London:
An iconic part of movie history is to be auctioned on Wednesday as an original Aston Martin used by the character James Bond goes under the hammer in London.
The famous Silver Birch DB5 seen in
Goldfinger and
Thunderball is the only known surviving Aston Martin used in the films - the only other model used was stolen in 1997 and is believed to have been destroyed.
And it comes complete with 007 extras, after the car was kitted out for
Thunderball.
"There's a number of gadgets that still work," explained Max Girardo, managing director of European operation at RM Auctions, "of course the most famous one of them all is the revolving number plate, but there's also the bullet screen that comes up in the back.
The car and its gadgets were designed by special effects expert John Stears, who also worked on the films
Star Wars and
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
It was sold for 12,000 US dollars by the Aston Martin factory in 1969 to Bond fan Jerry Lee, who has owned it ever since. He is now selling to raise funds for his charity work through the non-profit The Jerry Lee Foundation, which focuses on crime prevention.
"It's been an incredible experience for 41 years owning this car," Lee said, admitting "I mean there's going to be a little tears I guess when the car is actually auctioned out but the amount I think I'm going to get for the car is going to put that in the background probably fairly rapidly"
The car is expected to fetch more than 3.5 million pounds sterling (5.54 million US dollars).
Also up for grabs at the auction is the
Goldfinger helicopter - as seen flown by Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore - and one of the eight green Jaguars used in
Die Another Day.