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Christmas Wish: 1965 Aston Martin DB5

1965-aston-martin-DB5

We hope everyone got what they wanted for Christmas. I did… well, almost. Chasing Classic Cars on DVD was very nice, but boy would I have liked to have awakened to the sound of this sitting in my driveway. The guys at Gullwing are good at digging up this sort of machinery, but they don’t let it go cheap. They were feeling generous over Christmas though so their 1965 Aston Martin DB5 has had its $425k asking price dropped to $395k. Still not a bargain, but they do claim it is a survivor.

1965-aston-martin-DB5-rear

We will attempt to refrain from making any references to the movie franchise that made these cars famous. Gullwing may find some interesting stuff, but they are not good at writing descriptions for their cars. Four sentences for a car worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I guess you will want to hire an expert to take a look anyway when that sort of money is involved. They do claim that it is unrestored and that it has been in the hands of the same owner since the 80s. Sounds like our kind of car.

1965-aston-martin-DB5-seats

Silver over red is a great combination and adds some flair over the more common black interior. The nicely worn leather looks so amazing that it is hard to believe that this car has not been refreshed in 47 years. This cabin looks like it would be a nice place to stay over the winter. The shift knob is supposedly connected to a four speed gearbox, but we always thought Astons had five speeds by this time. Can anyone verify this?

1965-aston-martin-DB5-engine

We do know that this inline-six offered 4 liters and enough power to take this brute up to 145 mph. It was a great engine and with three SU carburetors fitted it produced 282 horsepower. Aston Martin may have been a British brand, but the engine was designed by a Polish guy by the name of Tadeusz Marek. He was responsible for many of their great engines including a V8 which was used from 1968 to 2000 without any major changes.

1965-aston-martin-DB5-grill

It is unlikely that we will ever be good enough to convince Big Red to bring us one of these, but it’s fun to dream. So, how was that new Bond flick anyway? Sorry, couldn’t resist…

Comments

  1. Avatar Graham Line

    I could certainly bond with that.

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  2. Avatar erikj

    I like that!!!!! simply said. James——— James Bond

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  3. Avatar kman

    Gotta wonder how much the ejector seat would cost. and, hey! shouldn’t you get porcenlanized headers at this price bracket instead of the rusty iron? Kman

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  4. Avatar Andacar

    These are undoubtedly very cool cars, but from what I hear they spend more time sitting in garages looking cool than anything else. Many years ago I knew a fellow who was restoring a DB4 very similar to this car. It had not moved in many years, and he told me that this engine was notorious for electrolysis erosion, where the metals of the block and the sleeve inserts would react with the coolant and begin to eat up the bottom of the cylinder. It also had Lucas electrics and SU carbs, the many and endless headaches of which he described in some detail. I got some firsthand experience with that when I had to keep a Volvo 122S running, which used SUs. I guess these cars are so expensive because of the 007 tie in 400k+ still seems like way too much for a car with problems like these.

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  5. Avatar davidp

    LOOKS LIKE CARPET HAS BEEN DYED. CAN SEE THE OVER SPAY ON SHIFTER BOOT. BUT SEATS ARE IN GREAT SHAPE. THATS BACK WHEN BUILDERS HAD PRIDE IN THEIR WORK.

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  6. Avatar scot c

    ~ this Christmas i only deserved a bundle of sticks and the traditional lump of coal, but i promise to remember this car and behave all year long… and not tell Dad about that mischief i saw between Santa and Mom.

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  7. Avatar Jeff

    A true classic and an inspiration to own to very few, Leno I’m not.

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  8. Avatar Jeff

    282HP in 65′ out of a 4L inline 6, not bad considering my 96′ XJR has 322HP (4L inline 6), but its supercharged. Its only 245 cubic inches.

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  9. Avatar paul

    I prefer mine shaken, not stirred, that said, I wouldn’t kick it out of bed, but someone else may have to slide over!

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  10. Avatar Graham Line

    SU carbs are not a problem when they are correctly set up and correctly lubricated. Pouring ATF into the pots is not ‘correctly lubricated.’

    Hint: if your expert doesn’t have the SU wrench on his ring of keys, he’s probably not an expert.

    Fortunately, I have never been troubled with the werewithal that would make a DB5 possible and yes, Astons seem to require periodic ‘restoration.’

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    • Avatar paul

      I owned a bunch of Brit cars back in the day, MGA,Midget, Bug Eye, Spitfire, TR4a etc & always used ATF in the carbs, I drove them very hard & really had very little trouble with any of them. So what was the correct fluid to go into SU’s?

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      • Avatar Dolphin Member

        @Paul
        Depends on whether you value better gas mileage, or better acceleration. If it’s gas mileage you can use SAE 30 motor oil. Back in the day when gas was 23 cents a gallon and we valued acceleration and didn’t care about mileage, it was 3-in-One oil or something of silimarly low viscosity. That allowed the dashpots to open up the intake passages more quickly.

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  11. Avatar Rancho Bella

    The great thing is it comes with a dent in the nose, left rear, right front and rusted exhaust manifold. I understand they don’t handle as good as they look.

    I of course, wouldn’t know, “since I am just a poor street erchin me lord”.

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  12. Avatar David de O

    According to my book on World Import cars the 1965 Aston Martin DB5 yes it suppose to have a 5speed transmission besides the front bumper isn’t matching as well since they had bumper guards. I wonder if that is a triple webber carb because that would make it the optional engine and give it 325hp.

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    • Avatar paul

      Nope those are not Webbers!

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  13. Avatar Dolphin Member

    Only a few little dents front & rear—the telltale signs of New Yorkers parking by ear. Sometimes in Queens you can’t give up any chance to park on the right side of the street to avoid a ticket when the street sweeper comes by early next morning.

    I still have a very nice handwritten note and color photo of a DB5 received from one of the small UK dealers in vintage cars back in the ’70s. Looks like it could have been this car years earlier when it was in better condition. Price: about 1% of this one.

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  14. Avatar Tricky Dickie Member

    OMG…….Just reading the words…” Lucas Electrics” caused me to tremble. Lucas Electrics……we all called it “The Prince of Darkness”

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  15. Avatar Charles Pospisil

    LUCAS electronics, they have taken a bad hit over the years because the Brits decided to to bring POSITIVE ground batt hook ups to the USA!! I wish I had a dollar for every backwards batt hookup or jumpstart that was done in the 50’s and 60’s!!! Aston Martins in a way like all other British cars are like an International Truck, you look around the car and you can ID so many parts that are in all other British cars. If it was there and fit there needs they used it, like an AH3000 OD relay is a RR window relay! By the way, was in Newport RI at the boat restoration society and found a MG engine in a small boat, what are the odds.

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  16. Avatar FRED

    NICE TO LOOK AT AND DRIVE BUT COULD NEVER AFFORD TO BUY AND UP KEEP ONE..

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  17. Avatar Boyd

    I live around 45 minutes from GullwingMotors and have often driven over to check out some of my favorite cars. Peter Kumar (the owner) has a real talent for digging up these barn finds ( and some of them actually look as though they have literally ‘Dug Up’. I feel it’s only fair to mention since I have been following him for years and one of my friends is a vintage car restorer and has purchased several cars from Gullwing and I can tell you that they sell their cars exactly as they find them. I seriously don’t even think they clean the cars when they get them. So if anyone is considering purchasing a car from them I strongly reccomend a personal inspection.

    Boyd

    Like 0

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