Aston Martin weaponry

LooeyLooey AustraliaPosts: 6MI6 Agent
Having had my intense interest in all things Bond rekindled by some adventures inspired by the Gilbert Road Race set from the 1960's I have a few questions.
I have the splendid Scalextric Micro No Time To Die slot car set which features the Skyfall version of the DB5.
To be screen accurate, the Aston martin now sports what I assume are M134 Miniguns in the headlights as opposed to Browning machine guns in the turn indicators.
I began to wonder if the M134's would actually fit in the fender spaces, given the front tyres are probably a more vital piece of equipment! So I did a plan overlay to check and... yes, if Q Division sawed down the barrels, they actually would fit!

Of course this still doesn't explain how Craig/Bond's Aston Martin morphed from a left hand drive model with Bahamas number plates to the classic DB5 complete with 1960's technology which was garaged off base, fully fuelled and armed (unlike 009's DB10). One has to assume it was an official Q project as M was aware of the special features!


DB5-M134-minigun-plan.jpg

Comments

  • Gassy ManGassy Man USAPosts: 2,972MI6 Agent
    Looey wrote:
    Having had my intense interest in all things Bond rekindled by some adventures inspired by the Gilbert Road Race set from the 1960's I have a few questions.
    I have the splendid Scalextric Micro No Time To Die slot car set which features the Skyfall version of the DB5.
    To be screen accurate, the Aston martin now sports what I assume are M134 Miniguns in the headlights as opposed to Browning machine guns in the turn indicators.
    I began to wonder if the M134's would actually fit in the fender spaces, given the front tyres are probably a more vital piece of equipment! So I did a plan overlay to check and... yes, if Q Division sawed down the barrels, they actually would fit!

    Of course this still doesn't explain how Craig/Bond's Aston Martin morphed from a left hand drive model with Bahamas number plates to the classic DB5 complete with 1960's technology which was garaged off base, fully fuelled and armed (unlike 009's DB10). One has to assume it was an official Q project as M was aware of the special features!


    DB5-M134-minigun-plan.jpg
    I find the move in the overrated Skyfall, where Q says things like "we don't do exploding pens anymore," to a tricked-out DB5 and later DB10 to be weird and contradictory to begin with.

    I do like, however, seeing NTTD at least in the trailer looking like a traditional Bond movie. In my estimation, they went exactly the wrong direction after the bravura Casino Royale in trying to make the Bond movies more personal and grounded. Craig had the mojo to pull off the bigger spectacles of the Connery era and still maintain some connection to the human side of Bond without all the angst and the minimalist storytelling. As regards the miniguns, they're roughly the same size of what appear to be M1919 Brownings in the original DB5?
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 5,961MI6 Agent
    Gassy Man wrote:
    Craig had the mojo to pull off the bigger spectacles of the Connery era

    You're thinking of Roger's era.

    Roger-Moore-James-Bond-Sunglasses-AVTAK-Round.jpg
    Looey wrote:
    Of course this still doesn't explain how Craig/Bond's Aston Martin morphed from a left hand drive model with Bahamas number plates to the classic DB5 complete with 1960's technology which was garaged off base, fully fuelled and armed (unlike 009's DB10). One has to assume it was an official Q project as M was aware of the special features!

    It's all pretty possible, and keeping a car fuelled isn't too hard! :D Bond won the car on what became an official mission so you could imagine M saying it's MI6 property, and then Bond probably persuaded a mate in Q branch to swap out some weapons from an old Q car into it while he was swapping the driving position over.

    You've missed the new mines which the car drops on your schematic! And there's a suggestion that the guns are even bigger than that as they eject their spent cartridges through the side vents on the wings :)
  • HowardBHowardB USAPosts: 2,757MI6 Agent
    I've always assumed that Craig's Bond has had multiple DB5's.
    The DB5 Bond wins in the card game in CR could have been simply converted to RHD and further modified by Q Branch to vintage service spec's or if not Q Branch, Bond could have purchased the car from MI6 and had some underground, off the books shop do the work (one could assume that Bond would be aware of and have connections to that sort of place). After that DB5 was destroyed in Skyfall, Bond could have persuaded Q Branch to do up another DB5 for him which could be the DB5 in NTTD. IMO, it would not be beyond the realm of possibility that the NTTD DB5 (just like the actual cars used for filming) is more or less just a vintage DB5 cosmetically with everything underneath the body work current / state of the art. Just my own personal theory.
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 5,961MI6 Agent
    That's a good point, the car Q is building in Spectre (which I think is probably based on the remains of his one because, you may as well, really; and also it has the same numberplate which wouldn't be worth the bother of transferring to a different car) possibly is massively upgraded under the metal, that's a nice thought.
    I do rather like the idea that it has a different set of gadgets now after he's rebuilt it: that's fun.
  • HowardBHowardB USAPosts: 2,757MI6 Agent
    emtiem wrote:
    That's a good point, the car Q is building in Spectre (which I think is probably based on the remains of his one because, you may as well, really; and also it has the same numberplate which wouldn't be worth the bother of transferring to a different car) possibly is massively upgraded under the metal, that's a nice thought.
    I do rather like the idea that it has a different set of gadgets now after he's rebuilt it: that's fun.

    Craig's Bond with the exception of Skyfall, always has been issued or used the cutting edge MI6 tricked out new Astons. In Skyfall he specifically opts to use the DB5 because it has no tracking device (and judging by M's reaction) leads me to theorize that particular DB5 was Bond's personal vehicle or existed in some grey area where it was not "officially" recognized by MI6.
    Of course as you pointed out in your post, the vehicle, after being destroyed in Scotland did end up back in Q's hands.
    Given the condition of the vehicle, it certainly would be possible that Q being Q (and not some vintage car restorer) chose to completely rebuild it into a supercar in vintage Aston clothing. :D
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 5,961MI6 Agent
    Yeah I definitely think the version we saw in Skyfall was a sort of 'off the books' version which Bond had had put together, probably by a friend in Q branch (Bond is a car fan, maybe moreso the Craig version than any other since maybe Connery, whose Bond loved Bentleys: he loves his 'beautiful 1964 Aston Martin' and is able to identify an exact model of vintage Rolls Royce at 300 metres).

    I'm totally onboard with the idea that Q had a bit of fun rebuilding it after Skyfall: and most probably signed off by the new M, who was on Bond's side by the end of SF.
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