It's been said that over half the world's population has seen at least one James Bond film. While perhaps just a bit of an exaggeration, we do know this for a fact: More than half the world's population have wanted to drive a Bond car at one time or another in their lives.
Fast, powerful and adorned with enough aftermarket goodies to give a whole new meaning to the term "fully loaded," the cars of James Bond are nothing short of amazing. From Europe's plushest coupes, to Japan's rarest exotics and Detroit's heaviest iron, James has a knack for showing up in vehicles that most of us only fantasize about.And argue about, too. Trying to pick a favorite from a list of Bond cars is like trying to get a group of mechanics to agree on their favorite pinup calendar. It's an impossible task--but that didn't stop us from trying. With Pierce Brosnan debuting a 460-bhp V12 Aston Martin Vanquish in "Die Another Day" in November, we felt it was time to look back at some of the more notable sports cars in which secret agent James Bond has gripped the wheel.
The competition was stiff, but we've distilled the candidates down to an elite baker's half-dozen. Call it the seven best of double-oh-seven.
Number 007: 1996 BMW Z3 Roadster
Okay, we admit that these ubiquitous two-seat roadsters have become something less than exotic in recent years. It seems that everywhere we go, there's a Z3 coming the other way. The little roadster that could is so popular it's now almost ho-hum. Sort of like a German Miata of the new century. Well, almost. The BMW Z3 is omnipresent for the simple fact that it's an honest-to-goodness great ride at a decent price. We'll forgive the fact that the schoolteacher next door bought one because it's "cute." Diehard street racers know that lurking under the hood is a prime example of Bavaria's best engineering. Couple that sweet German powerplant with a race-bred suspension, and you've got a win-win combination.
But Bond's Z3 in "GoldenEye" had a little more stuffed under the sheet metal than just a high-revving four-banger and speed-sensitive steering. The nifty radar screen in the stereo console was neat, but it was that pair of evil Stinger missiles mounted behind the headlights that sold us on this car. A few of those explosive babies, coupled with the bulletproof coachwork that Q built into the Z3, would certainly come in handy during rush hour on the roads around here. For that reason alone, the cute two-seat Bimmer makes our cut at number seven on the list of best-ever Bond cars.
Film: "GoldenEye"
Bond: Pierce Brosnan
Car: 1996 BMW Z3 Roadster; dohc 140-bhp 1.9-liter four-cylinder; five-speed manual, limited-slip differential
Special features: Rear-mounted parachute; Stinger missiles; SAT/NAV radar and tracking equipment; bulletproof cladding
Number 006: 1977 Lotus Esprit
Car enthusiasts love this car--or they hate it. There seems to be no middle ground in taste whenever an Esprit passes by. Critics have labeled designer Giugiaro's legendary wedge as everything from an underpowered doorstop to an overpriced spaceship. We say phooey. The later model Esprits, with their turbocharged four-cylinders and ground-pounding V8s, may be faster on the racetrack, but for us the 1977 Lotus will always be the vehicle that ushered in the very notion of a British supercar. And how can you not like a road vehicle that converts to underwater use so effortlessly? After Q's oh-so-prescient modifications, Roger Moore was able to survive an ersatz drop into the sea in "The Spy Who Loved Me" while being pursued by madmen in helicopters. This is clearly a feature that should come standard on any new car. You simply never know when madmen in choppers will come looking for you at the seashore.
Later model Loti continued to show up in subsequent Bond films, including "For Your Eyes Only," in which Q installed even more improbable off-highway equipment. He also fitted a rather Draconian anti-theft device that caused the car to self-destruct if any of its windows were tampered with. And you thought LoJack was effective.
Overzealous car alarms aside, the renowned 1977 Lotus Esprit makes our top-Bond car list at number six.
Film: "The Spy Who Loved Me"
Bond: Roger Moore
Car: 1977 Lotus Esprit; mid-engine, rear drive, dohc, 160- bhp 2-liter, four-cylinder; five-speed manual, limited-slip differential
Special features: Converts to underwater submersible vehicle; torpedo launcher; underwater vertical missile launcher; underwater mine ejector; compressed oil sprayer behind license plate (for those few times that you're actually on land)
Number 005: 1986 Aston Martin Volante V8
While a bit larger than your average sports car, this stunning vehicle made it to number five on our list for one simple reason: It was loaded with enough aftermarket equipment to give a SEMA rep a coronary.
You name it, this car had it. From wheel-mounted lasers (to keep other cars from passing), to retractable snow skis (in case you find yourself changing lanes on a black diamond ski run), this was the car that had it all. While techno-genius Q might have gotten a bit carried away again by installing another self-destruct car alarm feature, who among us haven't wished for a rocket booster mounted behind the license plate of our own personal daily driver?
We know we have. As a result, the cool Volante from "The Living Daylights" makes the grade at number five on our list.
Film: "The Living Daylights"
Bond: Timothy Dalton
Car: 1986 Aston Martin Volante V8; front engine, rear drive; quad cam, 350-bhp 5.3-liter; four-speed slush box, limited-slip differential
Special features: Front wheel hubs with lasers; heads-up display (HUD); front-mounted missile launchers; retractable tire spikes for ice and snow traction; retractable outrigger snow skis; rear-mounted rocket booster; self-destruct feature
Number 004: 1995 Ferrari 355 GTS
How can you not love a red Ferrari, especially when it's piloted by an evil femme fatale with the improbable name of Xenia Onatopp? Equipped with 400 bhp under the hood and a documented max speed in excess of 180 mph, the 355 is the lesser-known stablemate of the equally incredible F50. Both of these cars were notorious for their high-revving engines, racetrack-bred suspensions, and ultra-stiff bodywork. If you ever get a chance to pilot one of these prancing horses at speed, you'll likely agree that the experience is best summed up as an adventure in "shaken, not stirred."
In "GoldenEye," James Bond duels a firehouse red GTS in his own trusty Aston Martin DB5 on the twisting roads of Grand Corniche. In a later interview, Pierce Brosnan admitted that he accidentally left the hand brake on during the filming of these fast-and-furious sequences. And you thought only you did doofus things like that. We can all rest easy now, knowing that even secret agents have their off days.
Cooked brakes or not, the curvaceous 355 GTS makes our list of best 007 cars at number four.
Film: "GoldenEye"
Bond: Pierce Brosnan
Car: 1995 Ferrari 355 GTS; mid-engine, rear Drive; quad-cam 385-bhp 3.4-liter eight-cylinder; six-speed manual, limited-slip differential
Special features: Stock
Number 003: 1996 BMW Z8
Another BMW? But Monsieur Bond is British. What are we doing with another German convertible on the list? The answer can be summed up in a single word: Awesome. The incomparable BMW Z8 is wholly and completely an awesome car. Yes, it's the big brother of the aforementioned Z3 Roadster. But beyond BMW badges and similar paint codes, the differences between the two cars are astounding. Consider that the '96 Z8 came standard from Munich with a 5.0-liter V8 that cranked out 400 bhp and was capable of sustained autobahn cruising in excess of 155 mph. And that's in a ragtop, no less.
Because the first car had not quite made it off the assembly line in time for the start of movie production--and filmmakers were so desperate to get this ueber-car in "The World Is Not Enough"--BMW commissioned a British company to mock up a prerelease Z8 for the film. And mock up they did. The Bond Bimmer had a bevy of aftermarket features, including side-mounted missiles, remote-controlled steering and a "sonic" laser that allowed 007 to listen in on the bad guys' conversations. And did we mention the car came with six--count 'em--beverage cupholders. No kidding.
The good news was that James saved the girl and the world (of course) by the end of the movie. The bad news was our intrepid agent allowed the brawny Z8 to get decimated by a maniacal helicopter wielding a forest-cutting circular saw. Come on, James, get your priorities straight--this was a Z8, after all!
Alas, the one-off car was destroyed. But the big BMW nonetheless manages to come in at number three on our countdown.
Film: "The World Is Not Enough"
Bond: Pierce Brosnan
Car: 1996 BMW Z8 Roadster; front engine, rear drive; quad-cam 400-bhp 5.0-liter V8 with variable valve timing; six-speed manual, limited-slip differential
Special features: Side-mounted surface-to-air missiles; HUD; remote control; sonic laser listening device; thermo-graphic navigation; titanium armor
Number 002: 1966 Toyota 2000 GT Convertible
So you lust after a twin-turbo Supra? Or perhaps it's the new Z-car, or maybe a high-revving S2000 from Honda that has you salivating? Well, you can thank the 1966 Toyota GT for igniting the current Asian supercar inferno we're lucky enough to enjoy today.Back in the mid-1960s, Toyota had established itself as a leader of affordable transportation. It did this by cranking out Corollas and Coronas like so many toasters. The problem was that Toyota's commuter cars had about as much soul as those antiseptic kitchen appliances. While certainly capable vehicles, they were also, in a word, boring. That all changed when designer Count Albrecht von Goertz traveled from Europe to Japan and convinced Yamaha to build a prototype of a swoopy two-seater he had been toying with.Yamaha constructed the first car under contract to Nissan, who eventually turned it down. Undeterred, Yamaha approached the executives at Toyota, who fell in love with the car. After applying a few engineering tweaks to the undercarriage and body...voila, the Asian supercar was born.
Unfortunately for car lovers, Toyota made only about 300 of these gorgeous machines. For those lucky 300, however, there couldn't have been a sweeter sports car. Fitted with a 2-liter, dohc straight six that cranked out 150 bhp, the sleek GT was said to hit 140 mph on the straights. Other cutting-edge (for the era) mechanicals included front and rear independent suspension, disc brakes at all four corners and magnesium-alloy wheels. Even the interior was ultra-chic: a self-seeking radio, a rally stopwatch built into the dashboard, and a telescoping steering wheel were all standard in the 2000 GTs.
When the producers of "You Only Live Twice" needed a car for James Bond to zip around Japan in, they too fell in love with the GT. Toyota promptly commissioned a pair of special, one-off convertible versions of the car. The producers had these ragtops fitted with miniature closed-circuit color TVs and surveillance cameras. They didn't, however, let James drive the cars. He may have had a license to kill, but the license to drive was handed to Aki, that perky Japanese Secret Service Bond girl who unfortunately got herself whacked by a crazed Ninja. Hey, at least the car survived.
Nowadays, if you're lucky enough to find one of the hardtop gems for sale, you'll have to pony up around $150,000 for the pink slip. We say it's worth it, and it's one of the reasons this original Japanese supercar makes the grade at number two on our list.
Film: "You Only Live Twice"
Bond: Sean Connery
Car: 1966 Toyota 2000 GT Convertible; front engine, rear drive; dohc 150-bhp 2.0-liter straight six; five-speed manual.
Special features: Hidden surveillance video cameras in front and rear of car; closed-circuit television monitor; two-way FM Radio
Number 001: 1964 Aston Martin DB5
Some european car readers may not be old enough to remember the mega-cool DB5s of the sixties. But some of us do. And we still get sly smiles on our faces whenever those memories creep back. The DB5 was essentially the British sports car that fueled the original Bond mania. How can you not think of 007 when you see a muscular DB5 on the silver screen? The sight of this car ripping across country two-lanes in the movies "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball" are indelible. And so is the car.
The DB5 came stock from the Aston Martin factory--in 1964 no less--with a dual-overhead cam straight six that produced 280 bhp. The car also had a butter-smooth five-speed transmission, and it sported four-wheel disc brakes that were more than capable of hauling it down from its claimed 140-mph top speed. And it packaged all these goodies in a timeless body style that still influences car designers today.
But the fun didn't stop there. The Bond-film DB5 was the first vehicle to get outfitted with all those wonderful accoutrements we've since come to expect in 007's sports cars, including forward-firing machine guns, rear-firing water jets and oil slicks, smoke-screen tubes, bulletproof windshields and an electronic homing device. It's no wonder the motoring press at the time dubbed this movie car a fighter jet for the world's highways.
Sadly, the original Aston Martin DB5 was stolen in 1997 from the garage of a collector in Boca Raton, Fla. Too bad that homing device was shut off years ago, or we might have been able to track down and recover the unique car. C'est la vie, Monsieur Bond.
Wherever the original car has gone, it will always remain in our memories as the first in a long line of incredible Bond vehicles. And that's why the DB5 climbs all the way up to number 001 on our list of best-ever cars of 007.
Films: "Goldfinger"; "Thunderball"; "GoldenEye"; "Tomorrow Never Dies"
Bond: Sean Connery; Pierce Brosnan
Car: 1964 Aston Martin DB5; front engine, rear drive; dohc, 280-bhp 4.0-liter straight six; five-speed manual
Special features: Forward-facing machine guns; rear-facing water jets; rear-facing oil slicks and oil-smoke ejectors; bulletproof windshield; retractable rear steel deflector shield; homing device; radar screen; revolving license plates; front wheel-hub tire slasher; passenger ejection seat
The 007 Runner-Ups
Still can't get enough of our man James and his four-wheel steeds? Here are seven more awesome Bond cars that just missed the first cut:
1962 Sunbeam Alpine
"Dr. No"
Bond had his first-ever car chase in this peppy two-seat British roadster. Maxwell "Get" Smart may have had the more powerful V8 Tiger version for his show, but Bond had the cuter girl in his. Better still, 007 had the pleasure of watching his pursuers fly off a cliff and burst into flames. No "missed it by that much" nonsense for 007.
1971 Mustang Mach 1
"Diamonds Are Forever"
American Bond girl Jill St. John experienced some interesting new positions in this pre-gas-shortage muscle car. Bond pulls out all the stops, including an amazing escape on the car's two passenger-side wheels into a narrow pedestrian alley. Watch carefully and you'll see that he emerges from the other side of the alley on the driver-side wheels. Don't try this blooper at home, kids.
1974 AMC Hornet
"The Man With The Golden Gun"
Once again, James Bond proves that he don't need no stinkin' laws of physics. Witness the incredible 360-degree mid-air barrel roll Roger Moore executes over a ramshackle river bridge. Man, that guy is good.
Citroen 2CV
"For Your Eyes Only"
A tin "2 Horse" is an unlikely Bond car, but we have to admit that the French version of the Volkswagen Beetle gets the job done in Eyes. The poor little 2CV gets blasted, shot, launched through the air, punctured, beat-up and rolled down a mountainside. But it lands shiny side up and keeps on tickin'. You gotta love those French.
969 Aston Martin DBS
"On Her Majesty's Secret Service"
Yes, it's a great car with gorgeous styling. Yes, it had a silky 325-bhp inline six and ZF five-speed. But Q never installed any of his killer aftermarket goodies in the car. And Bond was played by George Lazenby, whoever the heck that was. Worse, Bond gets married in the film. Married!? Is nothing sacred?
1997 BMW 750iAL
"Tomorrow Never Dies"
A big, bloated BMW boulevard bomber makes our list of Bond cars? You bet. Q loaded the Bavarian beast with a Pandora's Box of tricks. The inventory is almost endless: sunroof-mounted rockets, self-inflating tires, front and rear video cameras, tear-gas canisters, retractable cable cutters, remote-control steering, hidden storage compartments, bulletproof glass, titanium body armor, deployable tire spikes...oh, you get the idea.
Russian Main Battle Tank
"GoldenEye"
This just might be our favorite Bond vehicle of all time. Pierce Brosnan as Bond makes a mess of the crowded streets of St. Petersburg, Russia in this hopped-up tracked vehicle. The victims of Bond's, uh, smashing driving skills include cars, buses, trucks and even a fully loaded diesel-electric locomotive. Double-oh-seven gives us a whole new meaning to the notion of "crushing the competition" with this ex-Soviet tank.