James Bond’s 1964 Aston Martin DB5.

    What’s the most famous car in the world?
    Now there’s a question to set off a hot debate.
    I think we can agree it would have to be a car millions of people have seen – so that would make it something viewed around the world on movie or TV screens.
    Well then, how about Herbie the Love Bug from the series of Disney flicks about the lovable VW starting in 1968? Or maybe the gull-wing DeLorean from Michael J. Fox’s Back to the Future trilogy from the 1980s? That’s probably the one that would get my vote, although Steve McQueen fans might opt for the green Mustang GT the actor drove in his 1968 movie, Bullitt.
    From TV there’s General Lee, the 1969 Dodge Charger featured on The Dukes of Hazzard. A good case can be made for the Batmobile, of both TV and movie fame, not to mention comic books.
    And from real life there’s the Lincoln limousine in which U.S. President John Kennedy was riding when he was assassinated in Dallas in 1962.
    However, RM Auctions says it’s none of those. The Canadian company, based in Blenheim, Ont., calls the silver 1964 Aston Martin DB5 driven by Sean Connery in the James Bond films Goldfinger and Thunderball “the world’s most famous car.” In association with Sotheby’s, it will be offered for the first time at RM’s annual Automobiles of London sale on Oct. 27, where it is expected to bring in excess of $5 million.
    The DB5 is chassis No. 1486/R and comes with all of “Q’s” gizmos (actually the work of Oscar winner John Stears of Eon Productions at Pinewood Studios): fake machine guns, bullet-proof shield, revolving licence plates, ejector seat, oil slick sprayer, tire-shredding spinners and smoke screen – all controlled from factory-installed switches hidden under the centre armrest.
    During filming of Goldfinger, chassis No. 1486/R was called the “Road Car” and is the one seen onscreen when Connery is at the wheel. It didn’t acquire all of the gadgets until the filming of Thunderball.
A second DB5, known as the Goldfinger “Effects Car,” because it had all the gadgets, was stolen from a private collection in Florida in 1997. It was never recovered and an insurance settlement in excess of $4 million reportedly was made.
    Aston Martin built two more modified DB5s for publicity tours before Thunderball’s 1966 theatrical release. One of those DB5s was on display at the Smoky Mountain Car Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tenn, for 35 years before it was sold at an RM in Arizona for $2,090,000 in January, 2006.
    That’s considerably more than the $12,000 paid by Philadelphia broadcaster Jerry Lee, owner of the “Road Car” for the past 41 years. It was only on loan to Eon Productions, and after the films were shot was returned to Aston Martin, which sold it to Lee in 1969.
    The car has a DOHC 4.0-litre engine coupled to a 5-speed manual transmission and produces 282 hp at 6,000 rpm. Befitting a “Road Car,” it has undergone a careful re-commissioning by RM’s restoration shop which returned it to running condition after years of static display in Lee’s home.
    Proceeds of the RM sale will go to the Jerry Lee Foundation, dedicated to solving social problems associated with poverty, with an emphasis on crime prevention. The foundation is responsible for the establishment of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology, for which Lee received a Swedish knighthood in 2008.
    And RM’s pre-auction estimate of $5 million may prove to be low. Bloomberg News has reported that if both Aston Martin and James Bond fans get in a bidding war it could fetch up to $10 million.

Write to Glen at glenwoodcok@canoemail.com