How To Drive Like James Bond

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Let’s get something clear right from the off, there is absolutely nothing on earth like driving the Aston Martin DB5 Goldfinger Continuation. After 90 minutes at the wheel of a test drive that takes us from Stoke Park (the setting of course for Bond and Goldfinger’s legendarily testy golf game) to Aston Martin’s factory at Newport Pagnell, 007.com can confirm that it’s a car that elicits extraordinary outbursts of affection not just from the driver but in pretty much everyone who sees the car in action in real life. Afternoon drinkers sat outside a bucolic village pub pause their pints and wave as we glide by, an elderly gentleman doffs his cap, passengers take snaps from passing cars, truck drivers honk their horns and a cyclist coming in the opposite direction is so overwhelmed that he punches the air and whoops with childlike joy as he whips past us. The car is a celebrity itself and everyone seems to recognise it as “the James Bond car”. Ironically bearing in mind its enormous cachet as “the most famous car in the world”, less than 900 DB5’s were actually ever produced between 1963 and 1965 with the last one rolling off the production line at Aston Martin’s Newport Pagnell factory some 55 years ago.

Following on from the incredibly successful DB4 GT Continuation in 2017, the 25 DB5 Goldfinger Continuation models recently started production in association with EON, with the car’s array of extraordinarily impressive and fully-operational gadgetry created under the stewardship of long-time 007 special effects supremo Chris Corbould, who has worked on 15 Bond films since 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me.

So what exactly do you get for your two and three quarter million pounds (plus taxes)? Well, certainly nothing in the way of mod-cons. No power steering, bluetooth or even airbags – the car isn’t road legal (the model that 007.com got to drive is a specially adapted test car). But it does have electric windows and a boot full of star power. For starters there’s a rear smoke-screen delivery system, front and rear revolving number plates, a simulated oil slick delivery system (it uses a dye to make the water look like oil), twin front-mounted .30-calibre Browning machine guns (along with the tyre slasher, unsurprisingly also simulated), a bullet resistant pop-up rear shield (that was genuinely tested on a firing range), front and rear battering rams, rear smoke machines and once you’re in the cabin you’ll find the classic radar screen map (which simulates tracking one of Goldfinger’s henchmen with the radar beep sound effect taken from the film), a phone in the driver’s door, a weapons tray under the driver’s seat and of the course the legendary flip-top gear change knob that, sadly, doesn’t fire a working ejector seat – but at least the removable panel above it is indeed cut out from the roof. The extraordinarily powerful urge to deploy some of the gadgets as you bomb along is only resistible because all the special effects gubbins have been disabled until the car is stationary. At that point you can simply use the handy remote that comes with the vehicle to show off all its show-stopping secrets. And you will want to show them off.

The nearly-three-million-pound question is of course, what’s it actually like to drive this ultimate collector’s toy? Well, it’s a driver’s car in the truest sense of the meaning; it demands your unbridled attention and your absolute respect at all times. Corners will take slightly more toll on the forearms than you might be used to from driving modern cars; the driving position is best described as “cosy” for anyone approaching the six foot mark (though the cabin itself is breathtakingly beautiful) and the 4.0-litre naturally aspirated inline six-cylinder engine is no match for today’s road-tuned performance cars. None of which really matters though of course. Aston Martin have a true-ism that states that their drivers don’t use their cars to go from A to B but rather A to A, that is, they use them for the pleasure of the drive. And 90 minutes in the front seat of this beautiful piece of automobile artistry is ample proof of that.

Each of these cars is meticulously hand crafted by the world’s most respected and experienced Aston Martin engineers and creators, a process that takes around 4,500 hours to complete. It’s an extraordinary application of modern production techniques to a hands-on classic car build – an original DB5 was put though a millimeter by millimetre CT scan to identify historic micro-irregularities in the engine block and chasis – meaning the new car is vastly refined and improved using cutting edge technologies alongside traditional hand tools and techniques that you’d have seen being employed in this workshop back in the early sixties.

It was Bond production design legend Sir Ken Adam who is credited with coming up with the idea of having 007 drive Astons, and he was part of the original team who approached (the initially wary) Aston management with the idea of the cars being used in the films – they later relented and lent the production team two cars to play with. Special effects supervisor John Stears was tasked with turning one of the Astons into Bond’s full loaded vehicle of choice. Stears said the first thing he did was make the hole for the ejector seat: “I marked it out, and taped off the roof of this beautiful car. I looked at it, went away and had a cup of coffee, came back, and got the drill, and drilled the hole. It was terrifying.” Director Guy Hamilton claimed the revolving number plates were his input, saying it would be “absolutely marvellous to collect a parking ticket and then juggle the number plate and drive off.”

There is a clear line from the work these Bond film legends put in to that one screen-used DB5 more than half a century ago to this new Aston Martin DB5 Goldfinger Continuation. Love, ingenuity, passion and even perhaps a streak of madness have been poured into both cars and you can’t help thinking they’d approve of this very special piece of Bond history.

 

New James Bond Video Game Announced

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James Bond will once again be coming to a console and computer screen near you. IO Interactive (Hitman), in collaboration with MGM, EON Productions and Delphi announced today that they are developing the very first James Bond origin story with the working title Project 007. Project 007 will feature a wholly original Bond story exclusively as a video game.

“It’s true that once in a while, the stars do align in our industry,” said Hakan Abrak, CEO of IO Interactive, “Creating an original Bond game is a monumental undertaking and I truly believe that IO Interactive, working closely with our creative partners at EON and MGM, can deliver something extremely special for our players and communities. Our passionate team is excited to unleash their creativity into the iconic James Bond universe and craft the most ambitious game in the history of our studio.”

Robert Marick, MGM’s Executive Vice President Global Consumer Products and Experiences, said, “James Bond has a strong legacy in the video game space, with some of the most iconic games of all-time based on the character. Working with our partners at EON and the talented team at IO Interactive, we plan to bring a new take on this legendary franchise to gamers and Bond fans around the world. IO Interactive are masters of crafting living, breathing worlds of immersive storytelling.”

The 50 Greatest Bond Cars Book

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50 Greatest Bond Cars features unforgettable cars from all 25 of the 007 films, starting with the most legendary of them all – the Aston Martin DB5. From the Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me to the yellow Citroen 2CV from For Your Eyes Only, this is the ultimate selection of James Bond’s classic automobiles. Also featured in the book are vehicles driven by Bond’s allies and adversaries, including Vijay’s Auto Rickshaw in Octopussy and Goldfinger’s iconic Rolls Royce Phantom III.

Alongside images from the Bond archives, 50 Greatest Bond Cars includes brand new detailed illustrations of gadgets, weaponry and distinctive features of each vehicle, making it perfect for Bond fans of all ages.

50 Greatest Bond Cars is available now at 007store.com

The Cars Of The Living Daylights

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The new book, Bond Cars: The Definitive History by Jason Barlow, is a celebration of the cars that have featured in all 25 of the 007 films. This excerpt focuses on the cars of The Living Daylights and the spectacular stunt on the ice lake in Austria…

In The Living Daylights, Bond heads to the Austrian border in a quintessential though now rather forgotten 1980s car, the Audi 200 quattro. This is one of two Audis he drives in the film (we also see him in a 200 Avant in Tangier). This third generation of Audi’s large executive saloon was a key car in the brand’s evolution: it arrived in 1982 at a time when the automotive industry was in thrall to aerodynamics (in marketing as well as practical terms), its slippery shape and flush-fitting glazing marking it out as an innovator in a category that remained generally conservative. The 200 quattro turbo was the pinnacle car, embellished in the film with split-rim BBS alloy wheels and then fashionable bodywork mods by well-regarded German tuner ABT Sportsline (which has an esteemed history in the DTM race series and more recently Formula E). If The Living Daylights is an unfairly overlooked 007 film, then the Audi is a rare-groove Bond car appreciated by fans who like to look a little deeper. (There’s also a notable cameo for a 1959 Chevrolet Impala, a car with previous Bond form.) Not least because it inevitably played second fiddle to a returning hero: Aston Martin. Absent for eight films and almost 20 years (if we set aside the brief glimpse of a DBS in Q’s workshop in Diamonds Are Forever, a scene that was actually filmed in Aston Martin’s Newport Pagnell base), the marque most associated with James Bond was now firmly back. ‘It was a great positive,’ Michael G. Wilson observed.

The positivity worked both ways: manufacturing and selling high-performance cars is a capricious business, and Aston Martin’s priceless association with James Bond has seen it through some difficult times. By the 1980s, the company was in the hands of charismatic businessman, car enthusiast and aviator Victor Gauntlett, whose success in the petrochemical industry led him to invest in Aston Martin at a time when recession threatened to finish it off. There’s little doubt that Aston Martin might have disappeared altogether were it not for his commitment, and the deal he brokered with Ford in 1987; there’s absolutely no doubt whatsover that it was Gauntlett who got the brand back into Bond, dealing directly with Cubby Broccoli.

Indeed, he even loaned his personal V8 Volante to the production, which is the car we see Bond driving as he arrives at the fictional Blayden House MI6 stronghold (filmed at Stoner Park near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire; note also the Rover 800 and a pair of Daimlers) for a debriefing with M and KGB defector Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé). Effectively an evolution of the DBS V8 that had appeared in 1969, the V8’s continued existence may have been proof of the company’s lack of development funds, but for many it still epitomised the great British sports car. Gauntlett’s Volante was fitted with a Vantage engine, but neither it nor any of the other three cars used in The Living Daylights were technically Vantages. And although we see Q ‘winterising’ the Aston by fitting a hard-top, the V8 (which Aston Martin refers to as a saloon, despite its coupé silhouette) that Bond then drives to Bratislava is categorically not a Volante with a roof. The producers bought three V8 saloons, all of which were prepared for filming by Aston, and seven fibreglass mock-ups were also constructed for the more brutal parts of the sequence. While Bond and Kara Milovy (Maryam d’Abo) are pursued as they head to the Austrian border, the Aston’s extensive suite of gadgets is revealed: there are lasers in the wheel hubs, retractable outriggers, heat-seeking missiles with head-up display, bulletproof glass, a jet engine hidden behind the rear number plate, a self-destruct mode, and a radio that scans for the local police frequency. At one point, the car also turns into a fishing hut, a (non-Q branch) disguise it quickly sheds; two barns were made, one of balsa wood that the car could drive straight through, the other on a frame that the Aston could effectively ‘drive’. ‘Unless you’ve got an unlimited supply of action vehicles, which you rarely do, they have to be nurtured and caressed, as they suffer constant abuse,’ John Richardson recalled.

The sequence on the lake was shot at Weissensee, southern Austria, but as it was January it was also perilously cold. This was a problem for both equipment and crew, as long-standing Bond special effects wizard Chris Corbould remembered: ‘It was 30° below out there. We had to fire the Aston Martin up a ramp to go over the top of a hut. Because of the extreme cold, we fired the car with compressed air but, instead of opening up quickly, the valves had contracted and opened slowly. Instead of firing off like mad, the car just went “blump” and straight into the hut. It was a total disaster. I went over to Cubby and said, “I’m terribly sorry.” “Don’t worry, we’ll come back tomorrow and do it again,” he said.’ Having tried to heat the valves up and insulate them, the crew found that Cubby had already paid for their drinks at the hotel bar when they got back that night.

The next day they regrouped. ‘Cubby sat in the same seat, we fired the car and it flew like a dream,’ Corbould recalled. “Was that better?” I said to him. He said, “Yeah, that’s exactly what I knew would happen…”’

Bond Cars: The Definitive History, Standard and Collector’s Editions by Jason Barlow are available to buy at 007Store

Bella Freud X 007 Collaboration

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Announcing an exclusive collaboration between British designer Bella Freud and 007. Spanning fashion and homeware, the partnership launches with a six-piece capsule featuring artwork and lettering hand drawn by Bella.

We celebrate the 1971 film with the Diamonds Are Forever womens jumper. This wool sparkle sweater is hand-embroidered in glittering silver chain stitch on dark blue.

9 carat gold turns a morning earl grey tea into something a little more memorable. Made of fine bone china, four villain mugs are emblazoned with the names of some of Bond’s most famous adversaries, printed in 9 carat gold lettering. Auric gets his own, naturally.

Bring a bit of Bond to the kitchen with a ‘The name is Bond’ cotton tea towel which can be found exclusively at 007store. ​

Discover the Bella Freud x 007 collection now at 007Store. ​

Accessorise like Bond with Turnbull & Asser

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Royal warrant holder Turnbull & Asser has introduced new accessories to its James Bond Collection. The heritage brand’s collection of Bond silk ties now includes six Brosnan-era pieces, from Tomorrow Never Dies (1995), The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002). For each film, Turnbull & Asser’s creative team worked closely with the costume designer to create a sleek, elegant look befitting a stylish 00 agent. Meticulously recreated using the original patterns from the Bond and Turnbull & Asser archives, these handmade designs are pieces of cinema costume history and a great gift idea for any fan.

Inspired by Bond’s love of a classic pocket square, a new hand-rolled white voile design has been introduced to the collection, using knowledge gleaned from the shirtmaker’s archived records. A pure white pocket square is a regular feature of Bond’s tailored ensembles and gives fans a chance to accessorise authentically.

Discover the full Turnbull & Asser James Bond Collection now at 007store.com

Geoffrey Palmer (1927-2020)

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Geoffrey Palmer, who played Admiral Roebuck in Tomorrow Never Dies, has passed away at the age of 93. Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said: “Our thoughts are with Geoffrey’s family and friends. He was a much beloved star of TV and film and a treasured member of the Bond family.”

Turnbull & Asser Launch James Bond Collection

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To celebrate their relationship with 007, Turnbull & Asser have launched a refined and expanded James Bond collection. Included are five new products, each piece a homage to those created for and worn by Bond on screen.

Turnbull & Asser’s long-standing connection with the James Bond franchise originates from Dr. No (1962). Terence Young, Dr. No’s director and a loyal Turnbull customer himself, dispatched Sean Connery to Jermyn Street ahead of his role as the very first Bond of the silver screen. It was this relationship that saw the creation of the now-iconic Dr. No shirt. 

Leading the new additions is a voile dress shirt inspired by the shirt made for Pierce Brosnan as James Bond in Die Another Day (2002) featuring a pleated front, double cuffs and the classic T&A collar. 

The James Bond Collection is available now at 007store.com 

Sir Sean Connery (1930 – 2020)

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Sir Sean Connery has died at the age of 90. He was the first actor to play James Bond on the big screen with Dr. No in 1962, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever followed.

Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have released the following statement: “We are devastated by the news of the passing of Sean Connery. He was and shall always be remembered as the original James Bond whose indelible entrance into cinema history began when he announced those unforgettable words — “The name’s Bond… James Bond” — he revolutionised the world with his gritty and witty portrayal of the sexy and charismatic secret agent. He is undoubtedly largely responsible for the success of the film series and we shall be forever grateful to him.”

Daniel Craig said: “It is with such sadness that I heard of the passing of one of the true greats of cinema. Sir Sean Connery will be remembered as Bond and so much more. He defined an era and a style. The wit and charm he portrayed on screen could be measured in mega watts; he helped create the modern blockbuster. He will continue to influence actors and film-makers alike for years to come. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones. Wherever he is, I hope there is a golf course.”

Sean Connery’s style, grace and sheer magnetism brought Ian Fleming’s character of James Bond to life. It was Connery’s interpretation of 007 that helped establish the foundation of success upon which the entire James Bond series has been built.

Born in Fountainbridge, Scotland, Connery had many jobs before he joined the Royal Navy hoping to see the world. Having served for three years as an able seaman assigned to battleships he was discharged and trained as a French polisher before deciding to enter the Mr Universe contest in 1953. He won a bronze medal in his weight division.  At the age of 23 he had a choice between becoming a professional footballer for Manchester United or an actor and he chose acting. His first major film role was in No Road Back in 1957, followed by parts in TV programmes and movies such as Requiem For A Heavyweight (1957), Anna Christie (1957), Another Time, Another Place (1958), Darby O’Gill And The Little People (1959), Macbeth (1961) and Anna Karenina (1961).

In the summer of 1961 Connery entered the Mayfair offices of Albert R Broccoli. His producing partner, Harry Saltzman and United Artists executive Bud Ornstein watched Connery stride across the street. “He moved,” Saltzman recalled, “like a jungle cat”. He would, they felt, be perfect for the role of James Bond.

He received a knighthood in 2000. In 2006 the American Film Institute awarded Connery a Lifetime Achievement award, and he is recognised as one of the most influential and successful actors of the past half century. He is survived by his wife Micheline Roquebrune and his son Jason.

Bond Cars: The Definitive History

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Bond Cars: The Definitive History is a celebration of the cars that have featured alongside the world’s most famous fictional spy. Written by Jason Barlow, editor-at-large for BBC TopGear, the book includes original call sheets, technical drawings and story-boards accompanied by previously unpublished photography and exclusive interviews.

With insights from the producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, as well as Daniel Craig, and special effects and action vehicles supervisor and veteran of 15 Bond films, Chris Corbould, this is the story of 007, told through the prism of the legendary cars he has driven.

Bond Cars: The Definitive History is available now at 007Store

Chris Corbould’s Top Five Stunts

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The special effects supervisor who’s worked on 15 Bond films, including the upcoming No Time To Die, picks his five favourite stunts…

1 GoldenEye (1995) – Tank Chase

“The tank chase in GoldenEye was originally a motorbike chase but after discussion with director Martin Campbell, I suggested we use a tank instead. Once we got the bit between our teeth the ideas snowballed from there and we dreamt up many bizarre and exciting pieces of action. We bought two or three Russian T54 tanks in England, and then we dressed them up to look like T80 tanks. We wanted to make it appear as if Pierce was driving the tank so we cut a hole in the top which took two days to do as it was six inches thick. The driver was actually hidden inside. The Art Department created a Russian street at Leavesden Studios and we also shot in St Petersburg. We were a bit worried about driving the 38 tonne tank along the old Russian streets with the danger of breaking pavements so I got my team to build a mock-up tank with dummy tracks mounted on a small armoured car. We got a lot of footage of that racing through the streets with the tracks going round but not actually touching the ground. I’d never seen anything done with a tank in an urban environment like that, so we felt like we were doing something original and exciting.”

2 Casino Royale (2006) – Venetian Sinking House

“I had built the odd room that had sunk before but when production designer Peter Lamont showed me his design for a four-storey high house he wanted to sink, it was a bit of a shock. It wasn’t something that we could do as a model because there’s so much interaction with Bond (Daniel Craig) and Vesper (Eva Green) combined with a shoot-out inside the building so we had to build it. It was a colossal rig, it could move 15 degrees on either axis, and the whole thing could sink 20ft into the water. We had massive air compressors underneath which, when it started sinking, would pump huge volumes of air into the water to make it look like the water was being churned up. It was a real labour of love building it, hats off to all my team, they put blood, sweat and tears into it.”

3 Skyfall (2012) – The Destruction Of Skyfall Lodge

“Director Sam Mendes was looking for a different ending to so I put my thinking cap on and wrote the sequence which ended up as the helicopter attack on the house. Sam said to me, ‘Well you dreamt it up so you should do the second unit on it’ so I had the honour of directing most of the sequence not involving the actors which was a big thrill for me. I loved the whole strafing of the house by the helicopter and seeing the wall of the lodge erupt, we must have put thousands of bullets into it. I loved the big explosion at the end. Rather than one explosion, we planned a series of them initiated in quick succession to give Skyfall Lodge the spectacular send off it deserved.”

4 The World Is Not Enough (1999) – Zukovsky’s Warehouse Attack

“This was technically pretty difficult. The first thing we had to work out was what to do with the helicopter. We couldn’t achieve what we wanted with a real one so we found the biggest tower crane in Europe, brought it to Pinewood Studios and suspended an engineless helicopter from its hook. We then put control systems on all the cranes movements which enabled us to determine the path and height of the helicopter with complete reliability and precision. The saws couldn’t actually cut anything so we had to make it appear like it was chewing through parts of the set and have sparks and debris flying everywhere. We also had to have a specially made BMW Z8 with the centre part of it replaced with a soft shell so when the fake saw cut through, it believably looked like it was being cut in two. It was a busy but rewarding sequence to film.”

5 Die Another Day (2002) – Ice Chase

“When the director (Lee Tamahori) said he wanted to shoot on an ice lake Vic Armstrong (2nd Unit Director) and myself looked at each other and both said, ‘Right we need to get the four-wheel drive versions of both the Aston Martin Vanquish and Jaguar XKR’. I visited Aston Martin with the request and discovered that they didn’t actually make them and I got the same response from Jaguar. Therefore we decided to convert four Astons and Jaguars into four-wheel drive. We then realised we were filming on an actual ice lake and there would be explosions so we needed to protect the drivers. So as well as fitting the cars out with all the gadgets (machine guns appearing from the bonnet etc) that looked impressive for the film, we had to preserve stunt driver safety and equip them with automatic inflation bags so if the car did go through the ice it wouldn’t sink to the bottom.”

Margaret Nolan (1943-2020)

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We are very sad to learn that Margaret Nolan has passed away at the age of 76. Margaret played Dink in Goldfinger (1964) and also appeared painted gold in the iconic opening credit sequence and on the Goldfinger poster. Our thoughts are with her family and friends.