World

Bond car sells for £2.6m at auction

15:18 pm on 28 October 2010

The silver Aston Martin car that embodied the glamour of the James Bond films has been sold for £2.6 million at an auction in London.

The car was driven by the first screen Bond, Sean Connery, in Goldfinger and Thunderball.

It was bought by American Jerry Lee for just $US12,000 in 1969. Its new owner is a collector based in Ohio.

The 1964 Aston Martin DB5 boasts revolving licence plates, ejector seat and bullet-proof shield, and is still capable of reaching 233 km/h in 7.1 seconds, the BBC reports.

The car is said to be in excellent condition and, as well as its other spy accessories, contains an early version of the modern-day satellite navigation system.

It is the only surviving example of two Aston Martins used in the early Bond films, after the other was reported stolen in 1997.

Bond's creator Ian Fleming had originally envisaged the British spy in a Bentley, but the Aston Martin was preferred by film-makers for its combination of Italian design and British engineering, analysts say.