TRANSPORT

Bond's Trusty Sidekick Gets a Makeover

The latest Bond film continues a legacy of showcasing cutting edge Aston Martins' – this time in an all aluminium clad beauty.
November 18, 2015
Since the first James Bond film captivated moviegoers in 1962, Britain's most famous spy and the 24 films portraying his adventures have gone through many casting changes.
From Sean Connery to Daniel Craig, some of Hollywood's biggest names have featured as (or against) 007 over the past five decades.

MI6's most stunning assets, however, have always been Bond's trusty Aston Martins, a staple of the series since Q introduced a specially modified DB5 (complete with passenger ejector seat) in 1964's Goldfinger. 21 movies and countless totaled cars later, Aston Martin is giving its signature sports car an aluminium makeover.
Aston Martin DB5 by Wikimedia Commons
Like the rest of the technology in the James Bond franchise, the Aston Martins shown on screen have kept up with the times. The latest entry in the series, Spectre, features a special-made Aston Martin DB10 built exclusively for the film. Only ten were produced; two were archived and the rest used for filming, most memorably for a car chase through the streets of Rome and along the banks of the Tiber.
Aston Martin DB10 was exclusively made for 007: Spectre
Although the DB10 may not available to the public, Bond's latest car closely parallels the forthcoming Aston Martin DB11, which will feature an updated version of the company's lightweight aluminium architecture and new engines from Mercedes-AMG. As a small-scale manufacturer, the company has long depended on aluminium to keep its tooling costs affordable.
Aston Martin is not the only iconic British car manufacturer to embrace aluminium as a way to make production more sustainable. Jaguar Land Rover has made a point of using recycled aluminium in its vehicles as part of the REAL CAR (Recycled Aluminium Car) initiative, both to make its manufacturing process more environmentally friendly and to minimize the impact of price fluctuations.

The coming years will see Aston Martin transform not only its entire range of models but also its scale and global presence, and the new DB11 will be central to that success.

Andy Palmer
CEO of Aston Martin
To that end, the company developed RC 5754, a new aluminium alloy which it used to make the most fuel-efficient Jaguar in history - the Jaguar XE, which gets as many as 75 miles per gallon (mpg).

The aluminium-intensive new Jaguars come in addition to the company's all-aluminium models, the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. By relying on recycled aluminium, Jaguar Land Rover is using 95% less energy and creating cars with a lighter emissions footprint. No surprise, then, that Aston Martin is following suit