2009 Aston Martin V8 Vantage Base on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Win an Aston Martin Vantage GT Roadster from Daniel Craig and a bunch of puppies

Puppies! Oh, and Daniel Craig. Minus a few barks and whimpers, he's the one doing all the talking in the video above. Maybe you should listen to what he has to say – as the actor currently playing James Bond, the man knows a thing or two about Aston Martins. And he's offering to give away one lovely, lightly customized Vantage GT Roadster along with an all-expenses-paid trip for you and a friend to meet him at some undisclosed location. Cool stuff. The deal is part of a promotion from Omaze, the same fundraising outfit that made a bunch of money for the Paul Walker Foundation last year. As was the case with that promotion, you have to make a donation in order to be in the running to win the Aston Martin. This time, the charity is the United Nations Mine Action Service, which works in 18 countries and territories around the world "to reduce the threat and impact of landmines and other explosive hazards." Sounds like a worthy cause to us. The more money you donate, the more times you're entered into the raffle to win the car and a whole host of other prizes. All the details can be found here, but only if you can manage to pry your eyes away from the adorable little Golden Retriever puppies in the video up above... Good luck. Related Video:

James Bond cars heading to auction with other series costumes and props

Here's your chance to really drive what 007 drove. On Sept. 28, Christie's will be auctioning 60 pieces from the expansive EON Productions archives, including costumes, props, and since this is Autoblog, cars! Much of the Sixty Years of James Bond Collection up for auction are pieces used during the filming of "No Time to Die," but there are some other noteworthy items from earlier films. The 60 pieces coincide with the film franchise's 60th anniversary. Among the cars is one of seven Aston Martin DB5 replica stunt cars built specifically for the movie, complete with plenty of damage incurred during the pre-credits sequence. It would also seem to be one of the stunt cars fitted with Gatling gun props behind the headlights (you can read more about the team behind the stunts here). As it's a replica and a stunt car, it does not have a full DB5 interior. However, as it's a replica and a stunt car, it also has a 3.2-liter inline-six from an E46 BMW M3. Now that's a melding of my personal tastes if there ever was one. Its price estimate is between GBP1.5 million and GBP2 million, or about $1.84 million and $2.46 million. Proceeds from every lot will go to various charities.  The auction's other cars driven by 007 in the film include an Aston Martin DBS Superleggera and one that's particularly close to my heart, a 1981 Aston Martin V8. Although it appears to be the same car driven by Timothy Dalton in "The Living Daylights," it's in fact a different car, made obvious by the fact that its model year is from six years prior to Mr. Dalton's first go in the tux. Also included in the auction are stunt vehicles used by baddies (we really need to talk about the blood money on JLR's hands after doing all this business with Spectre), including a Range Rover Sport SVR, a Land Rover Defender 110 and Jaguar XF. There's also a Triumph Scrambler motorcycle used in the filming, plus a new special edition 007 60th Anniversary Land Rover Defender 110 V8 not used in the film.  The only vehicles being auctioned from earlier films include a Q Boat from "The World is Not Enough" (I'm guessing EON still has a couple of them), the cello case from "The Living Daylights" (yes that counts as a vehicle), and a Day of the Dead parade bike from "Spectre" (I could buy that, ride around Portland on it and no one would bat an eye).

Aston Martin DB5 Vantage trio for sale, and they're as rare as rare gets

Among classic Aston Martins, there are perhaps none better, from pre-war antiques to modern supercars, than the DB5. And among DB5s, the Vantage specifications are the most prized among car collectors. With only 70 of the high-performance examples built out of an already small pool of about 1,023 regular-flavor DB5s, they are a rare breed. If that's your bag, there's currently a once-in-a-lifetime sale of three different body styles of DB5 Vantages as one lot. The sale, facilitated by Aston Martin dealers Nicholas Mee & Co Ltd., will offer a Vantage in every DB5 body style built. The Vantages looked like normal DB5s, but had 322 horsepower, a 40-horse gain, thanks to a higher cam profile and some Weber carbs to replace the S.U. units.  On the coupe, at least, that translated to a 0-60 time in the mid-6's, quite impressive for a 1960s car. The Vantage sale trio is one coupe, one convertible, and one shooting brake. It'd be impossible to get that last one anywhere else, as there was only one factory Vantage shooting brake ever built, and this is it. In total, only 12 DB5 shooting brakes were made, with the first being a one-off for Aston Martin's chairman at the time, David Brown. He used it for the most rich-British-guy activities you can imagine — hauling gun dogs and polo equipment. Eventually, 11 were ordered by customers, but this California Sage specimen is the sole Vantage-spec car. The next rarest is the Caribbean Pearl Blue convertible. Only 123 DB5 convertibles were ever built, and only 5 to 12 (depending on who you ask) were fitted with the Vantage engine. While rarity or open-top cruising might be reasons to desire this car, we want it simply because it's one of the few we've seen that doesn't come in some dour shade of gray or British racing green. Lastly, for all the 007 cosplayers, is the Silver Birch coupe, looking exactly like the one made famous by James Bond. It has been a staple of the film franchise ever since 1964's "Goldfinger," quite possibly the first car to benefit from a movie fame halo long before the "Back to the Future" DeLorean or the "Fast and the Furious" Supra. All three cars come with a dossier of build details, ownership and maintenance records, and British Motor Industry Heritage Trust certificates guaranteeing their provenance. The asking price is $5,643,000, which may seem steep considering a DB5 Vantage coupe is worth a little over $1 million.