When it comes to car collectors, James Bond is right up there with Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, and the Sultan of Brunei. Throughout 59 years of cinema history, 007 has not been short of luxury vehicles to ride across exciting car chase scenes, and naturally, No Time to Die was no exception to this rule.
However, with No Time to Die on the sidelines until October 8, James Bond fans will have to wait a bit more to see Daniel Craig use his 007 license to drive his fancy new Aston Martins one last time. This time around, Bond’s vehicles were the Aston Martin’s DB5, V8m, DBS Superleggera, and Valhalla models, all of which were supposed to be top-of-the-line exclusives by this time last year. However, the pandemic has since rendered 007’s gadgets in No Time to Die one year too old for blockbuster cinema.
For that reason, high-end car insurance company Hagerty decided to have a little fun with James Bond by compiling a study of just how many of 007’s older vehicles are still roaming the pavement in the United Kingdom and finding out just how much they’re worth. To many people’s surprise, Bond’s rarest and most expensive mode of transportation isn’t one of his European sports cars. Instead, it’s the 1967 Toyota 2000GT seen in the Japan-themed You Only Live Twice starring original Bond actor Sean Connery. Said vehicle was modified into a convertible to allow for the 6’2” actor to actually fit inside the car and is currently being valued at around £700,000 ($972,020).
Despite all that, two of Daniel Craig’s modern Aston Martin supercars are actually considered to be the most valuable overall: the 2015 Spectre, which was a custom build for the movie of the same title; and No Time to Die’s Valhalla, both of which simply aren’t registered to any owners in the UK. On the opposite end, there are around 5,700 Triumph Stags like the one from Diamonds Are Forever with a market price of around $28,000, followed closely by Dr. No’s cute Sunbeam Alpine, of which there 1,292 samples in the UK that tend to go for about $9,500.
Since this is no Forza Horizon ranking, taking a closer look at the list reveals that Bond's Aston Martins tend to grab collectors' attention, as it is the brand that is most closely associated with 007 after all. The exceptions standing out from the top 10 are 007’s BMW Z8 from The World is Not Enough and the oldest car on the list comes from one of Bond's finest films, From Russia With Love, that being the 1935 Bentley Park Ward British classic, which apparently no one in the UK owns.
The lesson here would appear to be that wealthy James Bond fans are better off purchasing one of Bond’s Aston Martins over any other car. After all, Bond's relationship with Aston Martin looks to be more established than his timepiece preferences, considering 007 ditched his trusty Rolex Submariner for an Omega Seamaster in 1995 when Pierce Brosnan took over the role of Bond.
No Time to Die is scheduled to be released in theaters on 8 October 2021.
Source: hagerty.co.uk