* Top 8 James Bond Cars Ever - Special Report *
#1
05-07-2012, 04:57 AM
* Top 8 James Bond Cars Ever - Special Report *
Top 8 James Bond Cars Ever - Special Report
We attend the “Bond in Motion: 50 vehicles 50 years” exhibit in Beaulieu and come away with our top Bond cars.
By Ian Adcock / Photo by the Author & Matt Cardy/Stringer/Getty Images
May 3, 2012
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In a unique exhibition the UK’s National Motor Museum at Beaulieu is celebrating 50 years of James Bond films by drawing together for the first time cars, bikes, planes, boats and other gimmicks from the 007 film franchise.
A previous exhibition in 2001 gathered nine cars together, but this year’s 12-month-long event is of a different magnitude. In addition to Eon Productions (producers of Bond movies), Beaulieu enlisted the help of the Ian Fleming Foundation as well as the Louwman museum in Holland and Florida’s Dezer car museum to source many of the cars displayed.
Video window may take a few moments to load...<CENTER></CENTER>
Perhaps not surprisingly, the most difficult car to secure was the most famous Bond car of all, the Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger. Initially Louwman was prepared to loan the car for only three months but was persuaded to double this when Aston provided a loan car as compensation.
At the exhibition’s opening were four Bond girls, including Britt Eckland, who starred as Mary Goodnight in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) with Sir Roger Moore, Eunice Gayson who played Sylvia Trench opposite Sean Connery in Dr No (1962) and From Russia With Love (1963), Jenny Hanley who played The Irish Girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) opposite George Lazenby, and Madeline Smith who Was Sir Roger Moore’s girl in Live & Let Die (1973).
Colin Salmon with the BMW 750iL from "Tomorrow Never Dies"
Other personalities present for the exhibition opening were Colin Salmon, who appeared as Charles Robinson in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999), and Die Another Day (2002), Commander Ken Wallis who built the gyrocopter ‘Little Nellie’ used in You Only Live Twice (1967), stunt driver Vic Armstrong who has worked on a number of Bond films, and Bond SFX supervisor, Chris Corbould who has worked on multiple Bond films, including Quantum Of Solace (2008), Casino Royale (2006) and Skyfall, which is currently in production.
Missing, though, were the men who have portrayed 007 over the decades including Daniel Craig who was filming Skyfall.
From October 26th, when Skyfall premiers, Beaulieu will get a car from the film, although it doesn’t know what, for the last two months of the exhibition.
Our Top 8 James Bond Cars Ever:
Aston Martin DB5
Gadget-laden star of Goldfinger.
Aston Martin DB5
Often claimed to be the most famous car in the world, the DB5 is the car most closely associated with James Bond following its debut in 1964’s Goldfinger and reprise in the following year’s Thunderball. It has also appeared in GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies and Casino Royale when Daniel Craig wins the car back in a poker game with Alex Dimitros.
Aston Martin DB5 in "Goldfinger"
The car used in the film was the first production DB5 built and over a 6-week period was transformed by special effects man John Stears and his team into a gadget-laden bespoke car that has won legions of fans ever since.
It seems difficult to believe now, but in 1968 an Aston Martin employee ordered that the original Bond car, registration number BMT 216A, have all its special equipment stripped out and rebuilt as a standard car before being sold. Fortunately its new owner reinstated the gadgets.
Lotus Esprit S1
Submersible supercar from The Spy Who Loved Me.
Lotus Esprit S1
Myth has it that the then Lotus PR man heard that Cubby Broccoli was planning a new Bond epic at the Pinewood studios, near London, and somehow contrived to have an Esprit parked outside Broccoli’s office so he couldn’t help but see the radical Giugiaro-designed mid-engine sports car.
Although Lotus provided seven body shells for the underwater action scenes, it only granted one road-going car, and when the filmmakers needed a second Lotus, Colin Chapman loaned them his own car.
The actual submersible version was converted by Perry Submarines and driven underwater by frogmen.
Lotus Esprit S1 in "The Spy Who Love Me"
It was the Ian Fleming Foundation that rescued the car on display from a Bahamian scrap yard back in 1993, where it had been painted red and covered in Christmas decorations.
Once recovered by the IFF it took the cars’ original builder three months to restore “Wet Nellie,” as it was affectionately called, to its original condition.
Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud ll
Cubby’s own car in A View To A Kill.
Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud ll
Persuading Cubby Broccoli to loan his own car for this 1985 film must have been a challenge for director John Glen.
Actor Patrick Macnee, who played Sir Godfrey Tibbet, later recalled how nervous he was every time he had to negotiate the wide car through the narrow equestrian gates that fronted the French château.
Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud in "A View to a Kill"
For the film Broccoli’s personal number plate, CUB 1, was replaced by 354 HYK while an engine-less double was pulled into a gravel pit by cable to simulate the scene where Bond escapes from the sunken car by breathing air from the car’s tires.
The Silver Cloud II had long been replaced by the Silver Shadow and was powered a 6.2-liter V-8, replacing the 4.9-liter straight six of its predecessor. Many consider these models to be the last of classically proportioned Rolls-Royces before the more angular and upright Shadow appeared.
AMC Hornet
Spectacular stunt from The Man With The Golden Gun.
AMC Hornet
In one of the most memorable action sequences 007 jumps the Hornet 40 feet over a Thai river in his pursuit of Scaramanga driving another AMC product, this time a Matador X Coupe that transforms itself into a small airplane. The highlight of the jump is a 360-degree barrel roll in mid air before landing on its wheels on the opposite bank. The stunt was performed by “Bumps” Willard in one take on June 1, 1974—not bad considering he had never performed the feat before.
AMC Hornet in "The Man With The Golden Gun"
The 5.9-liter V-8 Hornet with its distinctive Cragar S/S wheels was widened by two inches for the stunt, with a centralized steering wheel and floor-mounted automatic transmission. Dressed in black, the stuntman crouched between two dummies sitting in the front seats, representing Roger Moore’s 007 and Clifton James’ Sheriff J.W. Pepper.
Aston Martin V8 Volante
007 is reacquainted with Aston in The Living Daylights.
Aston Martin V8 Volante
With the appearance of Timothy Dalton as the latest Bond in this 1987 film, 007 once again gets an Aston Martin. Like Broccoli’s car, the Volante he is first seen in actually belonged to Aston’s then chairman and co-owner, the late Victor Gauntlett.
The ice driving scenes were filmed in Weissensee, Austria, using two coupes with at least five dummy replicas that were dumped in the snow. Apparently there was such a demand for replacement windscreens and bumpers from the set that there was a shortage of them at Aston’s Newport Pagnell factory.
Aston Martin V8 Volante in "The Living Daylight"
The 146-mph coupe featured a rear-mounted rocket booster, hubcap-mounted lasers, twin missile launches at the front, ice tires, police band radio and the infamous retractable outriggers that transformed the car into an unlikely skidoo.
Fluctuating temperatures during filming nearly caused a disaster when the ice started to crack and one of the cars nearly ended up in the lake.
Jaguar XKR
Aston versus Jag in Die Another Day.
Jaguar XKR
Ford wrested the bragging rights over the 007 franchise from BMW for this 2002 film. At the time the Blue Oval had a stable of brands that included the two sports car manufacturers as well as Land Rover and Volvo so the producers had wide selection of cars to feature in the film, including this XKR for Zao, the North Korean terrorist.
Jaguar XKR in "Die Another Day"
The Jaguar convertible is brimming with weaponry including a Gatling gun, mortar, 18 heat-seeking missiles and a hydraulic battering ram that is even more formidable than Bond’s Aston.
Special effects supervisor Chris Corbould modified a quartet of XKRs for the final chase sequence that was filmed on Iceland’s Jökulsárlón lagoon where the Jaguar ends up falling into the freezing water. This particular car is the only one that was fitted with a full suite of weapons.
Aston Martin DBS
A new Aston and a new 007 in Casino Royale remake.
Aston Martin DBS
The DBS has links going back to George Lazenby’s 1969 On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and Aston used the debut of a new 007, played by Daniel Craig for the first time, to launch its latest near-200-mph supercar, the DBS.
For one of Q’s cars it’s quite modest really, featuring only a concealed Walther P99 with silencer, a Medipac and a computer link to MI6, although it is the latter two that Vesper uses to save Bond from certain death.
Aston Martin DBS in "Casino Royale"
However, it is the 7¾ rolls (verified by the Guinness Book of Records) for which the film is probably best remembered. The producers quickly realized that the standard ramp was insufficient to flip the car so they installed an air-powered cannon behind the driver’s seat that punched a cylinder into the road instantly flipping the car.
Video window may take a few moments to load...<CENTER></CENTER>
Stuntman Adam Kirley had to time the cannon release at precisely the right moment while driving at 80 mph. Otherwise, he would have sent the car and himself into the trees.
Mercury Cougar XR7
American muscle takes on Minis in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Mercury Cougar XR7
Gadgets were strictly limited for George Lazenby’s one and only role as 007 in this 1969 film; instead the producers opted for a series of breathtaking stunts and driving sequences featuring this car driven by Tracy Di Vecenzo, played by Shakespearean actress and former leather-clad Avenger Diana Rigg. Tracy’s car is 1969 Cougar powered by a 428 Cobra Jet with Ram Air induction and a wide bonnet scoop, said to develop 335 bhp…though it’s more likely to be nearer 400 bhp given its searing pace in the chase scenes.
Mercury Cougar XR7 in "On Her Majesty’s Secret Service"
Although stunt and rally drivers did most of the ice driving, a plucky Diana Rigg was at the wheel for some of the shots.
Three of the film’s Cougars are thought to have survived with this one, complete with the original bodywork damage, from a Swedish collector.
We attend the “Bond in Motion: 50 vehicles 50 years” exhibit in Beaulieu and come away with our top Bond cars.
By Ian Adcock / Photo by the Author & Matt Cardy/Stringer/Getty Images
May 3, 2012
Slideshow >>What would Bond drive? >><!--/photos-video-wrapper-->
<!-- /Main photo wrapper --><!-- test output end: --><!-- the article, at a glance, downloads, top competitors, from buying guide --><!-- left column -->Jump down to The Top 8 James Bond Cars Ever >>
In a unique exhibition the UK’s National Motor Museum at Beaulieu is celebrating 50 years of James Bond films by drawing together for the first time cars, bikes, planes, boats and other gimmicks from the 007 film franchise.
A previous exhibition in 2001 gathered nine cars together, but this year’s 12-month-long event is of a different magnitude. In addition to Eon Productions (producers of Bond movies), Beaulieu enlisted the help of the Ian Fleming Foundation as well as the Louwman museum in Holland and Florida’s Dezer car museum to source many of the cars displayed.
Video window may take a few moments to load...<CENTER></CENTER>
Perhaps not surprisingly, the most difficult car to secure was the most famous Bond car of all, the Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger. Initially Louwman was prepared to loan the car for only three months but was persuaded to double this when Aston provided a loan car as compensation.
At the exhibition’s opening were four Bond girls, including Britt Eckland, who starred as Mary Goodnight in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) with Sir Roger Moore, Eunice Gayson who played Sylvia Trench opposite Sean Connery in Dr No (1962) and From Russia With Love (1963), Jenny Hanley who played The Irish Girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) opposite George Lazenby, and Madeline Smith who Was Sir Roger Moore’s girl in Live & Let Die (1973).
Colin Salmon with the BMW 750iL from "Tomorrow Never Dies"
Other personalities present for the exhibition opening were Colin Salmon, who appeared as Charles Robinson in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999), and Die Another Day (2002), Commander Ken Wallis who built the gyrocopter ‘Little Nellie’ used in You Only Live Twice (1967), stunt driver Vic Armstrong who has worked on a number of Bond films, and Bond SFX supervisor, Chris Corbould who has worked on multiple Bond films, including Quantum Of Solace (2008), Casino Royale (2006) and Skyfall, which is currently in production.
Missing, though, were the men who have portrayed 007 over the decades including Daniel Craig who was filming Skyfall.
From October 26th, when Skyfall premiers, Beaulieu will get a car from the film, although it doesn’t know what, for the last two months of the exhibition.
Our Top 8 James Bond Cars Ever:
Aston Martin DB5
Gadget-laden star of Goldfinger.
Aston Martin DB5
Often claimed to be the most famous car in the world, the DB5 is the car most closely associated with James Bond following its debut in 1964’s Goldfinger and reprise in the following year’s Thunderball. It has also appeared in GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies and Casino Royale when Daniel Craig wins the car back in a poker game with Alex Dimitros.
Aston Martin DB5 in "Goldfinger"
The car used in the film was the first production DB5 built and over a 6-week period was transformed by special effects man John Stears and his team into a gadget-laden bespoke car that has won legions of fans ever since.
It seems difficult to believe now, but in 1968 an Aston Martin employee ordered that the original Bond car, registration number BMT 216A, have all its special equipment stripped out and rebuilt as a standard car before being sold. Fortunately its new owner reinstated the gadgets.
Lotus Esprit S1
Submersible supercar from The Spy Who Loved Me.
Lotus Esprit S1
Myth has it that the then Lotus PR man heard that Cubby Broccoli was planning a new Bond epic at the Pinewood studios, near London, and somehow contrived to have an Esprit parked outside Broccoli’s office so he couldn’t help but see the radical Giugiaro-designed mid-engine sports car.
Although Lotus provided seven body shells for the underwater action scenes, it only granted one road-going car, and when the filmmakers needed a second Lotus, Colin Chapman loaned them his own car.
The actual submersible version was converted by Perry Submarines and driven underwater by frogmen.
Lotus Esprit S1 in "The Spy Who Love Me"
It was the Ian Fleming Foundation that rescued the car on display from a Bahamian scrap yard back in 1993, where it had been painted red and covered in Christmas decorations.
Once recovered by the IFF it took the cars’ original builder three months to restore “Wet Nellie,” as it was affectionately called, to its original condition.
Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud ll
Cubby’s own car in A View To A Kill.
Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud ll
Persuading Cubby Broccoli to loan his own car for this 1985 film must have been a challenge for director John Glen.
Actor Patrick Macnee, who played Sir Godfrey Tibbet, later recalled how nervous he was every time he had to negotiate the wide car through the narrow equestrian gates that fronted the French château.
Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud in "A View to a Kill"
For the film Broccoli’s personal number plate, CUB 1, was replaced by 354 HYK while an engine-less double was pulled into a gravel pit by cable to simulate the scene where Bond escapes from the sunken car by breathing air from the car’s tires.
The Silver Cloud II had long been replaced by the Silver Shadow and was powered a 6.2-liter V-8, replacing the 4.9-liter straight six of its predecessor. Many consider these models to be the last of classically proportioned Rolls-Royces before the more angular and upright Shadow appeared.
AMC Hornet
Spectacular stunt from The Man With The Golden Gun.
AMC Hornet
In one of the most memorable action sequences 007 jumps the Hornet 40 feet over a Thai river in his pursuit of Scaramanga driving another AMC product, this time a Matador X Coupe that transforms itself into a small airplane. The highlight of the jump is a 360-degree barrel roll in mid air before landing on its wheels on the opposite bank. The stunt was performed by “Bumps” Willard in one take on June 1, 1974—not bad considering he had never performed the feat before.
AMC Hornet in "The Man With The Golden Gun"
The 5.9-liter V-8 Hornet with its distinctive Cragar S/S wheels was widened by two inches for the stunt, with a centralized steering wheel and floor-mounted automatic transmission. Dressed in black, the stuntman crouched between two dummies sitting in the front seats, representing Roger Moore’s 007 and Clifton James’ Sheriff J.W. Pepper.
Aston Martin V8 Volante
007 is reacquainted with Aston in The Living Daylights.
Aston Martin V8 Volante
With the appearance of Timothy Dalton as the latest Bond in this 1987 film, 007 once again gets an Aston Martin. Like Broccoli’s car, the Volante he is first seen in actually belonged to Aston’s then chairman and co-owner, the late Victor Gauntlett.
The ice driving scenes were filmed in Weissensee, Austria, using two coupes with at least five dummy replicas that were dumped in the snow. Apparently there was such a demand for replacement windscreens and bumpers from the set that there was a shortage of them at Aston’s Newport Pagnell factory.
Aston Martin V8 Volante in "The Living Daylight"
The 146-mph coupe featured a rear-mounted rocket booster, hubcap-mounted lasers, twin missile launches at the front, ice tires, police band radio and the infamous retractable outriggers that transformed the car into an unlikely skidoo.
Fluctuating temperatures during filming nearly caused a disaster when the ice started to crack and one of the cars nearly ended up in the lake.
Jaguar XKR
Aston versus Jag in Die Another Day.
Jaguar XKR
Ford wrested the bragging rights over the 007 franchise from BMW for this 2002 film. At the time the Blue Oval had a stable of brands that included the two sports car manufacturers as well as Land Rover and Volvo so the producers had wide selection of cars to feature in the film, including this XKR for Zao, the North Korean terrorist.
Jaguar XKR in "Die Another Day"
The Jaguar convertible is brimming with weaponry including a Gatling gun, mortar, 18 heat-seeking missiles and a hydraulic battering ram that is even more formidable than Bond’s Aston.
Special effects supervisor Chris Corbould modified a quartet of XKRs for the final chase sequence that was filmed on Iceland’s Jökulsárlón lagoon where the Jaguar ends up falling into the freezing water. This particular car is the only one that was fitted with a full suite of weapons.
Aston Martin DBS
A new Aston and a new 007 in Casino Royale remake.
Aston Martin DBS
The DBS has links going back to George Lazenby’s 1969 On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and Aston used the debut of a new 007, played by Daniel Craig for the first time, to launch its latest near-200-mph supercar, the DBS.
For one of Q’s cars it’s quite modest really, featuring only a concealed Walther P99 with silencer, a Medipac and a computer link to MI6, although it is the latter two that Vesper uses to save Bond from certain death.
Aston Martin DBS in "Casino Royale"
However, it is the 7¾ rolls (verified by the Guinness Book of Records) for which the film is probably best remembered. The producers quickly realized that the standard ramp was insufficient to flip the car so they installed an air-powered cannon behind the driver’s seat that punched a cylinder into the road instantly flipping the car.
Video window may take a few moments to load...<CENTER></CENTER>
Stuntman Adam Kirley had to time the cannon release at precisely the right moment while driving at 80 mph. Otherwise, he would have sent the car and himself into the trees.
Mercury Cougar XR7
American muscle takes on Minis in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Mercury Cougar XR7
Gadgets were strictly limited for George Lazenby’s one and only role as 007 in this 1969 film; instead the producers opted for a series of breathtaking stunts and driving sequences featuring this car driven by Tracy Di Vecenzo, played by Shakespearean actress and former leather-clad Avenger Diana Rigg. Tracy’s car is 1969 Cougar powered by a 428 Cobra Jet with Ram Air induction and a wide bonnet scoop, said to develop 335 bhp…though it’s more likely to be nearer 400 bhp given its searing pace in the chase scenes.
Mercury Cougar XR7 in "On Her Majesty’s Secret Service"
Although stunt and rally drivers did most of the ice driving, a plucky Diana Rigg was at the wheel for some of the shots.
Three of the film’s Cougars are thought to have survived with this one, complete with the original bodywork damage, from a Swedish collector.
Last edited by Space; 05-07-2012 at 05:01 AM.
#2
05-07-2012, 04:58 AM
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