt. All car in production are hand-built and loaded with standard Aston Martin creature comfort (and who knows what other gadgetry once the Q-Branch of MI-6 get their hands on it).
Under the hood, the DB-10 has sound fundamental based on Aston Martin’s Vertical/Horizontal Platform , which makes generous use of carbon fiber thus lowering the car’s weight and aiding acceleration and performance. Power comes from spritely Mercedes AMG 5.5/6.0 litre V-8, bi-turbo engines that are mated to a six-speed manual transmission.
All this precision engineering will hopefully hold Bond in good stead while saving the day in Spectre. However, knowing Benz’s history with his previous cars, Palmer had a word of warning at the unveiling of the 10-car production run: ”Here’s hoping Bond doesn’t wreck them all.”
By Tariq Ziad Khan