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Aston Martin confirmed the addition of the DBS Superleggera for the next Bond film, No Time to Die. Bond car veterans the V8 Vantage and DB5 return, and the the Valhalla hybrid hypercar will also make an appearance.
James Bond is coming back and he’s bringing along some old friends. A video shot last June showed a chase scene being filmed in Norway. The star was an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, which appeared in the 1987 Bond film The Living Daylights. Aston Martin confirmed that the Vantage will star in the next Bond film, alongside the DB5 and new Valhalla hypercar. In October, the British automaker tweeted that the DBS Superleggera will also be featured in No Time to Die, set for release in April 2020.
The DBS Superleggera is based on the DB11 V12 and uses the same 5.2-liter twelve-cylinder engine, but here it’s been uprated to produce 715 horsepower and 663 pound-feet of torque. It is lighter and wider than the DB11 and sits at the top of the Aston Martin model range. The grand tourer is available in coupe and convertible (Volante) forms, and the official performance numbers claim a 0-60 mph run in 3.4 seconds on to a top speed of 211 mph. Prices start over $300,000.
A special edition designed by Bond himself was made available by Neiman Marcus. Daniel Craig put his own touches on this $700,007 DBS Superleggera, which is of course limited to seven units. Notice a theme here? Buyers also get a limited-edition Omega watch and two tickets to the No Time to Die world premiere.
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The Valhalla follows the more extreme Valkyrie in Aston Martin’s Viking quest. The Valhalla made its North American debut at Monterey Car Week in August 2019. This quells rumors of a cameo by the Rapide E, leaving 007 to make the more palatable leap to hybrid tech rather than electric. The mid-engined Valhalla uses a combination turbocharged V-6 engine and battery-electric hybrid system rumored to produce about 1,000 horsepower. Aston Martin will produce 500 examples of the coupe, which will sell for $1.5 million each.
007 fans should be thrilled at the return of the DB5, making its seventh appearance in a Bond film — even if it’s not the real thing. Prince Charles visited the Bond set at Pinewood Studios. On hand were the V8 Vantage and DB5. A video from 5 News shows Daniel Craig giving the Prince of Wales a tour of the cars. At one point the Bond actor can be overheard saying, “We’ve had five of these made,” gesturing towards the DB5. He taps the fender and declares it’s all made of carbon fiber.
Conversely, a real DB5 used to promote Thunderball fetched $6.385 million at an RM Sotheby’s auction in August. It was built to Goldfinger-spec, complete with functional spy gadgetry.
MI6 HQ and Norwegian media company Dagbladet posted photos and video of a brown Aston Martin V8 Vantage speeding down the Atlantic Ocean Road in Norway in last June. This 5.2-mile stretch of pavement is a cultural heritage site and a hot spot for car commercials. The V8 Vantage sported the same number plate as the car driven by Timothy Dalton’s Bond in The Living Daylights: B549 WUU.
007 fans should be thrilled at the return of the DB5, making its seventh appearance in a Bond film007 drove a drop top V8 Vantage at the beginning of The Living Daylights. This was actually a pre-production V8 Vantage Volante owned by Aston Martin chairman Victor Gauntlett. It was later “winterized” with a hard top by Q Branch.
We as the audience were made to believe that Bond was driving around in a convertible version of the Vantage. When Q added a top, we got a car that was never meant to exist — a hardtop Volante. But numerous sources such as Aston Martins.com report that the Q Branch coupes were actually plain Aston Martin V8s rebadged as Vantages.
Regardless of the story, the car in The Living Daylights had all the fun modifications we craved, including missiles, heads-up display, lasers, outriggers (metal skis that were also part of the winterization process), bulletproof glass, rockets, radio scanner, and tire spikes.
The latest trailer for the new Bond film shows the DB5, V8 Vantage, and the DBS Superleggera in action:
Aston Martin first made its 007 mark in Goldfinger (1964) with the stunning DB5. The car returned the following year in Thunderball with some more spy goodies. Bond drove an Aston Martin DBS in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Following The Living Daylights and its V8 Vantage, the DB5 came back in Goldeneye (1995). The V12 Vanquish was next in 2002’s Die Another Day.
Casino Royale heralded the introduction of the new DBS in 2006, with the classic DB5 getting its own guest appearance. A modified DB9 replaced the DBS for the famous stunt sequence in which the car flipped and rolled a record seven times. The DBS graced the big screen once more in 2008’s Quantum of Solace. 2012’s Skyfall saw the DB5’s sixth appearance.
Spectre was the last released Bond film (2015) and it got its own car. The DB10 was was based on the 2018 V8 Vantage and created specifically for the film. Just 10 cars were produced by a special in-house team at Aston Martin.
Craig returns to play Bond for a fifth time in the upcoming No Time to Die. He is the sixth actor to play the British superspy, following Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan. Cars have always carried star power in Bond films. Other manufacturers have lent their vehicles to 007, notably Lotus and BMW, but the Astons always made a comeback.
Update notes: Added information on Aston Martin’s official announcement that ‘No Time to Die’ will feature the DBS Superleggera in addition to the V8 Vantage, DB5, and Valhalla.
