The good oil: Add some 007s to price

Aston Martin DB5 with Sean Connery in the 1964 Goldfinger Bond film. Photo / Supplied

The Aston Martin DB5 that Sean Connery used in two James Bond blockbusters goes up for auction in Paris next month. It comes equipped with the arsenal of gadgets - machine guns, revolving number plates, oil slick sprayer and smoke screen - that secret agent 007 used to outwit gold smuggler Auric Goldfinger in the 1964 film Goldfinger and save the world in 1965's Thunderball. The DB5 is being sold by American broadcaster Jerry Lee, who bought it for US$12,000 in 1969. It is expected to fetch US$5 million ($6.83 million). It is one of two DB5 originals used in the two Bond films. The other, sold twice at auction, was stolen in 1997 from an airport in Florida and never recovered.

Metal makeover for German classic

Volkswagen Group design chief Walter de' Silva has reinterpreted the look of another German classic, the M-series Leica camera. The limited-edition M9 Titanium is all-titanium, unlike some Leicas which have a titanium plating. The metal components of its 35mm lens are also milled from solid titanium. Leica says: "Walter de' Silva has given the Leica M camera an ergonomic, precise, logical and stringent look and feel without changing the intrinsic character of the rangefinder camera." Only 500 will be made.

Copy that ... from Australia

Police in Detroit are test-driving their latest patrol car - the Australian-made Holden Caprice. It's called the Chevrolet Police Patrol Vehicle (PPV) and it will be Holden's biggest single export to the US when sales begin from October 1. General Motors-owned Holden says its plans to sell "thousands, not hundreds" of PPVs in North America . The unmarked detective version of the long-wheelbase Caprice police car will soon go into production at Holden's Adelaide plant, before the PPV V8 enters production in early 2011, followed by a V6 version in 2012. The US police vehicle market accounts for about 70,000 new vehicles a year.

Bentley pulls in horns - for free

Luxury marque Bentley has been told to pull its horns in - that is, to replace the "Flying B" ornament on its bonnet. A US agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, has ruled that the metal emblem may injure pedestrians in a crash. It says the mechanism may become corroded and not fold down, as intended, in an accident. Bentley has recalled 596 Arnage, Azure and Brooklands models in the US. It will replace the retractable "B" free of charge.

Kiwi Mazda effort upstaged in Essen

A world record Mazda set in New Zealand has been beaten. The carmaker lined up 249 MX-5s at Alexander Park a few years ago to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest continuous parade of MX-5 models. Mazda Europe upstaged the Kiwi effort the other day by lining up 459 MX-5s at a park in Essen, Germany. Nine entrants drove from Moscow, 2800km away. The oldest MX-5 in the parade was 21 years and two months; the one that had been used the most had 344,624km on the clock.

We are the world

Firefighters in the market town of Romford, northeast of London, are having a blazing row with the local council. Its housing administrator has banned vinyl wading pools as safety hazards, ruling that firefighters might trip over them in emergencies.

alastair.sloane@nzherald.co.nz