Sasha says...

                                                        Motoring memoirs: Blog 19

There are quite a few things in my life that I really like. One of them is James Bond. If you recall a previous blog that I wrote, I did promise to dedicate a story to Bond cars. I won’t go through every Bond car, just some of my favourites. I remember watching The Spy Who Loved Me as a young boy and thinking that Barbara Bach was a goddess. Jaws freaked me out as a kid but I had faith in Roger Moore destroying the villain and saving the day.

Perhaps this is where my early love for motoring started. Actually, as I write this, it seems to make a lot of sense. Besides racing cars, road-going cars were not really big in my life at that stage. That was until James Bond showed off his stunning white Lotus Esprit in the above-mentioned movie. My life changed completely. It was when I saw that movie that supercars and sexy cars became real for me. I already knew a little about Colin Chapman and the Lotus name, but never knew that they made road cars – and the Esprit was exceptional. In the movie, the Esprit morphed into a submarine and basically became the first ever amphibious vehicle; albeit done with trickery. Q had outdone himself and James Bond just smiled as he emerged from the sea in his Lotus, which proceeded to drop its wheels and become a car again. He drove off across the beach as though it was just an ordinary day. Classic Bond.

He may not have been the best Bond actor, but Timothy Dalton drove some fine cars in his limited run as 007. My favourite from his time was the brutal and potent Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante. The Q department of MI6 had really specked this car out. Originally a convertible in the movie, it did appear as a hard-top as well. It came with all the Bond refinements, including extending side outriggers, spike-producing tires, missiles, lasers, signal-intercepting smart radio, heads-up display and rocket propulsion. It could also self-destruct when primed. Think about it – a heads-up display back in 1987! The Bond movies have always been ahead of their time. I have had the pleasure of driving one of these AM’s and it’s a monster of a car. The way it looks is the way it goes – fast and furious! What a machine.

I might as well stay with Aston Martin, so let’s give you a little background info. For those who are unaware, product placement is a massive business within the movie business. Every time you watch a movie and see a Coke can or a bottle of J&B or a Sony-Ericsson mobile, believe me, someone has paid top dollar for it to be there. With James Bond movies, there was no exception. For many years, and the way that Fleming originally wrote the books, James Bond’s ideal car was the Aston Martin DB5. Now the first movies had the AM but as the years went by, Bond drove a Lotus, BMW, Mercedes, Renault and so forth. As product placement became more important, the makers of the Bond movies struck deals with the likes of BMW, where we only saw BMW vehicles in Bond movies. Then EON Productions struck a deal with Ford where we saw the likes of Ford, Jaguar and Aston Martin cars back in the fold. At that stage, Ford owned all three marques. Jaguar has now gone to India and Aston Martin is British owned once again (by Dave Richards).

OK, back to the cars. The Aston Martin DB5 has the dubious distinction of being the slowest car around the Top Gear test track but notwithstanding that fact, this car is one of the most beautiful ever sculpted. Its most famous role was in the movie Goldfinger but it has also featured in Thunderball, Goldeneye as well as mini appearances in Tomorrow Never Dies and Casino Royale (the new version). I mean who can forget that scene in Casino Royale where Bond is playing poker and he wins the DB5 from the creep Alex Dimitrios. Just by the way, Eva Green is my ultimate Bond girl.

Back to the DB5 – revolving number plates, pop-out machine guns from the indicator lights, bulletproof rear window etc. What a car it is/was. Another spectacular car in Bond movies was the BMW Z8.  Pierce Brosnan drove this gem in The World Is Not Enough. The Beemer was designed in homage to the famous BMW 507 roadster from 1956, and 007’s version was fitted with surface-to-air missiles and a remote control device. The Z8 was still in prototype form when the film was being shot, so the car seen on-screen is in fact a Shelby Cobra kit car with specially-built replica body panels. Unfortunately, an aerial buzz saw cuts the gorgeous Z8 in half during a harbour battle.

Now there are a host of other Bond cars, but these are my favourites and even though I have watched all of the movies, these ones stand out as being extraordinary. Now go and buy yourself the box set of James Bond and watch them all and check out the cars ....and the girls.