This article titled “Shaken and stirred: Bond cars, boats and autogyros go on display” was written by Sam Wollaston, for The Guardian on Sunday 15th January 2012 14.43 UTC
Der ner, DER NER, dern der ner. Dum dididi der dum dum dum, dum dididi derr dum dum dum … That’s the James Bond theme, just in case you don’t read music. It’s hard to get it out of your head at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu in Hampshire at the moment. To celebrate half a century since the first film, Dr No, they’ve put together the largest exhibition of Bond vehicles ever staged. Fifty vehicles – lent by Eon Productions, by the Ian Fleming Foundation and by private collectors – for 50 years.
It’s not quite comprehensive; there are a few minor omissions. Like the Sunbeam Alpine in which Sean Connery was chased along a dusty Jamaican track by a black hearse containing the Three Blind Mice in Dr No. Nobody knows what happened to that car. In those days they just used to give them away at the end of a shoot. The Dragon Tank from the same film too – missing, presumed dead.
Most of them are here though. The silver-grey Aston Martin DB5 of course, the most famous Bond car of all, which first appeared in Goldfinger and has had cameo drive-on roles in recent outings. Here it’s parked up next to Goldfinger’s custom yellow and black Rolls-Royce Phantom III, chauffeured by Oddjob in the film. Also here is Cubby Broccoli’s personal Roller – a Silver Cloud II, which he foolishly lent to Grace Jones (playing May Day) in A View To a Kill. Foolishly because she pushed it into a lake. That scene was actually played by a body double – the car, not Grace.
If the Aston DB5 is the car most associated with Sean Connery’s era, then Roger Moore’s most famous wheels – and fins – must be the amphibious Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me. The underwater scenes were filmed in the Bahamas, and the vehicle on display here was recovered from a scrapyard there, where it had been painted red and bedecked with Christmas lights. Now it’s been restored to something like (it’s still missing a door handle) its former glory.
They’re better at hanging on to them now. The BMWs (Z8, the remote controlled 750iL, R1200C motorcycle) and more recent Aston Martins (V12 Vanquish, DBS) of the Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig films are all here. Before- and after-action models too – so some are dented and scratched and riddled with bullet holes after spectacular rolls and encounters with bad guys. I’d think twice about buying a second-hard motor from this guy – always check the “one careful owner” isn’t 007, that’s my advice.
It’s not just cars and motorbikes. There are parachutes, and underwater tow sleds. The crocodile mini-submarine from Octopussy is on display, as is Timothy Dalton’s (remember him?) cello case toboggan. Boats too, of course – a lovely wooden Fairy Huntress (could do with a lick of varnish) from From Russia with Love, and the speedboat that did the amazing levy leap in Live and Let Die. Plus planes and other airborne vehicles, like the Acrostar microjet from Octopussy. Remember Roger Moore pulling into a nowheresville gas station and saying “fill her up please”, very Britishly, to a bemused redneck pump attendant?
Little Nellie’s here too, the tiny helicopter from You Only Live Twice. Actually not a helicopter, but an “autogyro”, which uses an unpowered rotor to provide lift and an engine-powered propeller for thrust. Speaking down the phone from his home in Norfolk, Wing Commander Ken Wallis, whose baby Little Nellie was, explains. “The thing is, the rotor blades on top turn in the same ways as a sycamore seed falling from a tree,” he says. “It’s the exact opposite of a helicopter, and is naturally stable.” Hmm, it didn’t look that stable. Shaken and stirred I think.
Wallis, a former tactical weapons expert with the RAF, was invited to Pinewood Studios to demonstrate his flying machine to Cubby Broccoli who immediately approved it for the 1967 film. Wallis himself was approved too, to fly it, as not only was he the only person who knew how to and dared to, but also he was more or less the same build as Sean Connery. Soon he was buzzing around the crater of a Japanese volcano, being pursued by baddies in heavily armed helicopters. “They had to keep asking me to slow down,” he chuckles, “I was too fast for them, they couldn’t keep up.”
Wallis has lent Little Nellie to the Beualieu exhibition. He still owns her, and several other of his autogyros which he still flies. Not into Japanese volcanoes anymore, just above the fields of East Anglia. But then he will be 96 in April.
Bond In Motion opens at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, on Tuesday 17 January
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
