Hi Everyone;
After our recent flurry of messages, traffic has dropped again. I
was musing about cars I haven't driven yet this year and lamenting
the early arrival of winter here in western Canada. We are suffering
under 10" of show and temperatures which are at least 10 degrees C
below normal. So much for global warming!
I realized that one car I had intended to drive this year is a real
"James Bond Car", in that a similar model was used as a feature car
in a James Bond movie. While not driven by Bond, it was a car used
by his antagonist. This was the AMC Matador Coupe which was
converted to a flying car in the movie "The Man with the Golden Gun".
Following this thought to its next conclusion, I wondered how many
James Bond cars - cars driven by Bond, his protagonists or
antagonists - I have owned over the years.
Allowing for differing years and slightly different models, here's my
list, which includes motorcycles. I haven't had many actual James
Bond cars (his feature cars) but do have a few related species. Can
any of you send yours to see how well "Bonded" we are? There might
even be a prize for the winner.
You can find a more or less complete (although they missed the
hearse) list at: http://www.carenthusiast.com/news0910/bond_4.htm.
There is another list with greater detail at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_James_Bond_vehicles
1961 Sunbeam Alpine (Dr. No)
1940 Cadillac (Pursuit hearse in Dr. No) Mine was not a hearse but a
Sixty Special sedan.
1966 Thunderbird (Goldfinger Felix Leiter drives special CIA vehicle)
1970 Lincoln Continental (Goldfinger - Oddjob's car which is crushed)
1976 Ford Ranchero (Goldfinger - Oddjob drove a '64)
1968 BSA 650 Thunderbolt (Thunderball motorcycle)
2002 Mustang GT Convertible (Thunderball - this one is a BIG stretch
chronologically but still a Mustang convert.)
1967 Ford Cougar (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
1973 Cadillac Eldorado (Pimp car driven by assassin in Live and Let
Die a Corvado - Corvette/Eldo combination)
1978 AMC Matador Barcelona Coupe (Man with the Golden Gun aircraft conversion)
1974 Lotus Elite 504 (The Spy Who Loved Me used an Esprit derived
directly from the Elite).
1978 Kawasaki 1000 Turbo (900 version used in "Spy who loved me".)
1983 Renault Fuego Turbo (Never say Never Again, Fatima's car)
There are probably more cars and motorcycles of less significance I
could add but this is a "sort of" list. It was fun to reminisce.
Hopefully some of you can do better with the "real" James Bond cars
than I have done.
John McEwen
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