The Aston Martin DB10 from Spectre is the most exclusive car James Bond has ever driven (which doesn’t really make sense for a secret agent), but he has also driven some pretty mundane vehicles. Here are five of the least special cars that Bond has placed his expensive-suit-encased backside into.
Ford Mondeo
While it was a big deal at the time – Ford unveiling the all-new Mondeo in a gritty new Bond movie with a new actor in the role (Casino Royale) – what it actually translated into was an awkwardly long shot of Daniel Craig driving a rental car from the airport. It has only worsened over time, because now that particular model has been replaced by an even newer one so it just looks like Bond is a photocopier supply salesman on a routine call. “Do I expect you to talk? No, Mr Bond, I expect you to change the toner cartridge in the MP C401SP, send us six reams of A4 and also two reams of the fancy off-white slightly-thicker stuff for printing invitations.”
Citroen 2CV
The least likely car a secret agent would choose to try and escape in (running would be quicker and safer), the painfully slow 2CV even proved problematic during the filming of For Your Eyes Only, as the production team struggled to get it to go fast enough to be exciting.
Essentially sealing the Roger Moore-era Bond’s descent into comedy, the 2CV is also the unintended recipient of one of the best cross-promotion cock-ups in recent history after a young member of the team made a mistranslation when doing the brochure. So – for a short time at least – the 2CV 007 Edition was available with fake ‘bullet holes’ in English and fake ‘arseholes’ in French.
BMW Z3
The wimpy, underpowered 1.9-litre first-generation Z3 is widely derided as one of the most ordinary cars BMW has ever produced, so it isn’t exactly a badge of honour for Bond that it first appeared in GoldenEye. The Z3 allegedly packed stinger missiles and other weapons, but these are never seen. In fact, the Z3’s major screen time consists of Pierce Brosnan looking rather uncomfortable while driving it along an airfield, before unloading the least masculine car Bond has ever been seen in on CIA agent Jack Wade.
Still, it wasn’t all bad, as Brosnan was given an 850 CSi by BMW for his part in the humiliating exercise. Thanks to the Bond connection, the entire 1996 production run of Z3s was sold out before the car was even launched.
Renault 11
Not only was the Renault 11 taxi Bond thrashed literally to death in A View to a Kill a thoroughly ordinary car, it also came off looking particularly bad in the movie. Its roof was easily torn off by a barrier arm, then the entire back end of the car was smashed off by another vehicle.
To its credit, the car did keep going, but we can’t imagine that its appearance (and alarmingly easy destruction) in the film bolstered sales of the 11 in the way the Z3’s appearance in GoldenEye did. But then, this was a film that featured a climactic fight on a blimp over the Golden Gate bridge, Grace Jones as an improbably conspicuous assassin and Christopher Walken hamming it up in a role that was written for David Bowie. Realism wasn’t in the plan.
AMC Hornet
The AMC Hornet was a thoroughly ordinary car that AMC churned out for a rather remarkable 18 years (in one form or another). Still, with Bond behind the wheel, the Hornet did have its 15 minutes of fame in The Man With The Golden Gun when it performed the first 360-degree mid-air twisting corkscrew jump to be featured in a movie.
A huge amount of preparation went into the stunt, including a significantly modified Hornet (with the steering wheel and driver moved into the middle of the chassis). But it was all to be ruined when director Guy Hamilton decided to add a slide whistle sound effect over the jump scene.
This article first appeared on www.stuff.co.nz/motoring
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