Aston Martin Made a Junior-Size DB5 Bond Car. Here’s What It’s Like to Drive.
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What do the Lotus Esprit, Ford Mustang Mach 1, BMW Z3, AMC Hornet, Toyota 2000GT, and the front half of a Renault 11 all have in common? The answer, of course, is that they are all Bond cars—driven on screen by agent 007 during a career that spans 27 movies and 61 years. One Bond car, however, stands hood-and-fenders above the rest. The Aston Martin DB5 has appeared in nine movies to date: more than Sean Connery, Roger Moore, or any other actor to have played MI6’s not-so-secret agent. It’s as integral to the Bond franchise as Q branch’s gadgets or corny one-liners.
Speaking of gadgets, Aston Martin recently jumped on the Bond bandwagon with the DB5 Goldfinger, a run of 25 continuation cars priced at $3.5 million each. Standard equipment includes revolving license plates, a rear smoke screen, battering rams, and replica machine guns—in case of ambush by agents of SPECTRE. And no, before you ask, it isn’t a street-legal car.
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The DB5 I’m driving today also pays homage to James Bond, but on a somewhat smaller scale—a 66 percent scale, to be exact. The DB5 Junior No Time To Die Edition is made by the Little Car Company, and licensed by Aston Martin and Eon Productions. With electric power and an arsenal of simulated weapons, it might be the ultimate toy for kids (or grown-ups) obsessed with the film franchise.
Actually, I’m not supposed to call it the “t” word. “We get slightly offended when people describe our vehicles as toys,” says Ben Hedley, CEO of the Little Car Company. “These are properly engineered little cars.” Based at Bicester Heritage, a beautifully preserved World War II airbase near Oxford, England, Hedley’s team has hand-built around 300 vehicles to date. Its model line is split between the Bugatti Baby II (a tribute to the French marque’s classic Type 35) and the Ferrari Testa Rossa J, technically the first EV with a Prancing Horse badge.
The diminutive DB5 is available in three guises. The stock DB5 Junior produces 7 hp and has a composite body. Upgrade to the Vantage version and output increases to 13 hp, with the bonded aluminum chassis now clothed in carbon fiber. Topping the range is the No Time To Die Edition, which musters a substantial 22 hp and comes with a full complement of Bond gadgets. Excluding taxes and delivery, it’s priced at around $115,000.
The car I’m piloting is finished in classic Silver Birch, although the paint palette is almost unlimited. “We’ve seen quite a variety of colors,” says Hedley, as we walk past another example in eye-popping orange. “A couple of our clients already own a DB5. We can match the paint, leather, and chassis number to their original car.”
Still, never mind such niceties, I’m desperate to play with the gadgets. The coolest of these are undoubtedly the pop-out guns hidden behind the headlights. Press a switch inside a secret panel and the lamps retract—“a fiendishly difficult piece of engineering,” admits Hedley—then two rotating mini guns take their place. Another button unleashes a volley of gunshot noises from the car’s external speaker.
At the rear, the DB5’s twin exhaust pipes have been repurposed as an outlet for the smoke screen. It’s the same cloudy, non-toxic gas used in banks or cash collection vans to deter a robbery. Spot one of Blofeld’s sinister henchmen in your mirrors and you can temporarily blind them to effect a clean getaway. You only live twice, after all.
In 1964, when the Aston Martin debuted in the film Goldfinger, it had rotating license plates. By the time of its last outing in the movie No Time To Die (2021), these had become switchable digital plates—and this version follows suit. “Chris Corbould, the special-effects expert on the Bond films, actually shared the software with us,” says Hedley. There’s also a hidden Easter egg: hold down the switch for seven seconds and the screen plays a Bond-style video starring the downsized DB5.
Like the DB5 Goldfinger, this car can’t legally be driven on the road, at least not in the U.K. However, in the U.S., which is the Little Car Company’s biggest market, accounting for around 40 percent of its sales, they can be made legal under Low-Speed Vehicle (LSV) rules. “If you live in a gated community, it’s a great alternative to a golf buggy,” says Hedley.
Luckily for me, Bicester Heritage has its own airfield circuit, with a back straight that easily will allow me to reach the top speed of 45 mph. The No Time To Die Edition is powered by four 1.8 kwh electric motors, and slowed down by drilled discs and calipers from a Ducati superbike. The suspension design is based on a DB5, but dynamics were benchmarked against a modern V8 Vantage. I’m told it likes to go sideways.
There’s plenty of space inside for an average-sized adult, plus authentic Connolly leather, a wood-rimmed steering wheel, white-on-black dials, and the same Smiths clock as the Aston Martin original. You have no gears or clutch pedal to worry about: like most electric cars, simply select Drive and whoosh silently away. As I weave through a chicane and onto the circuit, I can’t suppress a smile.
The DB5 has a “learner mode” for children, which limits it to 12 mph and a range of 50 yards from mom or dad with the key fob. But with the full 22 horses, and your butt inches from the tarmac, it certainly feels fast. Throttle response is immediate, the ever-ready electric torque catapulting you out of corners. The windshield offers some protection from bugs, but taller drivers will need to wear sunglasses.
What truly impresses, though, is how the DB5 handles. The Little Car Company employed Andy Wallace as its chief test driver. Wallace is best known for breaking the world production-car speed record in 1998 when he hit 240.1 mph in a McLaren F1. His expertise is immediately apparent. Rather than feeling like a glorified go-kart, the car displays real nuance and maturity when it comes to its handling.
If that sounds a bit serious (perhaps even pretentious), rest assured the No Time To Die Edition is still hilarious fun—and very willing to skid around and screech its tires like it would for a certain operative on his way to a dinner date. Hanging it out sideways with the faux guns blazing and smoke billowing from the back is a moment that will live in my memory: the closest I’ll get to being James Bond. It’s close enough.
Hedley’s next project is a reversal of his company’s usual approach: a little car made bigger. The Tamiya Wild One Max is an off-road buggy inspired by a radio-controlled racer from 1985, with long-travel suspension, Brembo brakes, and a digital dashboard. We’ll be driving it later this summer.
Click here for more photos of the Little Car Company’s DB5 Junior No Time To Die Edition.
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