You could not order a DB10. Aston Martin’s designers and engineers made the Aston Martin DB10 at Gaydon for Spectre alone, and only ten were ever built. It is a two-door, front mid-engined coupé with a V8 and a manual gearbox, and in our view it is the clearest statement of how a modern grand tourer should look.
In the film
In Spectre (2015) Q shows the car in his workshop; it is meant for Agent 009. Daniel Craig’s Bond borrows it before it can be handed over, leaving a bottle of Bollinger in its place. He drives it to Rome for Sciarra’s funeral and the SPECTRE meeting, then uses its gadgets to escape Hinx through the city and along the Tiber. Hinx follows in a Jaguar C-X75.
The details of the Aston Martin DB10
A bespoke shape. Marek Reichman, Aston Martin’s chief creative officer, led the design, with the film’s director, Sam Mendes, working closely with the team. Aston Martin called it a glimpse of the design direction of its next generation of cars, and the Vantage that followed is a relative.
Carbon fibre outside, leather within. Christie’s describes an all carbon fibre exterior and a handcrafted interior of leather, carbon fibre and aluminium. The car is low at 1,250mm tall and 4,410mm long, with swan doors.
The V8. A 4.7-litre V8, front mid-mounted and driving the rear wheels, produces 436PS (430hp) and 490Nm of torque. It is the engine from the V8 Vantage S.
Six speeds, three pedals. The gearbox is a six-speed manual. The chassis is a modified version of the platform beneath the V8 Vantage, with a limited-slip differential and carbon ceramic brakes, 380mm at the front with six-piston calipers.
Owning it now
You cannot walk into a showroom and order a DB10. Eight of the ten appeared in the film and two were held back as show cars. One of those two, finished in Spectre Silver, was sold at Christie’s on 18 February 2016 for £2,434,500, with the proceeds going to Médecins Sans Frontières. Christie’s sold it as a collector’s item, not homologated for public roads. That is the honest position: this is an object to understand, not a car to plan a weekend around. Our button runs an eBay search for the DB10, which mostly turns up scale models and memorabilia; a car itself appearing for sale would be exceptional.
The route in the spirit of it. The DB10 shares its underpinnings with the V8 Vantage, so the nearest thing you can actually drive is a Vantage. A used V8 Vantage is the less costly route to the same idea: a front-engined Aston Martin with a V8. We would choose the manual over the automatic, because the DB10 is a manual.
How to place it in a life. If you admire the car, the sensible options are quiet ones: a scale model on a desk, a print, a visit to a museum exhibition. The right way to think of the DB10 is as a design brief, and a useful standard against which to judge anything you do buy.
In the same spirit
If the car is out of reach, three live pieces in the catalogue bring its lines into the house. The Scalextric Aston Martin DB10 slot car is the one to run, the Corgi 1:36 scale model is the one for a desk, and the Limited100 DB10 print is the one for a wall. They are alternatives to the car, not stand-ins for it.
Specifications
| Model | Aston Martin DB10, built exclusively for Spectre (ten produced, 2014–2015) |
|---|---|
| Body | Two-door coupé, all carbon fibre exterior, swan doors |
| Engine | 4.7-litre V8, front mid-mounted, rear-wheel drive; 436PS (430hp), 490Nm |
| Gearbox | Six-speed manual, limited-slip differential |
| Brakes | Carbon ceramic; 380mm front with six-piston calipers, 330mm rear with four-piston calipers |
| Dimensions | Length 4,410mm, height 1,250mm |
| Weight | 1,542kg |
| Price | Never sold new. One show car realised £2,434,500 at Christie’s in February 2016 |
Aston Martin’s own announcement of the car is on its website.
Questions
How many Aston Martin DB10s were made?
Ten. Aston Martin built them at Gaydon specifically for Spectre. Eight appeared in the film and two were kept as show cars.
Can you buy an Aston Martin DB10?
Not new. Aston Martin did not sell the DB10 to the public. One show car was sold at Christie’s in February 2016 for £2,434,500, and Christie’s described it as the only DB10 released for public sale to date. It was sold as a collector’s item, not for use on public roads.
What engine does the Aston Martin DB10 have?
A 4.7-litre V8 producing 436PS (430hp), the same engine as the V8 Vantage S. It is paired with a six-speed manual gearbox and rear-wheel drive.
Is the DB10 a Vantage?
Not quite, though it is closely related. It uses a modified version of the platform that underpins the V8 Vantage, with its own bodywork, and Aston Martin said it previewed the design direction of its next generation of cars.
More cars from Bond’s world are collected in our vehicles section, and the film itself is covered on the Spectre page.
