Advertisement

Swiss businessman sells Bond's Aston Martin

The Local/AFP
The Local/AFP - [email protected]
Swiss businessman sells Bond's Aston Martin
No buyers yet for pricey Bond car. Photo: RS Williams

Swiss businessman Thomas Straumann has put James Bond's famous Aston Martin car up for sale in Britain for a cool £3 million (4.2 francs).

Advertisement

The British sports car, complete with hidden machine guns and a smoke screen, is described by the dealer in Surrey, Richard Stewart Williams, as "the most famous car in the world".

Straumann, a shareholder in a dental implant firm founded by his grandfather and father, bought the Aston Martin DB5 in 2006, the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper reported.

He spent three years restoring the car driven by Sean Connery as the fictional British spy in "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball".

After buying the car for 2.7 million francs at a US auction, Straumann had 3,000 hours of work put into its overhaul, according to NZZ am Sonntag.

Straumann has been selling assets over the last few months after the share value in Straumann Holding, the world's largest dental implant firm, dropped.

Straumann sold 10 percent of his stake in the company last November to the Government of Singapore Investment Corp., although the stock price has subsequently rebounded by about 30 percent.

He also sold a five-star hotel in Gstaad, has put another hotel in Basel up for grabs, while selling his majority stake in watchmaker H. Moser & Cie.

Bloomberg said according to data it compiled, the businessman's net worth has declined to $708 million from about $1.18 billion two years ago.

In the summer of 2009, Straumann's SpiritHotels group featured the Bond car, and the restoration work done on it, in a magazine for hotel guests.

The Aston Martin boasts machine guns hidden behind retractable headlights, a smoke screen and a pop-up bullet-proof shield.

But one notable absence is a gadget Straumann chose to eliminate during the makeover: the ejector seat.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also