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Since it’s original inception 46 years ago, the character of James Bond has become synonymous with espionage, beautiful women, exotic locations and luxurious cars. Indeed, over the course of 22 films and numerous novels (*and a recently announced 23rd film to come), James Bond as an action icon has an automotive legacy that includes some of the worlds finest automobiles.

James Bond has probably driven more different types of vehicles than just about any other screen character in cinema history. From the Sixties cool of a Sunbeam Alpine and Aston Martin, through the Seventies and Eighties with svelte Lotus Esprits, to the Nineties chic of BMW sportscars, and speeding into the 21st Century with Aston Martin’s beast of a car – the Vanquish, James Bond and the actors who’ve portrayed him have been behind the wheel of many of the worlds most desirable cars.

We’ll look at all of them in time, but as the depth of the list is rather extensive, for the sake of simplicity we’ll start at the beginning with the very first Bond movie, 1962′s “Dr.No”.

The first 007 movie is somewhat noteworthy for not showcasing the gadget loaded vehicles future films would feature prominently. Indeed, in this first cinematic outing for Bond, he drove a 1961 Sunbeam Alpine. Light blue in color, the Sunbeam was considered rather unspectacular in it’s day and the movie as such did not feature the car as anything more than what it was; a way to get Bond from point a to point b. It was a mere production model and did not have the cache of cool future vehicles driven by Bond would possess in spades. The same could be said of the cars featured in the second Bond movie, 1963′s “From Russia With Love”. James drove 4.5 Liter Bentley Sports Tourer (which was a favorite of Ian Fleming, author of the Bond novels), and was also chauffeured in a black Rolls Royce. While those two cars are certainly nothing to scoff at, it would not be until the third feature film in the series that Bond would begin to become synonymous with exquisite automobiles.

“Goldfinger”, released in 1964, was the first time James Bond would be assigned what was to become his signature vehicle: the Aston Martin. In this film, James drives an Aston Martin DB Mark III, which was originally designed for a specific purpose: racing. This car was the only gadget-laden vehicle to be mentioned in the original Bond novels, though author Ian Fleming generally avoided gadgetry in his books. It included switches to alter the type of color of the front and rear lights, reinforced steel bumpers, a Colt .45 pistol in a trick compartment under the driver’s seat, and a homing device similar to the DB5 in the film.

However Ken Adam, the production designer, and John Stears, the special effects supervisor, were still not satisfied. In the autumn of 1963, they visited the Aston Martin works in Newport Pagnell, in order to talk several modifications with a group of engineers. They chose what was then the fastest horse in the stall: a silver metallic Aston Martin DB5 (silver birch would have been the factory standard). According to the script, Bond was to escape with the car and then defend himself with it. To make this possible, the following extras were installed in the vehicle with the license plate BMT 216 A:

- Two machine guns which moved forward from behind the parking lights

- Smoke canisters, which were rigged to shoot out of the exhaust pipes

- A retractable bullet shield located in the cars tail end

- License plates that could change to reflect different countries of origin

- An ejection seat, rigged out of an fighter plane cockpit assembly

Also included were an oil spray device, a radar screen, a chamber which shot out nails onto the road, an extending front bumper and tire cutters that rotated on the wheel hubs.

Despite all of the added espionage and action related gadgets for the purpose of filming, the actual car was built with a specified power output of 330 horsepower and it’s top speed of 232 km/h was never handicapped by any of the extras necessary for the film.

Future articles will delve into the James Bond cars by decade, but the first signature James Bond car deserved its own dedicated write-up.

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Feb272011

Tags: 007, car registration, cars, entertainment, history, hobbies, James Bond, license plate, movies, Trucks, vehicles

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