SUNBEAM APLINE Bond hires a sleek Sunbeam Alpine to get around in Jamaica. What the Series II lacks in Q Branch extras, it more than makes up for in speed and sporting style.
FOR HIS FIRST cinematic car chase, 007 relies on his superior driving skills and the lively handling of his rented lake blue Series II Sunbeam Alpine convertible. Chased along Jamaica’s cliff roads by Dr. No’s assassins, Bond easily outdrives the ‘Three Blind Mice’ who are pursuing him – appropriately enough – in a hearse.
Produced by Rootes Group between 1960 and 1963, the Series II Alpine featured an enlarged engine and revised rear suspension. It was replaced by the Series III in 1963. The vehicle used in Dr. No was borrowed from a Jamaican resident and was one of only a few sports cars on the island.
MOON BUGGYBond has driven some unusual vehicles, but none more so than the moon buggy of Diamonds Are Forever – a machine based on the real-life lunar rover.
WHEN 007 NEEDS to escape from Willard Whyte’s research laboratory (where Blofeld’s satellite is being built) across the lunar-like landscape of the Nevada desert, the Bond filmmakers took NASA’s newsworthy moon buggy vehicle as their inspiration. Bond’s buggy shared certain features with the real lunar rover – such as the large, all-terrain wheels – but it was built for speed and cinematic appeal.
ASTON MARTIN DBS Elegant and powerful, the 1968 Aston Martin DBS was the perfect car for a new Bond. Free of gadgets, it proved to be a memorable vehicle for George Lazenby’s 007.
IN ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE, Bond’s car returned to being just that – a car, with no additional gadgetry or weapons, except one standard sniper rifle. The DBS appears at the beginning of the film, when Bond meets his future wife Tracy, and in the film’s final tragic scene, when he drives from his wedding in Portugal, only to be attacked on a coastal road by Blofeld and Irma Bunt.
Bond drives a DBS once more in Casino Royale (2006), a magnificent reimagining of the classic car.
TRIUMPH STAG Going undercover as diamond smuggler Peter Franks, 007 commandeers his criminal alter ego’s Triumph Stag to drive to Tiffany Case’s apartment in Amsterdam.
IN DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, Bond drives to Amsterdam in Franks’ convertible Triumph Stag to meet the diamond smuggler’s contact, Tiffany Case. Designed to follow in the tradition of the grand tourers of the past, the Stag was glamorous, fast and comfortable.
At Dover, MI6 agents, including Moneypenny posing as a customs officer, enable Bond to make the identity switch. Bond asks Moneypenny what gift she would like from Holland, to which she wistfully replies, ‘A diamond – in a ring?'
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