For Welsh welder John Williams—not the Hollywood composer, but a humble garage owner from Mold, Flintshire—this 1964 Aston Martin DB5 Vantage wasn't just a car; it was a 50-year obsession born from boyhood dreams. At 18, inspired by a toy model and the silver screen allure of James Bond's ride in Goldfinger, he scraped together £900 (about $1,200 then) to buy the rust-prone beauty second-hand in 1972. Finished in rare Silver Birch—the exact Bond hue—with a high-output Vantage engine, it was one of just 39 such right-hand-drive examples ever made.
Williams drove it daily for five years, turning heads across North Wales as a tractor driver and road gritter. But life intervened: a job in the Middle East in 1977 forced him to park it on the driveway, where it languished for decades. Weather battered the bodywork; neighborhood kids turned the bonnet into a trampoline—one even snapped off the exhaust pipe. Mice nested inside, and rust claimed chunks of the chassis. Even in its sorry state, Aston Martin valued it at £500,000.
Fast-forward to 2022: Now 71, Williams and his wife Sue saved £400,000 for a no-holds-barred restoration at Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell—the spiritual birthplace of the DB5. Over 2,500 hours and three grueling years, experts stripped it to bare metal, rebuilt the 4.0-liter straight-six to its 282 bhp glory, refreshed the Connolly leather and walnut dash, and revived the Silver Birch paint. "It was like restoring the Titanic," quipped one technician.
When the covers lifted in late November 2025, Williams slid behind the wheel for the first drive in 48 years. The engine's throaty roar echoed like a Walther PPK's bark; tears welled as he purred down Buckinghamshire lanes. Valued at £1 million today, this unicorn won't sell—it's family heirloom material. In a world of fleeting thrills, Williams' DB5 proves some bonds are unbreakable. Shaken, not stirred? More like restored, and revered.