Yes, sir, this really is James Bond`s car - a look back at the literary 007
30-Jan-2006 • Literary
Share the Story
Ian Fleming's 007 was subtler than the movies' gadget freak. The Scottish-born secret agent was successful with women, liked his Martinis shaken not stirred, was a superb golfer, gambler and lover. He showed exquisite taste in everything, Rolex Oyster watch, Saxone golf shoes, and whatever he drank, smoked, ate, drove or shot with.
Any gun wouldn't do. Bond used a Smith & Wesson .38 Centennial Airweight, and a Walther PPK 7.65mm with a Berns-Martin triple-draw holster. Fleming did not get the guns right first time. Bond had to change on instructions from "M", after Glasgow gun expert Geoffrey Boothroyd pointed out that no special agent would be seen dead with a .25 Beretta automatic: "A lady's gun, and not a really nice lady at that". Fleming cast him as Major Boothroyd, 007's armourer.
There was no doubt about the car. Casino Royale in 1953: "Bond's car was his only personal hobby. One of the last of the 4½ litre Bentleys with the supercharger by Amherst-Villiers he had bought it almost new in 1933 and kept it in careful storage throughout the war. It was still serviced every year and, in London, a former Bentley mechanic, who worked in a garage near Bond's Chelsea flat, tended it with jealous care. Bond drove it hard and well with an almost sensual pleasure. It was a battleship-grey convertible coupe, and it was capable of touring at ninety with thirty miles an hour in reserve."
As a young reporter Fleming was devoted to cars, and in 1930 reported the Le Mans 24 Hours race, on assignment for Reuters. He witnessed the contest between the 6.6 litre Bentley Speed Six of Woolf Barnato and Glen Kidston, against the Teutonic splendour of a 7.1 litre SS Mercedes-Benz.
Fleming knew the Bentley Boys well, although preferred the down to earth mechanics, yet was delighted when Bentley won. This was British Racing Green versus Deutschland über alles, even though the odds certainly favoured Bentleys. Six were ranged against the lone Mercedes although it continued gallantly until the small hours of the second day. According to team chief Alfred Neubauer it went out with a flat battery, but WO Bentley said water and oil were pouring from it.
The great white Mercedes with its wailing supercharger, driven by Rudolph Caracciola and Christian Werner, made such an impression that Fleming recast the duel in Moonraker. Bond's 1930 4½ litre Bentley engaged in a thrilling chase with villain Hugo Drax's Mercedes. Only treachery led to the Bentley being wrecked. Superchargers fascinated Fleming and his friend Amherst Villiers, who coerced WO Bentley into supercharging. Bond's cars often had superchargers even when their real-life equivalents did not.
In Diamonds are Forever Bond's CIA colleague Felix Leiter introduced the Studillac explaining: "You couldn't have anything better than this body. Designed by the Frenchman Raymond Loewy. Best designer in the world." It was not a complete invention. It was a disguised Studebaker Avanti like one Fleming was coaxed to buy following an appreciative letter from Loewy. The car was a disaster. Loewy's plastic bodywork was pretentious, the Avanti suffered from axle tramp, and slithered perilously on skinny American tyres. A small engraved plate in the glove compartment reminded the driver that the tyres were suitable only for "ordinary motoring", whatever that meant.
The Paxton belt-driven supercharger was little more than a fan wafting a gentle breeze through the carburettor. The Avanti did 120mph, although no more than 11mpg, and it was no surprise Studebaker went out of business soon afterwards. Bond must have been brave to drive one, although Fleming averred in the Motor around 1962 that it was, "a bomb of a motor car. It has cut my drive from London to Sandwich by 20 minutes, just on those Bendix disc brakes."
He said not a word on the skinny tyres. "The tremendous rattle of the exhaust note as that big supercharged V8 goes through maximum torque makes you feel young again. You have to be careful not to burn the rubber off."
The Avanti may have been a lapse of taste, but Fleming was on firmer ground when he put 007 back in a Bentley.
When On Her Majesty's Secret Service Bond thought up some modifications of his own, for the Continental that replaced his Mark VI, and the wrecked 4½. This car had an R-type chassis with "the big 6 engine and a 13:40 back axle ratio. Against the solemn warnings of Rolls-Royce, he had fitted, by his pet expert at the headquarters motor pool, an Arnott supercharger controlled by a magnetic clutch. When he told Rolls-Royce what he had done they regretfully but firmly withdrew their guarantee." One expects they would.
Bond's "Mark II Continental Bentley that some rich idiot had married to a telegraph pole on the Great West Road," featured in Thunderball, 1961. Bond got Mulliner the coachbuilder to rebuild it as a two-seater and, "fitted a Mark IV engine with 9.2 compression." Not a convincing combination.
In 1931 Fleming drove in the Alpine Rally with Donald Healey, winning their class in a 4.5 litre Invicta. In his later years, like so many prototype Meldrews, however, the novelist grew critical. Two women in a car, he said, would sooner or later look into each other's eyes. When there were four women the two in the front would eventually turn round to those in the back. He didn't like dangling dollies, steering wheel covers, and string-backed driving gloves. He disliked Ecosse plates and too many club badges.
What he would have thought of the BMWs, Lotuses, Jaguars and other common cars that film Bonds have driven, is open to conjecture. The Aston Martin with the ejection seat is best overlooked. It may have been the best Corgi toy for 41 years but it was not very suitable for a secret agent.
Discuss this news here...
