James Bond’s “Spectre”: 10 Aston Martin DB10 Facts You Need to Know

Although Bond has been seen behind the wheel of everything from a drop-top Toyota 2000GT to an AMC Hornet, most people associate the special agent with an Aston Martin. And while the latest Daniel Craig Bond is the edgiest the franchise has ever been, in many ways the filmmakers have managed to boil down Bond's essence to the most pure ingredients. What does that mean for car enthusiasts? Gone are the days of heavy-handed product placement (sorry, BMW) and silly over-the-top stunts. Bond and Aston Martin are back in a big way, and all is right in the world of British secret agents.

Since Daniel Craig has donned the tuxedo, Bond has seen seat time in a DBS and the iconic DB5 first seen in the Connery era. But in the latest Bond film, "Spectre," out November 6, 007 is about to get a very special car from the Q branch. It's dubbed the DB10, and although it likely will never see production, it hints heavily at where Aston Martin plans to take the brand's design direction. The DB10 oozes sex appeal. It manages to look futuristic while maintaining classic Aston Martin proportions and elegance. But of course Bond couldn't care less about proportions. It's all about the gadgets, and this Q-ified Aston has plenty of tricks up its tuxedo sleeve. Here are 10 most important tidbits any car enthusiast needs to know about Bond's new ride:

Only eight DB10s were produced for use in the film. (Two more were made for promotional use.) Two of the cars are fully completed hero cars with production-ready interiors, bespoke wheels, and clean exteriors devoid of rigging and Q gadgets. Another two of the DB10s were built to be used with external driving pods that allow a stunt driver to pilot the car on the roof while Daniel Craig simulates driving behind the wheel. There are two stunt cars that feature clean exteriors but reinforced underbody panels and a strengthened front grille. The final two DB10s feature fully operational Q gadgets.

Two of the DB10s created for "Spectre" feature an attached driving pod fitted to the roof for the stunt driver. The pod is designed to be movable, so the throttle is drive by wire, and the brakes and steering use fluid transfer. By removing any direct mechanical connections, the filmmakers were able to place the pod anywhere on the car to get clean shots of Bond "driving" in real-world conditions without using green screens.

Like any Bond car, the DB10 has its share of Q gadgets. You know the type, but we'd rather not get specific lest we get added to an MI6 list. Aston Martin offered to design many of these special Q features into the car, but the filmmakers felt that they would feel too refined. They instead opted to create them after the cars were finished so they'd have a tacked-on look and feel, as if Q had made them himself.

Other than some minor CGI to remove stunt cables and swap out the faces of stunt drivers, all the car chases in "Spectre" are 100 percent real. The stunt team drove the DB10 down a set of steep stairs in Rome repeatedly without sustaining any major damage. The DB10 is pictured here, being chased by an orange Jaguar two-door.

With a V-8 under the hood, the DB10 is plenty quick. During a chase scene in the center of Rome, the helicopter filming the action had to repeatedly tell the Aston to slow down, as it wasn't able to keep up. We're told the Mercedes ML63 AMG camera car kept up just fine with its twin-turbo V-8.

Underneath its futuristically sexy skin, the DB10 features a V-8 powertrain pulled from the Vantage. Matching the Aston Martin's V-8 firepower, the Bond villain's car is a Jaguar C-X75 featuring a Jaguar F-Type-sourced V-8 instead of the complicated hybrid powertrain from the original concept car.

In order to perform stunts and accommodate large amounts of camera gear onboard, the filmmakers had to tweak the cars after they were delivered from Aston Martin. These modifications include bespoke dampers for additional ride height and to account for heavy camera loads on the nose, reinforced underbody skidplates and strengthened grilles for stair-driving stunt, and a full rollcage for rigidity and safety. Stunt driver Mark Higgins helped dial in the suspension settings for each car to extract maximum performance depending on the scene and what the car was carrying.

Before officially becoming Bond's ride for "Spectre," the design study that would become the DB10 already existed. Director Sam Mendes was shown the design and fell in love, which ultimately led to Aston Martin creating the cars for the film.

Despite being a prototype, the DB10 features exotic materials such as carbon fiber, which is used in many of the body panels. Because of these expensive carbon panels, the filmmakers decided not to show damage appearing throughout the chase scenes despite a couple of hard hits. In addition to the cost, keeping the look of the damage consistent from scene to scene would be extremely difficult with the carbon-fiber panels.

The DB10 features wheels with a spiral design that makes each of the car's four wheels unique to the corner they're fitted to. In other words, a right rear wheel could not simply be swapped to the left rear side, as the design of the wheel would look wrong. Aston Martin only made 28 spare wheels for the film crew.

Learn more about Jaguar/Land Rover's part in "Spectre" here.

Photos courtesy Eon Productions, Sony Pictures, and the automakers.