Spoiler ahead, mind your eyes!
If you have been to watch Skyfall recently you may have left the cinema asking the question did they really blow up that DB5?
Fear not! There were actually a number of Aston DB5s involved in the production of Skyfall. One was from the archive library of Albert R. Broccoli's Eon Productions, the 51-year-old company that owns the Bond franchise. That car was cloned from the original, which belongs to a private collector, in order to provide a body double for filming. Directors in the Aston Martin heritage program had searched extensively to find the perfect vehicle for the movie, and they transformed the one they found from green with a beige interior into a Silver-Birch painted car with black trim distressed to add the patina of age.
To save money and preserve such a classic automobile the team built three models using a 3D printer. A company called Voxeljet managed to create three highly detailed, 1:3 scale models of Bonds 1960 Aston Martin DB5.
As well as the 3D models, we believe they also created a mocked up DB5 for the main explosion scene made using a Porche 928 dressed up to look like a DB5. When the Skyfall production team approached Aston Workshop back in 2011 searching for parts, we were more than happy to help, providing them with DB5 main front body panels, rear quarter panels, bonnet, grill and head lamps.
As a rough guide, one of the DB5s used in Goldfinger sold for 2.9 million at auction in 2010 so as you can imagine, they werent overly keen on blowing up the real DB5. We think they did a really impressive job - top marks for accuracy!
