James Bond ditches Aston Martin for Bentley in `Devil May Care`

16-Sep-2007 • Literary

James Bond's Aston Martin has seen him through countless scrapes and become as closely identified with him as his "shaken, not stirred" dry Martinis.

But in his latest incarnation, the agent licensed to kill will trade it in for something less racy - reports the Telegraph.

In the new Bond novel, Devil May Care, 007 will conduct his missions in a Bentley. While Bond has been associated with Aston Martin since driving the DB5 model - complete with retractable tyre slashers - in the film of Ian Fleming's novel Goldfinger, Sebastian Faulks, the author of the new book, said he would take the agent back to his motoring roots. "Despite many of the films portraying him with an Aston Martin, Bond's first choice of car was a Bentley, so that is what he will be driving in my book," he said.

"He also spends quite a lot of time abroad on his adventure, so in want of a hire car, which wouldn't really befit James, he will also have a driver at his disposal."

Faulks, the author of Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, said Bond's car in the novel, which is set in 1967, would be "battleship grey" - the same colour as his Bentley convertible in Casino Royale, Fleming's first Bond novel. Bond's return to Bentley will be a blow to Aston Martin, which last week topped a poll of Britain's "coolest" brands. Inspired by the success of the recent film adaptation of Casino Royale, in which 007, played by Daniel Craig, drives an Aston Martin DBS, the cars have soared in popularity.

James Rosenstein, Bentley's global director of external affairs, said: "It is wonderful that somebody has decided to go back to the roots of the original book, to Ian Fleming's own tastes and to James Bond's passion for the cars."

He said that Bond's car could be the 1967 T-series Bentley, a popular model the year in which the novel is set.

Devil May Care, the 15th Bond adventure, will be published next May to mark the centenary of Fleming's birth. Set at the height of the Cold War, the action is played out over two continents and "several of the world's most thrilling cities", although the plot remains veiled in secrecy.

Faulks's Bond is "damaged and ageing" according to the author. "He has been widowed and been through a lot of bad things," he said.

"He is slightly more vulnerable than any previous Bond but at the same time he is both gallant and highly sexed, if you can be both."

Thanks to `Special Windler` for the alert.