The Aston Martin DB5 is an icon, and rightfully so. But how to share its delightful driving experience with a younger generation? The Little Car Company and Aston Martin got together and cooked up a scaled-down car you’d be hard-pressed to call a “toy” with a straight face. The DB5 Junior, as its called, can hit 30 mph in its unrestricted drive mode—not fast by conventional car standards, but no Power Wheels can touch this $46,000 EV. And there’s an even faster version.
As an electric vehicle, it’s also a zero-emissions vehicle. The DB5 Junior packs a 6.7-hp electric motor and sufficient battery power to provide a claimed 20-mile maximum range. Novice Mode limits power to just 1.3 hp, a 12-mph top speed, and a 100-foot operating radius from the “remote kill switch.” If your child or jealous neighbor makes a break for it in the DB5 Junior and exceeds that distance, it’ll shut down and come to a full stop.
Expert Mode increases the available power and enables the aforementioned 30-mph top speed, all indicated by functional Smiths gauges that even include a Smiths clock. And there’s a Race Mode that synchronizes the top speed of the DB5 Junior with any of The Little Car Company’s other vehicles for a fair race. Perhaps you can build a scale model of Circuit de la Sarthe for your children to compete on, or maybe a re-created Mario Kart track. Either way, an adult could even serve as a riding mechanic, since there’s enough room in this li’l Aston for an adult and child to sit side-by-side.
If that’s not wild enough, for $59,000 or so the Junior can be had in Vantage spec. That brings a truly incredible 13.4 hp, a limited-slip differential, a carbon-fiber body, more range (up to 40 miles), and a top speed the company hasn’t even tested yet.
It sounds like buying a Junior is just the beginning of the potential spend. A huge amount of accessories are planned, such as car covers, tool kits, and custom license plates. If you own a real DB5, you even have the option of having the Junior’s chassis number match yours, and if you wanted to go a step further, you can catch the ahead-of-the-curve Junior by having a full-size vintage Aston converted to an EV by the factory. The Little Car Company, by the way, built the Bugatti Baby II a while back, so this isn’t the first wild miniature car it has created. The order books open on August 27, and only a limited number will be built.
