- Aston Martin and James Bond are a longtime pair, so naturally there’s a soon-to-be-legendary chase scene involving an Aston Martin DB5 in No Time to Die, the latest installment in the Bond movie franchise.
- Aston and the production company collaborated on eight replicas of the DB5 to use in filming.
- C/D was allowed a few laps in one at Silverstone, and we learned these replica DB5s were not some cobbled-together junk but superstar performers in their own right.
When emoting and brooding are needed, Daniel Craig portrays James Bond. But when Bond gets behind the wheel of a car, it’s Mark Higgins who becomes 007. Higgins, 48, with 47 rounds of World Rally Championship events under his helmet, has been Bond’s driving double since 2008’s Quantum of Solace. The latest, No Time to Die, out in April, is Higgins’s fourth Bond film. As usual, Higgins as Bond does things with an Aston Martin it shouldn’t or can’t possibly do.
“Bond is very dynamic,” Higgins explains. “It’s all about him getting through quickly, and that’s what he does in this.”
There are two main vehicular-chase set pieces in No Time to Die. There’s an off-road battle set in Scotland’s countryside that features lots of SUVs—including Land Rover’s new Defender—of which many are launched spectacularly skyward. (See the video clip at the bottom of this story.) Then there’s a chase through the medieval streets of Matera in southern Italy.
The Matera chase involves Jaguar XE sedans and Triumph motorcycles for the bad guys and the old DB5 for Bond. Only, the DB5 in this chase does things no DB5 could actually do. Like powerslides, donuts with Gatling guns poking out of the headlight buckets, and lurid drifts that go on for weeks. Since old DB5s are necessarily fragile, not that powerful, and sell at auction for spit-take prices, Aston and the production company had to come up with alternative plans.
They landed on using eight replicas of the DB5 for stunt work. Even up close, they’re almost indistinguishable from a true DB5. About the only visual clues to their unique construction are the super-shiny 3D-printed plastic grille and a couple of body seams, where there are fewer on the actual car. In fact many of the pieces on the replicas—such as the bumpers, door handles and badges—are DB5 replacement parts Aston keeps in inventory.
“It takes several pieces of carbon fiber to make up the body,” explains Mike Nurnberger, Aston Martin’s design director. According to Nurnberger, the carbon-fiber replica bodies were built using the same digital files that are being used to make the DB5 continuation cars stuffed full of Goldfinger-spec spy equipment.
“We scanned three cars,” Nurnberger says. “And we’d find all these oddities and discrepancies. Is this one the right one? Or this one? It’s almost too confusing.”
Because the replica DB5 bodies are products of the 21st century, they’re actually better than original in some respects. It’s not just that they’re much lighter, but the left and right sides of each body are actually symmetrical. On the production lines back in the 1960s, Astons would come off the assembly line subtly (or not so subtly) different from one another. So how much warm beer did Nigel drink at lunch?
Under each replica’s carbon-fiber body is a space frame engineered in Aston’s Q Advanced Operations division. Using a pair of control arms at all four corners, the all-independent suspension is significantly more advanced than that used in the original DB5, which uses a sold axle in the rear and front suspension geometry designed back when geometry was still something new.
What powers these lightweight, single-purpose sorta-DB5s? Despite intense interrogation, Aston won’t fess up. The automaker will only say it’s a naturally aspirated straight-six making “about 300 horsepower” sourced from a “third party.” Applying logic and an encyclopedia of straight-sixes, and after reading several cups of Earl Grey tea leaves, the engine must be BMW’s S54 3.2-liter six out of the 2001–2006 E46 edition of the M3. In other words, one of the best six-cylinder engines in the history of integers greater than five, but less than seven.
Since the replicas weren’t built for sale to the public or to be licensed to operate on public roads, they didn’t have to meet any government’s vehicle regulations. No airbags, no emissions equipment, no carpet, no sound insulation, and no GPS-based navigation systems. Instead, the interior is simply a beautifully welded roll cage, a single racing seat, a large wood steering wheel, and some bottom-hinged racing pedals.
Coca-Cola on Cobblestones
“We poured Coca-Cola on the ground to get some grip,” Higgins explains in his Manx accent. “The Coke seems to work better than anything. It was incredible how well it was working.” Keep that in mind the next time you want to drift on cobblestones.
“The terrain in Scotland was a bit of a challenge,” Higgins continues about the relative risk of the two chases. “But in terms of hitting something taking a wheel off, it was Matera. It was very narrow and very low grip. So there was more chance of writing a car off.” And there was no unplanned vehicular destruction. “This film went really, really well.”
Start up one of the DB5 replicas, and the sound has almost a cardiac defibrillation effect. This is a pure sound: a purr more than a growl. Excitement rather than menace. Thrilling instead of badass.
As coy as Aston has been about much of the stunt cars’ substance—no looking under the car, the hood stayed shut—we were allowed a few laps around a short course at Britain’s Silverstone circuit. Frankly, the stunt cars are better than they have any right to be. These aren’t cobbled-together junk; they’re lightweight (2200 pound) superstar performers that send a mechanical shudder of joy through the driver’s arms. And unlike many stunt cars, these have genuine manual transmissions with six forward cogs.
The Damage Isn’t Real, Either . . . Fortunately
Turns out most everything in the movies is faked. Who knew? The damage represented on the phony DB5s was often a plastic film with scars and scabs printed upon it. The guns that assaulted the cars weren’t firing real bullets but wax pellets that would hit the car and do no damage. The wax could be scraped off and the bullet hits added by some computer nerds after filming.
Aston Martin’s marketing program is tightly tied to Bond and its heritage with the character. The tiny company isn’t likely to buy a Super Bowl ad, but the appearance in the Bond films is high profile and lasts a long time. Goldfinger came out 56 years ago, and Aston is still leveraging that appearance.
No Time To Die is sort of a celebration of 007’s obsession with Aston Martin. In addition to the DB5 fakers, also appearing in the film is a 1987 V8 from the Timothy Dalton era of Bond movies, the current DBS, and a prototype of the upcoming mid-engine Valhalla supercar. For English sports-car fans, this one is an orgy.
“The chase in Matera might only be two or three minutes,” Higgins explains. “But we were out there for maybe seven weeks in total.” When the film opens in April, we’ll all know if those seven weeks paid off in something spectacular.
