The problem with the Aston Martin DB5
06/05/2016
Perhaps the most famous movie car is the Aston Martin DB5 that James Bond (alias Sean Connery) drove in the film "Goldfinger". And its most spectacular piece of equipment was probably the ejector seat. It actually worked, as Bill Woodhouse, who ran Aston Martin's service department at the time, told me recently.
Bill often had to drive the car to presentations and events and the red button at the end of the gearshift had a magical effect on passengers. But there was a problem, at least with the car at the time. The sunroof had to be opened by hand! Of course, in typical British weather, it was usually closed. Operating the ejector seat, which worked with compressed air, would have thrown the passenger against the roof and probably broken his neck. Bill therefore took great care to ensure that no one fiddled with this button.
One evening on a return trip, he was stopped by police officers who asked him which license plate he wanted to choose. The rotating license plate had not clicked into place properly and was somewhere between the Swiss and British registration. But of course the policemen actually wanted to take a closer look at the movie car ...
