20 Things You Didn’t Know About Goldfinger (1964)

James Bond drove an Aston Martin DB Mark III instead of his Bentley in Ian Fleming's novel. For the film adaptation, Q announced that Double-0 Seven’s Bentley had “had its day” and issued him with an Aston Martin DB5.

However, when the filmmakers approached Aston Martin to secure two DB5s for filming, the company was reluctant (so much so that the filmmakers considered using a Jaguar E-Type instead) and insisted that the producers buy one of the cars.

The DB5 boasted additional gadgets that were never shown onscreen, including battering rams in its bumpers, a weapons tray under the driver’s seat, a radio telephone in the driver’s door, a tyre-spike dispenser behind the brake lights, and a grenade concealed in a Thermos flask.

John Stears was worried about cutting a hole in the DB5's roof to accommodate the passenger ejector seat, but the vehicle - which is often dubbed “The Most Famous Car in the World” - and the film became such a hit that sales of the Aston Martin DB5 increased by 50 per cent.

Such was the impact of the DB5 in Goldfinger that Eon Productions have never had to pay to feature a car in a Bond film since!