Matthew Richards
BBC Wales
The 1960s Aston Martin DB5, made famous by the film hero James Bond, was so dilapidated that mice had made a nest in it.
But a British couple decided to completely restore it and now the car's estimated value is more than one million euros.
John Williams, a 71-year-old from Mold, UK, bought this used car in 1973 for £985, which is equivalent to £15.000 today (around €17.000).
This vehicle became famous after the movies Goldfinger i Tanderbol from the secret agent James Bond series.
John last drove a car when he was in his twenties and it has been rotting in the parking lot outside his house ever since.
He later saved up the €455.000 he needed for the three-year restoration of this famous car, which required 2.500 hours of professional work on the vehicle.
First of all, they had to remove the mouse hole that had formed in the car over the years.
John fell in love with Aston Martin cars when he was eight years old and received his first toy modeled after them.
At 19, he saved up enough money to buy a real Aston Martin, which he saw in a car magazine.
But when he got a job in the Middle East in the late 1970s, his DB5 was taken to storage and then left in the car park outside his house, exposed to the elements and the neighbourhood kids.
"Our neighbors' kids would jump on the hood, and we would scold them and tell them to get off," recalls Susan, John's wife.
"Then one of them was jumping on the roof and wondering if it was working because he had seen it in the Bond movies and thought he would go in," he adds.
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'Sacrifice and savings'
From 1963 to 1965, only 1.022 copies of the Aston Martin DB5 were made, and this model gained great popularity when it was driven by actor Sean Connery while playing James Bond.
His copy was special - the seat had the option of ejecting the driver, and the license plates could rotate.
The copy owned by John Williams, a silver DB5 Vantage, is one of only 39 in the entire world.
Even when it was undriveable and rotting in front of his house, Aston Martin valued the vehicle at £500.000 (around €570.000), and Williams and his wife were considering selling it.
They had no shortage of offers.
"Pressed by money and reality, we were sitting at the kitchen table, and he asked, 'what do you think?'
"I told him 'I'll never get another car like that.'"
"Then he said we'd keep him," Susan recalls.
They made a decision, and they describe how they "sacrificed and saved" to raise money for the three-year restoration.
After cleaning and removing the mice, the craftsmen spent 2.500 hours working on the car, replacing its original parts and restoring its original paint.
Susan and John regularly visited the workshop in Newport Pagnell to monitor the work.
When the craftsmen are finished, Aston Martin estimates their vehicle is worth one million pounds.
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'A car whose presence is felt'
"It's almost easier to build a completely new car than to restore and fit new parts to a vehicle that has been badly corroded, like this one, so the work requires a lot of skill and patience," says Steve Waddingham, an expert on Aston Martin history.
But it was worth it.
"This is a car whose presence is felt - its smell, the sound it makes, the feel when you touch it," adds Waddingham.
"He's very special and you can't get several famous movie scenes in which he appears out of your head," he believes.
When he drove the car for the first time in 45 years, John thought, "It must be in better shape now than when it left the factory."
"It blew me away. I wish they could fix me too, make me look like I was 27 again."
"I definitely feel like I'm 27 today," the 71-year-old described.
Susan had previously only sat in the car until it was ready to drive.
She enjoyed her first real trip while her husband drove.
"The sound it produces is wonderful."
"Then we sped up and I thought, 'Yeah, go even faster. Let's see what it can do,'" says Susan.
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Although John has fulfilled a lifelong dream, Susan says she doesn't expect to drive it often.
"You're limited to where you can drive it and leave it. And the weather affects that."
"I don't want to drive it through puddles, and it's already been neglected once. We won't do it again," he concludes.
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