CommanderBond.net

Inspired by Agent76's Your Favorite (film) Bond Car? thread, I thought I would start a "Favorite Book Car" thread. I realize many of you might not know the book cars, but vote anyway!

i think i voted for the SAAB 900 turbo on accident sorry but i wnated to vote for the bently 4 1/2 litre because thats the only car i have read about in the bond books

Hmmm... I don't thinks so. There's only one vote for the SAAB 900 and that was cast by me.

This is the second time something like this has happened. I wonder if our polls are working correctly?

People do know NOT to hit View Results before you vote because that will prevent you from voting. And be careful you don't hit it by mistake. Is that maybe what you did, Commander?

well i cant post a vote it says You have already voted in this poll

I restarted it for you Commander. Try now.

thanks alot Zen

Seems to be working fine now.

I just re-read FSS over the holidays and was reminded of why I liked the Saab.

Although the Jag Benson has him in is a worthy (albeit contemporary) rival. I'm planning on starting IB next just to re-read my favorite chapter "Silver vs. Yellow" again.

A tip of the hat to the original Bentley though.

*tips hat*

No prob, Commander.

Check out the pic of the Bentley Mulsanne Turbo I found. You know, I'm thinking a main page article about the cars from the books might be a fun idea. If anyone has good pics of the cars listed above, post them here. If I use it, I'll credit you. Thanks.

I too voted for the Saab...it's a lean mean fighting machine, just like Bond.

Just as long as it isn't green.

-- Xen

i think it wasnt working for me because i pressed the second button by accident but i voted so that doesnt matter now..here is a pic that found for you Zen

A quick snapshot from a distance of a DB III.

When Flicka & I took in the Ferrari show during our recent trip, there was one AM in the mix.

It's a DB Mk. III though. Identical to the one Bond drives in the novel Goldfinger.

SAAB 9000 CD Turbo

While I haven't read all the books, I picked the Bently 4 1/2-Litre. It's such a classic car.

Here's sort of what I always pictured the car as:

My pick is the Bently 4 1/2-Litre, but there are many other good ones, that's just the one I like at the moment.

I believe that I've seen a picture of Fleming standing in front of a car that looks similar to that one. Sort of a promo for Bentley I guess. That's what I pictured it like while I read as well.

There are also photos of him sitting in it. It was Fleming personal car, I believe.

Hey what about the Studilac?

I voted for the Jag XK8. Man I love that car.

My favorite part about that car is the little scout that detaches from it.

That DB III has a very strange front end on it- all the ones I've seen don't have that but rather the usual Aston grille: must have been a one-off bit of coachwork.

Incidentally Zen, you missed one. Benson has Bond own a Bentley Turbo R, I believe. I can't remember exactly what model it was, but I remember it wasn't a Mulsanne. Looks the same though.

Oh here you go- an Aston Martin DB III:

There's a story (possibly apocryphal) that Aston Martin loaned Fleming a brand spanking new DB III, and that was what convinced him to feature it in Goldfinger.

Hey, Zencat! I can understand missing Benson's Bentley, but you missed a great big one! Looks a bit like this:



and appears in every Benson novel, if my memory serves.

Plus there's SeaFire's Triumph Daytona, which I think came from Q Branch, although I may be wrong. I'll let you off that as it does say 'best car' at the top...

Yeah, I was afraid someone would bring this up. I was going to put it in originally (it will be in my article), but the trouble with putting the DB5 on a poll is it will run away with it. The DB5 is everyone's favorite car! So, I left it off and justified it by telling myself I was doing cars that are unique to the novels.

Whoops. Now that WAS a mistake.

Ha! Fair enough. Must say it's starting to look less appealing to me, though. I see what Sir Sean means about it being a ladies' car. Tim's Aston V8 or Pierce's Vanquish are much closer to the sort of thing Fleming's Bond would drive.

Incidentally, there's quite a long description of the Continental in The Living Daylights (I only mention this as you didn't include it above in its appearances credits). Just don't try and find a picture of one like it as you won't find anything similar! It sounds really ugly!

I've never seen a pic of the Mark II Continental, I'd like to. What kind of Bentley do we see in NSNA (when Bond pulls up to Shrublands)? Is that the Mark II?

The Mark II Continental is a beautiful car, but Bond's was a coachbuilt special with an entirely different body, which sounds like it had nothingin common with the original. Very ugly, in fact.

It's hard to say what the NSNA Bentley was as it appears so briefly, plus you have the added problem that it comes from the period when there were pretty much no standard Bentleys i.e. many different Coachbuilders would make bodies for them (Mulliner, Park ward etc.) with the result that few look the same. I would guess it is a 1930's 41/2 litre (later than the Casino Royale one, naturally), but it's very hard to tell. It may be smaller.
Isn't it quite similar to the FRWL one? Probably the closest to Fleming's was in the film of Casino Royale, but I'm not sure what that one was. I'm not really an early Bentley expert, probably because they're so hard to identify, but I'd know a Continental when I saw one.

In fact, the closest thing that you would be able to picture to a Mark II is the Rolls Royce seen in A View To A Kill- they generally have the same front end but with a beautiful fastback rear end. Of course, there are many with special coachbuilt bodies which look completely different. You are unlikely to find a car matching the Living Daylights description.

Your classic 1930 41/2 litre supercharged (although I think Bond's may have had a shorter body):




As chance would have it, here is a picture of the NSNA Bentley (yes, the actual one) which is a 1937 Bentley 4 1/4 Litre Gurney Nutting 3-Position-Drophead Coup�:



(These pictures are links, so follow them back to the original page for more info)

Here's a Mulliner-bodied (as Bond's was) 1960 S2 Continental, although his had a different rear end and was a drop top:

A Saab 9000 (a little more sedate than the red one above!):



Bond's 900:

Gardner's Bentley:



Benson's Bentley:



Benson's Jag: