HIS WHEELS

Bond's best gadgets are contained in his cars.

In the books Casino Royale and Moonraker Bond drives a 4 1/2-litre Bentley with an Amherst Villiers supercharger (the car was a nod to Bulldog Drummond's identical Bentley). It was destroyed when it smashed into a heavy roll of newsprint set out by Hugo Drax's henchman Krebbs.

After that, Bond drove a Mark II Continental Bentley, reconditioned after the previous owner wrapped it around a telephone pole. Bond improved the power with a Mark IV engine with 9.5 compression, which allowed it to reach speeds of 125 m.p.h. In Fleming's words, "Bond loved her more than all the women at present in his life, rolled, if that were feasible, together."

In the book Goldfinger he was issued a company car: an Aston Martin DB III, with switches to change the color of the car's lights, reinforced steel bumpers, a secret compartment for a long-barrelled Colt .45, and a radio pick-up for a Homer device.

In the film version of Goldfinger, the DB III is replaced with a new DB V for movie Bond Sean Connery. It had even more features than the car in the book, including: rotating license plates, machine guns behind the front lights, a bullet-proof screen, a tracking device in the glove box, a smoke-screen, a three-point nail dispenser, an oil slick dispenser, and best of all, a passenger ejector seat.

He still drives it in Thunderball, and now it can somehow shoot hard jets of water at pursuers (this car exploded in Bond's garage during a failed assassination attempt in Warhead). But Pierce Brosnan's Bond is still driving one thirty years later in GoldenEye.

Bond only gets driven around by other people in You Only Live Twice, which is kind of symbolic of the entire film.

Bond (George Lazenby) also drives an Aston Martin in the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but it is a newer model: a sleeker DBS. We are not privy to any special features, other than a sniper's rifle in the glove compartment.

By the looks of Tracy at the end of the film, we know the glass is not bullet-proof.

In Diamonds Are Forever, Sean Connery returns, but the penalty for missing a movie is that he must drive an ordinary 1971 Mustang Fastback -- stock. But being a Ford, you can guess that its one feature is that it probably explodes on contact (his Aston Martin is seen back in London in one scene, its hood being loaded with a cluster of rockets inside the Q Branch).

In The Man With The Golden Gun, new Bond Roger Moore drives an 1974 American Motors Corporation Hornet X, modified with special suspension, a six cylinder engine (for reduced weight), centered steering wheel, and a special fuel system to stop the car stalling when turning over as it spun 360-degrees during a jump across a dilapidated bridge. Judging by the AMC's I've driven, he's lucky just to have made it up the ramp.

In the film The Spy Who Loved Me, Roger Moore's Bond is issued a white Lotus Esprit. It sprays paint on trailing cars, shoots small missiles overhead, and on top of all that it's a two-man submersible, and can travel underwater at a depth of 42 feet (amazingly with all of these features, they refused the turbo option).

Burglar-protected, it explodes when a bad guy tries to break inside in For Your Eyes Only.

Connery returned in Never Say Never Again driving that boring old Bentley again, and it's about as slow as he is. But he does get to drive a motorcycle equipped with jet propulsion, enabling it to speed-jump over moving vehicles in its way.

Timothy Dalton began his Bond tenure in The Living Daylights driving an Aston Martin Volante -- and now it really does shoot rockets.

Dalton's Bond drove a hardtop and a convertible, and it might be the most beautiful of the bond cars. (The hood ornament is not a naked Maryam D'abo, however, no matter what is pictured over the title of this page.)

The car was stocked with bullet-proof glass, a rocket jet propulsion unit behind the rear license plate, a head-up display on the windshield, studded tires, automatic missiles, protruding skis for driving on ice, and laser beam cutters.

Unfortunately the difficulty he has in inserting Kara's cello case betrays a lack of storage space. Then, proving that the latest Bond was no snob, he also drove a couple of Audis.

Bond's movie transportation changed once again in GoldenEye. Car and Driver said: "To the dismay of the British Empire, the allure of this BMW shot down Aston Martin's hopes of casting the new DB7 as James Bond's exotic mode of transport in his latest saga. Instead, he'll drive an American-made, German-designed ragtop. Well, everthing's gone to hell since Connery bailed out anyway."

When not on duty, the 007 of Pierce Brosnan in fact did drive the Aston Martin DB V from Goldfinger for personal pleasure -- but he drives a $30,000 BMW Z3 roadster at work. Newsweek did not approve:

"In the testosterone-driven world of James Bond--where the cars get upgraded almost as often as the women--speed is everything. Which is why PERI (the "Periscope" column) very nearly fell off its camshaft when it heard 007 was trading in his macho U.K.-made Aston Martin for a BMW. Must be fast, we said. Let's test-drive the Beemer. At BMW's North American headquarters in New Jersey, however, we found that the new Bond-mobile won't be available until '96--and even then, the Z3 will have a puny four-cylinder engine. Worse, it'll cost a measly $30,000--about what 007 nets in a night at the roulette wheel."
- Periscope column in "Newsweek" (June 26, 1995)

In response, Bond's wheels were upgraded to a $100,000 top-of-the-line BMW 750i saloon (and that's BEFORE the lasers and rockets), "aspen silver" in color, in scenes at Stansted airport near London for Tomorrow Never Dies.

But BMW really wanted to push that convertible, so for The World is not Enough, Bond is back in the latest version of that sissy Z-roadster.

Once again, it doesn't really do anything but shoot a rocket for old time's sake and collect some endorsement money for the producers. (Okay, it does have six cup holders.)

Worse yet, there's no backseat to score with the babes in!

John Gardner's Bond drove a Saab 900 Turbo for several books. It features a bright rear light to blind tailing drivers, its own fire extinguishing system, and a secret compartment for valuables.

After recieving an inheritance in Role of Honor, Gardner's Bond bought a Bentley Mussanne Turbo in British racing green with a magnolia interior. It has no special features, outside of a small concealed weapons compartment and a long-range telephone.

In 2006's Casino Royale, Daniel Craig wins a DB5 in a poker game, but his official car is the Aston Martin DBS, pictured above.

Bond stuntmen broke a world record for the number of times a car rolled in the stunt where Bond crashes as he avoids hitting Vesper in the street. The scene was devised using an Aston Martin DB9 that was especially modified to look like Bond's Aston Martin DBS V12 and reinforced to withstand the impact. Due to the low centre of gravity of the vehicle, an 18-inch (450 mm) ramp had to be implemented on the road tarmac at Millbrook Proving Grounds and stunt driver Adam Kirley had to use an air cannon located behind the driver's seat to propel the car into a roll at the precise moment of impact. At a speed exceeding 70 mph (113 km/h), the car rotated seven times while being filmed, and was confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records on 5 November 2006 as a new world record.

The car was put through even more rigorous roadtesting in Quantum Of Solace in 2007. The Aston Martin DBS V12 returned for the film's car chase around Lake Garda. Six Aston Martins were destroyed during filming, and one of them was purchased by a fan.

OTHER TRANSPORTATION:

Bond flies airplanes a lot in the films and does a lot of skydiving, but unlike his fearless cinematic namesake, when the literary Bond's plane hits turbulence in Live and Let Die, he grips his armrest until his hand hurts and swears, sweats and imagines all the horrible ways in which he can helplessly die.

For non-traditional transportation in the films, Bond has also used a jet pack (Thunderball), a rocket shooting mini helicopter (You Only Live Twice), a gondola/hovercraft (Moonraker), an iceberg/submarine (A View To a Kill), a fake alligator (Octopussy), a polaris missile that is actually a jet-propelled flying platform (Never Say Never Again), and even a fake manta ray (Licence To Kill). And you thought you had a lot of junk lying around in your garage...

...Of course, with all of these gadgets designed to take care of the bad guys, sometimes it doesn't leave the movie Bond with very much to do.

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