"BMT 214A" lays claim to being "The most famous car in the world". For his third cinematic outing as James Bond, Sean Connery was equipped by the late Desmond Llewellyn (aka "Q") with this very special Aston Martin DB-5. It's first outing in "Goldfinger" was so popular that it made a return appearance in the follow-up movie "Thunderball". More recently, another DB-5 (although with a different registration) has been seen as the personal car of Pierce Brosnan in the latest series of 007 movies.
In "Goldfinger", Bond is sent to investigate the affairs of Auric Goldfinger, whom is suspected of trying to interfere with the world gold market. Early on in the film, Bond is introduced to his new car by the always grumpy Q, who always resents the way field agents take his ingenious devices away never to be returned ("007 never had any respect for government property"!). Q explains some of this extraordinary cars features which include, machine guns hidden behind the front indicators (they must have been extremely short machine guns!), revolving number plates valid in 3 countries, interior defense control panel, radar tracking device (which depended on Bond attaching a homing device to the target vehicle) and a rear bullet deflector shield. Also, the rear wheel spinners could move out from the hub to shred the tires of an enemies car. The "piece de resistance" of course remains the passenger ejector seat. Q explains that by pressing the red button located under a cover on the gear lever, a section of the roof blows off and the passenger seat is ejected. This prompts one of the most memorable "Q/Bond" exchanges when Connery exclaims "You're joking!" only for Q to reply deadpan "I never joke about my work 007".
In "Thunderball", we see the DB-5 again although in more of a supporting role. At the end of the now routinely spectacular opening sequence, Bond uses a jet pack to escape from an enemy chateau and hops into his waiting DB-5. Of course, it does not start straight away giving us an opportunity to see a previously unrevealed device. Rear water cannons stop the pursuing villains in their tracks and Bond drives off to the sounds of Tom Jones singing the title song.
Again my criticisms of this model are the same as those for the BRG DB-5 which is essentially the same model but with a different colour scheme. Also, unlike the smaller Corgi replica, this model does not have any of the hidden features of the Bond car, although AUTOart are due to release a version with weapons later in 2001. It also lacks the chrome bullet shaped wing mirrors of the Bond car, which is a shame, but they have now re-released this model with the mirrors. However, it looks terrific and is a must for any 007 fans who also like cars!
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