CELEBRATE 50 YEARS OF 007'S MACHINES AT THE NATIONAL MOTOR MUSEUM
It was Sean Connery’s impeccable “Bond, James Bond” in DR. NO that introduced an enthusiastic 1962 audience to a character who was to define the expression “licence to kill”. But it was a little Sunbeam Alpine series II convertible that set the pace for what has become possibly the most enduring, iconic symbol of the entire 50 years of the franchise: the James Bond car.
That Sunbeam – with its blue coat, white wheel rims and a chassis so
small that 007 is forced to drive with his elbow hanging out of the
window – may not have had the muscle of the imposter British Embassy
Chevrolet Bel Air (the first car to ever appear in a Bond film), nor the
grunt of the CIA Chevrolet Impala (which in fairness had only a cameo
role). But when Bond looks in his mirror, realises there’s a LaSalle
hearse on his tail, grits his teeth and stamps hard on the gas, the
Sunbeam did what all subsequent 007 machines would set out to achieve:
it raised the hairs on the back of your neck.
Since then,
Bondmobiles have increased both in size and ambition, with their
appearances hotly anticipated by generations of moviegoers, all eager to
see what cleverness Q has rustled up this time (the gadgets,
incidentally, first arrived in the following film, FROM RUSSIA WITH
LOVE, with the arrival of Q’s legendary “ordinary black leather case”
that included a knife, sniper rifle and a teargas canister disguised as
talcum powder). From the ejector seat in GOLDFINGER's Aston Martin DB5
and the subaquatic skills of the THE SPY WHO LOVED ME’s Lotus Esprit S1,
to the invisible Aston Martin Vanquish in DIE ANOTHER DAY, 007’s cars
have remained as enduring as the agent himself, providing a celluloid
cool factor that no amount of Savile Row suits and shaken martinis could
ever muster. Now, thanks to the National Motor Museum, the cars are
coming together in what promises to be the largest exhibition of its
kind anywhere in the world.
To celebrate 50 years of Bond, the
National Motor Museum at Beaulieu has brought together 50 iconic 007
vehicles. That little Sunbeam Alpine is sadly missing in action
somewhere in the world, but a whole fleet of cars will be on show,
including not only such luminaries as Auric Goldfinger’s 1937
Rolls-Royce Phantom III, the trusty DB5, and the BMW 750iL from TOMORROW
NEVER DIES, but also fan favourites such as the Parahawk
paraglider/snowmobile hybrid from THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and the
original cello case that Timothy Dalton skied down a mountain in THE
LIVING DAYLIGHTS.
To cap it all off, 2012 also marks the museum’s 40th anniversary, giving you access to an entire history of motoring, with over 250 cars covering everything from land speed record breakers to the latest F1 racing cars.
The exhibition, Bond In Motion, launches on January 16th. It opens to the public the following day and runs until December 2012, at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, New Forest. For more information call 01590 612345 or visit www.beaulieu.co.uk
