Rarely do you come across a restoration story that feels as special as this one. Many people admire the Aston Martin DB5 from afar, mostly because of the James Bond (Sean Connery) 007 connection, and few spend 50 years holding one through early adulthood, career changes, and decades of everyday life passing by.
John Williams did just that, and in the early 1970s he decided he wanted a DB5. In 1973 he saw one in Motorsport magazine; a 1965 DB5 Vantage, Silver Birch, Weber carburettors, chrome wires, Sundym electric windows, a heated rear window and a five-speed gearbox. Ironically, it was very close to the example from Goldfinger (1964).
The advert listed it for £985, but he paid £900, which is about $19,000 today. After a short test drive he bought the car and drove the car back home at the age of 19. The DB5 served as his daily driver until 1977, when he left for a job in Saudi Arabia. The car was left in the driveway and exposed to the elements. Sue Williams recalled children bouncing on the hood and one child breaking the exhaust. The car’s condition continued to deteriorate, but Williams refused to sell.
As time went on, he would realize how rare his specification was. Of the 887 DB5 sedans, only 39 left the factory with the combination that carried his car: Silver Birch, Vantage engine and right-hand drive. That level of rarity matters in the collector car market, and you can see why he stuck with it.
He delivered the car to at the end of 2022 Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell, England, on the same site where it was built almost sixty years ago. Sending him back to his hometown made sense. The timeless shape of the DB5 comes from the famous Italian coachbuilder, Carrozzeria Touring from Milan. Their Superleggera method created a lightweight steel framework wrapped in hand-formed aluminum panels and the result gave the DB5 its balanced proportions and sleek footprint, which continued to inspire Marek Reichman’s latest creations and modern Astons.
The Works team had a lot of work to do to bring this car back to life. They rebuilt the chassis and updated the Superleggera frame, reshaping every aluminum panel by hand, retrimming the interior and retaining the original seat frames and repaired fuse box to maintain character. After three years and 2,500 man-hours, the team has revived one of the coolest cars of all time. It was their shared experience that made this possible, leaving John teary-eyed when the car was finally unveiled to him.
A restored DB5 example in this specification would retail for £1 million, approximately $1.26 million, making it one of the most expensive Aston Martins, while screen-accurate DB5s would fetch considerably more. When the car receives a full factory restoration at Newport Pagnell, the market will look at it the same way as a Ferrari with Classiche certification or a Lamborghini rebuilt under Polo Storico. These factory-supported programs confirm authenticity, preserve originality, and document every phase of the work. That level of verification strengthens long-term value and reduces risk for collectors.
Images: Aston Martin
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