James Bond: The Man with the Golden Wheels

The name James Bond has come to be synonymous with womanising, vodka martinis and Aston Martins. Even if you are not a fan of the film series, there’s no denying that over the years the suave spy has had one of the most impressive line-up of cars that has, time and again, come to his aid when he is in danger.

Although always associated with an Aston Martin, it was not until Goldfinger when Bond got his hands on his first Aston, the DB5. It was a fitting car for 007 with its flowing lines, suave looks and the infamous ejector seat. Soon after though it was replaced by the DBS, but all this new car could manage was a fleeting scene in both On Her Majesty’s Service and Diamonds Are Forever, before being totally sidelined in Roger Moore’s The Spy Who Loved Me. Moore instead chose the submarine-transforming Lotus Esprit. 

The love affair with the Aston Martins though would return with the Vantage Volante being the preferred set of wheels for Timothy Dalton’s The Living Daylights. It was a proper Q-spec motor, with heat-seeking missiles and a laser-cutting device built into the wheels. This was later replaced, albeit controversially, by the German BMW Z3, when Pierce Brosnan took on the reins of the iconic spy in GoldenEye. The BMW connection would continue in Tomorrow Never Dies, when Brosnan would be issued a BMW 750iL – the first V12 of the series and featuring an app built into Bond’s mobile phone to remotely control the car.

With Daniel Craig rebooting the franchise, the Aston Martin DBS was the obvious candidate, as its modern sex appeal and thumping performance thanks to a 6.0-litre V12 matched the new leaner and tougher Bond. Craig’s Bond has also shown a fine taste for other cars with a then unreleased Ford Mondeo making a cameo appearance in Casino Royale and the fashionable Range Rover Evoque being one of the cars rumoured to feature in the upcoming Skyfall.

The 007 film series then has showcased a 50-year history of the automobile industry in its glory, and we are only glad to hear that the DB5 is returning once more. It seems, like us, that Bond just can’t get enough of the most iconic film car ever.