James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 is for sale

While the '65 Aston DB5 is about as British as spotted dick, bad teeth and nymphomaniac spies — could you at least take them to dinner first, James!?! — its backstory is decidedly more international, starting in Italy. 

In the '50s and '60s nearly every major sports car was hand designed and built by small machine shops in and around Milan. Aston Martin's owner approached Carrozeria Touring, a tiny yet respected group of designers and machine workers who were pioneering a construction method known as Superleggera (pronounced Sup-er-lej-era), Italian for "super-light."

The Superleggera process mimicked techniques developed for the race track, stretching lightweight aluminum (the carbon fiber of its day) over rigid tubular frames. The result was an unparalleled power-to-weight ratio for the time, which undoubtedly caught the eye of a sprightly 007 in Goldfinger, the Bond flick that would introduce the Aston Martin name to the world. 

Continuing in the path of DB5's international pedigree, the inline-six engine was built by-and-named after a Polish engineer who had been developing engines for General Motors since the early '30s. He wedged 285 horses under the hood, a hefty chunk of power that could propel the masssive DB5 to 145 miles per hour.

Unlike how Bond would have left it, every detail (minus the ejector seat) has been meticulously maintained. This DB5 is the total package.