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Made famous by Sean Connery’s James Bond in Goldfinger (1964), the Aston Martin DB5 has a stirring design with more good angles than you can shake a martini at. The car would have been an icon of design even without the film placement. The most well-known body style of the DB5 is, of course, the coupe. However, values for the coupe and its sleek roofline have fallen behind those of its rare shooting-brake variant.
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
One of just 12 made, this 1966 DB5 Shooting Brake sold for £848,750 ($1,143,028) at RM Sotheby’s event in Epsom, England. It’s a strong showing for the rare and beautiful model; that price lands midway between the car’s #1 (Concours) and #2 (Excellent) values, which are up 32.1% and 17.2%, respectively, in 2026. Values for the shooting brake have nearly caught up with those of the drop-top Volante, which are up about 4% across all conditions since the start of this year.
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
From the windshield forward, the Shooting Brake is identical to other DB5s. From the windshield back, there’s quite a bit of unique metalwork. The upfitting fell to coachbuilder Harold Radford, who stretched the car by four inches, built a totally new roof and quarter panels, and added a hatch. The result gave the shapely car 40 cubic feet of cargo space to go with the impressive performance of its powerful, inline-six engine.
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Of the 12 built by Harold Radford, eight were right-hand-drive. This one, finished in silver over gray Machir wool-tweed, is a great example of the kind of sporting car that Aston Martin’s David Brown preferred for hunting while toting his dog and, naturally, the requisite shotguns. The wool is a bit more forgiving to sporting use and having a dog riding, well, shotgun.
John Wiley, Hagerty’s director of valuation analytics, took a deeper look at the numbers for us. “With Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brakes amounting to just over one percent of DB5 production, they don’t come to market often,” he says. That’s especially true of this car, which had spent nearly 20 years in the same family. “When one does come to market, collectors would be wise to take a break and give bidding a shot. Shooting Brakes in excellent condition are now worth 16% more than the Saloon (coupe), but haven’t always been so valuable. Values for the Shooting Brake are up 66% in the past 10 years versus just seven percent for the Saloon.” Despite the strong price, the record for a Shooting Brake is $1,765,000, set in 2019 for a left-hand-drive example.
The car has plenty of documentation, including service records and a “full paint rectification and restoration in 2021 by Ball Hill Garage,” as well as an electric service and road test performed in 2025 by RS Williams.Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Before working at Hagerty, where he’s the director of the fleet and Learning Garage, Tim Lydon spent a decade at Kevin Kay Restorations, an Aston Martin specialist. Lydon noted some of the hardware unique to the shooting brake. “Hinges for the backseat are very interesting,” said Lydon. “The typical DB4, -5, or -6 did not have fold-down rear seats. This shooting brake looks to still retain the original style DB4-5-6 base seat with a modified upper portion that folds down, and it still has the same cigarette ashtrays in place that would have been standard on a typical DB5.” We like the hardware for fixing the seat in its upright position, which looks to be a common gate latch treated to some plating and polishing.
Lydon also noted the car’s lack of hood pad, which seems to have been removed to fit a fire suppression system. There also seems to be missing stamping on the body tag documenting the Weber DCOE 45s and the rest of the Volante-spec upgrades. “Aston Martin was usually pretty good about updating the build sheet, though this is a very late DB5 based on number,” added Lydon. The listing mentioned that this car was fitted with the upgraded equipment at a later date, yet it retains the original, numbers-matching engine.
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
It’s no surprise that a collector snapped up the opportunity to own such a beautiful, coach-built sporting car. You can rarely justify a vintage grand touring car as the practical choice, and it’s a truly rare opportunity when one of these elegant shooting brakes comes up for sale. As James Bond might say, you only live twice, after all.
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s
Tom Gidden/RM Sotheby’s