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Bonham's will auction Paul McCartney's old Aston Martin DB5

At the company's Bond Street, London auction, Bonham's will offer a 1964 Aston Martin DB5 that is possibly one the most British cars around. Not only is it an example of a classic British sports car known for being driven by James Bond, this exact car was purchased new by Sir Paul McCartney. And as an added bonus, it was also previously owned by former Top Gear host Chris Evans. According to Bonham's, McCartney ordered the car after The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and after finishing the Hard Day's Night movie. It was originally finished in blue with a black leather interior, which you can see here. It came with a couple of nice touches for a musician, as well. It had a Philips Auto-Mignon automotive record player installed, one of which remains with the car. The auction company also mentions a rumor that the leather had stitched-in musical notes. McCartney kept the car for about six years after buying it in 1964, and he seemed to have driven it a fair bit. When the clutch was replaced in 1970, the odometer read a bit over 40,000 miles, which is impressive considering how much traveling McCartney was surely doing with The Beatles. The car changed hands a number of times in subsequent years. In 2002, it was restored and once again finished in blue with a black interior. It wasn't until its second restoration that started around 2012 and 2013 that the color scheme changed to silver with a dark red interior. That restoration wrapped up this year and included updates to the engine that increased displacement from 4.0 liters to 4.2 liters and upped compression. The results are an engine that jumped from 282 horsepower to 315 horsepower and from 280 pound-feet of torque to 305. The car will be auctioned on December 2 at the Bond Street auction in London. Bonham's predicts the car will go for between $1.6 million and $2 million. Interestingly, that's only a little above Hagerty Insurance's estimate of $1.4 million for a concours-quality DB5. It's also substantially more than the roughly $500,000 this exact car sold for back in 2012. Related Video: Featured Gallery 1964 Aston Martin DB5 owned by Paul McCartney View 13 Photos Image Credit: Bonhams Aston Martin Auctions Coupe Classics bonhams chris evans aston martin db5

Aston Martin CEO plans for seven-vehicle lineup

Aston Martin which has survived for the last hundred or so years with a remarkably tiny vehicle lineup, is now making preparations for its next seven vehicles, according to the company's CEO, Andy Palmer. The CEO elaborated on the company's "Second Century Plan" explaining that it'd feature a three-pillar product road map that is apparently "crystal clear." Pillar one, sports cars, should surprise no one. The three-pronged lineup will continue, with the new DB11 sandwiched between the Vantage and Vanquish replacements. But don't expect more than three Aston sports cars – Palmer shut down the idea of a car below the Vantage. Next, we have "saloons," which means sedans, if you prefer coffee to tea and Hershey's to Cadbury. This is trickier, of course. In April of 2015, we reported that the Rapide sedan would die and that the DBX would be its replacement. But in October, we reported that the Rapide name may live on as an all-electric model. That same April report also claimed we'd see a Lagonda-badged sedan, which now seems like a virtual certainty following the success of the rare Lagonda Taraf. The tea leaves of pillar three – crossovers and "specials" – are the most difficult to read. We know the rakish DBX crossover is coming. But we're wagering that Aston will complement its CUV/SUV lineup with something more traditional that could combat stuff like the Bentley Bentayga. But rather than badging it as an Aston, we think it's more likely this hypothetical vehicle would be badged as a Lagonda. Here's why. The last thing we wrote about a Lagonda SUV came in July 2014, when reports indicated that plans for such a vehicle had been abandoned. But with the explosion in CUVs at virtually every price point, it seems impossible for Aston Martin to ignore the segment. This would give the company a two-pronged approach. We doubt Aston would reestablish the Lagonda brand to just sell a single vehicle. What about the specials, though? That sounds like low volume and high performance to us, which could mean a One-77 successor. Aston has gone on record as saying it'd be open to aerodynamic god Adrian Newey penning a hypercar design. In fact, regarding a Newey-designed Aston, Palmer himself said, "There is rarely smoke without fire." If this were to ever happen, though, we're betting it won't be for some time. The DB11, Vantage/Vanquish replacements, and DBX will be the first new vehicles from the brand, Palmer indicated.

Aston Martin Vantage with a manual transmission due next year

In 2016, Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer told Car and Driver that that Aston Martin would continue to offer manual transmissions and will always have at least one hand-shaker in the lineup. For the keepers of the dying manual light, it's been a long wait since the V12 Vantage S went out of production last year, but dawn will break over Gaydon in summer 2019. Aston Martin chief engineer Matt Becker told Road & Track at the Goodwood Festival of Speed that there'd be a stick shift in the V8 Vantage by "this time next year." That might seem like a long wait when there are already prototypes on the road, but the small company has a large engineering job. The Mercedes-AMG 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 sitting in the Vantage's engine bay has never been paired with a manual gearbox, so Aston Martin has to create the software and the driveline hardware from scratch to make it work. On top of that, the company wants to make sure the package delivers the thrills the row-your-own crowd seeks. Becker said the car won't be a pushover, tuned so that "It reminds you that you have to know how to drive." Depending on uptake, one could hope that the DB11 using the same Mercedes-AMG engine would also undergo a manual transformation. Road & Track didn't get the details on what kind of transmission we could expect. We figure the options are a traditional six-speed, a Corvette-style seven-speed, a Porsche-style seven-speed, or the dogleg seven-speed used last in this year's V12 Vantage V600, of which there were only 14 units. Speculation on product plans puts the manual transmission first in the V8 Vantage pipeline, followed by a Vantage roadster and a V12 Vantage. Other models will certainly fill out the portfolio, Becker saying this first Vantage "is the starting point." Having applied the hardcore AMR moniker to the Valkyrie AMR Pro, DB11 AMR, and Rapide AMR, the Vantage seems a lock for the same extreme makeover. Related Video: