2007 Aston Martin Db9 Coupe, Blk/blk,sport Pkg,serviced on 2040-cars

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007 Questions for James Bond's stunt master

You may not know the name, but you almost certainly have seen some of his work. Chris Corbould has been the special effects supervisor for every James Bond film since 1995's "GoldenEye," and has worked in some way on every one since 1977's "The Spy Who Loved Me." In between Bond movies, he's been the special effects supervisor on such low-budget indie flicks as the three Dark Knight Batman films and Star Wars episodes VII and VIII. Oh, and he won an Oscar for his work on "Inception." I was lucky enough to virtually sit down with Mr. Corbould ahead of the long-awaited release of "No Time to Die", which my colleague Zac Palmer has seen and reported back about all the cars featured in the 25th Bond movie. Mr. Corbould shared some of his experiences creating some of the most iconic stunt sequences in the series' history, including how things have changed over the years, how Bond movies are different and what it's like to not only engineer the stunts, but some of the cars featured in them. Autoblog: What's the biggest difference between working on a Bond film versus other franchise films? Chris Corbould: I think one of the big things is the history behind it. This is the 25th Bond film now and [although] we have to keep changing for the times, there's also a lot of boxes that have to be checked. There are two car chases in this, one with a DB5 in an urban environment and one with a Land Rover Defender in a very very rural environment. [We have to] come up with original ideas for those chases. But the biggest thing working on a Bond film is they always pride themselves in doing the sequences as much as they can for real. Autoblog: I actually unearthed an interview with you in 1999 where you said that "The Bond people pride themselves on STILL doing stunts for real" as opposed to CGI. And that was 22 years ago. Corbould: Yeah! I'm still saying it. Autoblog: How hard has it been to keep that ideology over the years, with changing technologies and capabilities? Corbould: It's not been hard really. The CGI guys have helped us out quite a bit by making our lives easier. They can paint cameras out, they can paint parts of rigs out if need be. The audience still has this fascination in knowing that something has been done for real as well. A lot of the big effects I've done on the James Bond films, there's as much interest in the behind the scenes of how we did the Tube train coming through the ceiling in "Skyfall", how we did the sinking house in "Casino Royale".

This is Aston Martin's sexy 580-hp Vanquish S Volante convertible

You might remember that we drove the Aston Martin Vanquish S earlier this month. That was the fixed top twin to this car, the S Volante, which we're getting our first look at. Since they're mechanically identical save the top mechanism, we can give you a sense of what the S Volante will be like. In a word, it'll be awesome. Remember, the Vanquish S twins are lovable dinosaurs in the powertrain department. Both feature a naturally-aspirated, 5.9-liter V12 – that means no turbochargers. It might make a healthy 580 horsepower at 7,000 RPM and an equally healthy 465 lb-ft of torque at 5,500 RPM, but it's an endangered species. It is, however, a sonorous beast with incredible throttle response (no lag!) – and it's backed up with the smooth, well-regarded ZF 8-speed transmission, just like the coupe. The similarities are fun, but the vive la difference. Especially in profile, with the top down, the Vanquish S Volante is beautiful. The small cowl humps are a racey, tasteful touch. There's almost assuredly some sort of weight penalty associated with choosing the Volante version, and there's definitely a cost penalty. The Vanquish S Volante will start at $315,775, or an $18,000 premium over the fixed-top version. From there, you can spend a lot more with various personalization options. Update: An Aston Martin representative told us there isn't an official Vanquish S Volante weight figure to release at this time. For reference, the old non-S Vanquish Volante was 232 lbs heavier than the coupe. The Vanquish S coupe weighs 3,834 lbs, so it's a save assumption that the Volante version will be slightly north of 4,000 lbs. We'll update you when an official weight figure is released. Both versions will hit US dealers in April. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2018 Aston Martin Vanquish S Volante Aston Martin Convertible Luxury Performance aston martin vanquish aston martin vanquish s

‘Goldfinger’ Aston Martin DB5 Lego kit has fully functioning gadgets

Just as we predicted, Lego's James Bond-themed Aston Martin model kit is of the 1964 Aston Martin DB5 from "Goldfinger." A car that also featured prominently in other Bond films including " Casino Royale," "Skyfall" and " GoldenEye," among others. ( The real "GoldenEye" movie car just sold for a cool $2.6 million.) And while at first blush, it seems that the Aston's effortless class didn't quite translate as well to brick form as boxier vehicles such as the VW Bus and the Mini Cooper, we can easily forgive it. Why? Because it has all of the gadgets from the movie, and they all work! Working from the nose of the car, the turn signals drop out of the way to reveal the machine gun barrels. These disappear at the pull of the shift lever in the interior. Also in the interior are the hideaway tracking computer in the dash and the door-mounted car phone. Of course the best feature inside is the ejector seat. Pull on the rear bumper, and the roof lifts off and other mechanical bits fling the seat through the opening. Behind the rear window, there's the bulletproof shield that can be raised into position. Finally, all four wheels can have the tire cutters fitted, and the license plates swivel for different numbers. And for car enthusiasts, Lego has made sure that the model is simply a nice and accurate replica of a DB5. The hood is hinged at the front, and underneath is a detailed model of the car's double-overhead cam straight-six. It's modeled down to the triple carburetors. The doors open, naturally, as does the trunk, which has quite a bit of space. The Lego kit goes on sale Aug. 1 for $149.99. It consists of 1,290 pieces, and the finished model measures out to about 13 inches in length. Related Video: Featured Gallery Aston Martin DB5 Goldfinger Lego Kit View 41 Photos Image Credit: Lego Toys/Games TV/Movies Aston Martin Coupe Classics Lego aston martin db5