They recycle classic cars like James Bond's 1:22
(CNN) --
A silver Aston Martin DB5 once owned by actor Sean Connery sold at auction Thursday for $2.4 million.
It's a 1964 Aston Martin DB5, just the kind of car British secret agent James Bond drove in the 1960s movies Connery played.
The Bond character has been portrayed by various actors and has driven many different cars in the more than two dozen films in the series.
In them he has been everything from BMW and Bentley to Chevrolet and Ford.
But the 1964 car remains the best-known "Bond car."
See Aston Martin's $123,000 James Bond Car for Kids
The one Connery first drove in the 1964 movie "Goldfinger" was an Aston Martin DB5 packed with gadgets like machine guns, an ejection seat and an oil slicker.
More than 50 years later, Connery bought a 1964 DB5 for himself — though it lacked the guns and gadgets of the movie car — in early 2018. Connery died nearly two years later at the age of 90.
It was the only DB5 he ever owned.
At $2.4 million, which includes fees from the Broad Arrow auction company, the car fetched more than originally projected.
The company expected it to fetch between $1.4 million and $1.8 million at its collector car auction in Monterey, California.
The buyer has not been identified.
The auction is one of many collector car sales during Monterey Car Week, an annual series of classic car events on the Monterey Peninsula, California.
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Sean Connery's Aston Martin DB5 sold for $2.4 million at auction in California.
A 1964 Aston Martin DB5 in this car's pristine condition would normally be worth around $1 million, according to the Hagerty classic car events and insurance company, which recently took full ownership of Broad Arrow.
DB5s associated directly with the James Bond movies have sold for much more than that.
A gadget-packed DB5 used to promote the film's original release sold for $6.4 million in 2019.
They pay millionaire sum for James Bond car 0:38
Throughout his life, Connery had often told his children of fond memories of driving the Aston Martin in the movies, his son Jason Connery said in an interview.
When they grew up they suggested to his father that he buy one, but he was resistant to the idea.
"He was like, 'I don't want to because it feels a little obvious, you know, with me,'" Jason Connery said.
"I told him, 'But forget it, that's not what this is about.'"
Barney Ruprecht, a Broad Arrow Aston Martin specialist who had also consulted Connery about the purchase, advised him not to buy a car that needed restoration, as the job would likely take a couple of years, he said.
Instead, he and Connery looked for a car that was in as close to perfect condition as possible.
According to Ruprecht, the vehicle is still almost in that condition, with only a few wrinkles in the leather of the seats as proof that he has sat on it.
Once Connery bought the car, he had it repainted from black to Snow Shadow Grey, the closest color to the car in the movie.
But after that job, he had little time left to actually drive it.
"Unfortunately, as I got older, travel, especially to Europe, became difficult, and then came Covid-19," said Jason Connery.
"You know, unfortunately, he never got to enjoy the car that he bought."
According to Jason Connery, the actor kept the car at his home in Switzerland.
He was so fond of the car that he kept a picture of it on his desk.
A substantial portion of the proceeds from the sale will go to support the Connery Family Philanthropic Fund, according to the Broad Arrow Group.
In addition to the car itself, the winner will receive a ride in the car of famous retired Formula 1 driver Jackie Stewart.
Stewart, like Connery, is Scottish, and the two were longtime friends.
Aston Martin James Bond Sean Connery
