A former tractor driver in North Wales has finally restored his Bond-style Aston Martin DB5, fifty years after buying it for just £900.
For many Bond fans, the sight of a silver Aston Martin DB5 is enough to summon the hum of John Barry’s music and the click of a concealed ejector seat. For John Williams, it’s something much more personal: the fulfilment of a promise made to himself as a teenager, when he first fell in love with the car not on screen but in toy form.
At 19, Williams was working as a tractor driver and road gritter when he saved enough to buy the real thing. Not just any Aston Martin, but a 1964 DB5 Vantage—an ultra-rare version of the model made famous by Goldfinger. Williams’ car shared the same Silver Birch paintwork as the car driven by Sean Connery’s 007.
Without a garage or the funds to maintain it, the car was left on the driveway for decades, succumbing to the elements and the neighbourhood children. “One was jumping on the roof thinking, ‘Does it work?’” his wife Sue recalled. “They thought it was going to come up,” she said, referencing the ejector seat. Others broke the exhaust. “But it was tatty anyway,” she added.
Still, the car never left their lives—and eventually, after saving up, the couple entrusted the restoration to Aston Martin Works. The job took four years. One technician even joked that “the Titanic was probably in better condition” when it arrived.
But the result is extraordinary: a gleaming, factory-correct Silver Birch Vantage DB5, lovingly brought back to life by the official restoration division of Aston Martin. Paul Spires, president of Aston Martin Works, called it “a bit of a unicorn”, adding that the car’s provenance and the Williams family’s dedication made it all the more special. “It ticks the box for so many owners,” he said. “It’s a Vantage, which is super rare. It’s Silver Birch, the Bond colour.”
Estimates put the car’s current value at close to £1 million—but Williams has no plans to part with it just yet. “The experience is phenomenal,” he said. “It’s just, well, it’s unbelievable. My girl’s back and up and running.”
