The World-Renowned Cars Of James Bond

The World’s Best Known Spy Car

Gadgets, cars, and car chases have always been as much a central ingredient to James Bond movies as the agent and his bond girls themselves. Now, for the release of twenty Bond movies together on DVD, Fox Home Entertainment organized a rare treat for those Bond fans that are crazy about the Bond cars.

At the Rockingham Racecourse in England, James Bond stunt teams showed off the cars and their gadgets for a first-hand opportunity to being part of the Bond experience. Special Effects Supervisor Chris Corbould worked on altogether 25 James Bond movies and is sure that the cars are central to the series’ popularity. “The car gadgets are always favourites amongst the audience. The obligatory missiles coming out at the front are always a favourite”, said Corbould.

Amongst the cars on show were two fitted with gadgets that could either be remote-controlled or driver-operated. True to Bond-style, these cars are fitted with ‘missiles, rockets, and machine guns.’

Ex-James Bond veteran Roger Moore agreed to support the DVD release and for that dug deep into his James Bond-treasure box. Whilst he stayed away from the most hair-raising car chases, he remembered one scene in particular that did not fill him with too much enthusiasm.

“Most of the time they were doing the car chases and I was doing something else because they wouldn’t let me do most of them. One of the sequences I did not enjoy doing was driving the car in A View to a Kill without a windscreen. The top of the car being taken off, because it’s very difficult to drive at 45/50 miles an hour without anything protecting your eyes and also driving through traffic and knowing that traffic’s not necessarily going to stop when the policeman holds up a little round disk,” Moore said.

Since 1962, when the first Bond movie Dr. No, starring Sean Connery came out and started what was to become a cult series, the movies, the actors and the girls have been many. Spanning over 40 years up until now, there have been five James Bond actors and many more Bond Girls and with new James Bond actor Daniel Craig in the upcoming Casino Royale, the series looks set to continue to fly high. But earlier this year, the series appeared to have been struck by bad luck when one day after the last scene for Casino Royale was finished, the Bond stage at Pinewood Studios near London caught fire and burnt down.

Certainly from November 17, audiences will be able to judge for themselves whether 007 continues to be top of their list and how long still the cars will continue to make history at Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Reuters Press Release – 18 October 2006

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