Last week The Good Oil brought Driven readers news of Lego’s latest brick-tastic creation; a replica Aston Martin DB5 a la James Bond, with revolving number plate and ejector seat.
This week, the decades-long hunt for a stolen example of the real deal may be near resolution with a tip-off leading investigators to the Middle East.
Art Recovery International — a firm hired to find a missing Aston Martin DB5 purported to have been used in the filming of the 1964 James Bond film, Goldfinger — says it has narrowed its global hunt.
Despite sounding like a shell company lifted directly from the pages of Ian Fleming’s spy hero novels, Art Recovery International does what it says on the tin; traces and recovers art and other expensive items that have “gone missing”.
Again: it sounds like a sub-plot to a James Bond film in itself, but apparently the Aston Martin DB5 in question was stolen from an aircraft hanger in Florida in 1997 and has never been seen again.
Allegedly the car was an example used for filming in Goldfinger, and featured several famous gadgets installed for close-ups, including oil, smoke and water emitting devices, which made it much heavier than a normal DB5.
Police at the time of the theft said that distinctive tyre marks leading away from the storage hanger suggest the car was dragged or towed rather than driven to an awaiting transportation vehicle.
Now, Art Recovery International says it is closing in on the stolen DB5.
The company’s CEO, Christopher Marinello, told the UK’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper: “I have been given a specific tip, but we are working on it. I want to reach out to the collector car community and vast array of mechanics to let them know we are very serious about recovering it.
“As there are many Aston Martins, it is very important that we get a shot of the chassis number, dp/216/1. This is what we are looking for, as it is very specific to the vehicle,” he said.
If Danny Boyle — director of the next Bond instalment — is looking for inspiration for sub-plots in the iconic franchise’s 25th outing (due in 2020), he would do well to keep track of developments with this story.
F1 Miami Vice-style will have to wait
Speaking of Florida, something else that has been stolen away is the opportunity for Miami to host a round of the Formula 1 championship.
Well, for now at least.
Formula 1 managing director of commercial operations Sean Bratches said he is hopeful something can be worked out in the future, but there won’t be any Miami F1 until at least 2020.
Surprisingly — given the city’s penchant for partying and its apparent car culture — the delay in allowing the race is down to opposition from Miamians.
South Florida local government says it has no option but to delay negotiations with Liberty Media (Formula 1’s owners) in order to address concerns.
Liberty Media was hoping it would be able to announce a Miami Grand Prix for the 2019 season.
Since taking ownership of the sport, it has been vocal about adding further North American rounds to the race calendar, seeing the IndyCar and Nascar stranglehold on motorsport in the region as something that can be broken down with more F1 exposure. Currently one round of the Formula 1 season is hosted in the US, in Austin, Texas.
In addition to the Miami round, Liberty Media has also met with local bodies in New York and Long Beach about races in those locations, but so far with no result. The plan for Miami is to stage a street race, but locals don’t seem keen.
Okay, new plan. What if, while racing, the drivers wore white T-shirts under pastel suits and loafers without socks?
Bugatti pretends it invented the sunroof
Don’t you love it when a carmaker takes a mundane accessory and pretends it has forced lightning into a bottle and the world should gape in awe as appropriate?
Rolls-Royce did it when it blacked out bits of the Wraith and pretended no one had ever thought to release a special Black Edition model before.
Audi went on about its Sportback variants, you’d be forgiven for thinking no lift-back existed before. Sorry Mazda, Toyota et al.
Now, Bugatti’s designers and PR machine have joined forces to announce ... a sunroof.
The Bugatti Chiron Sky View — to be shown off at California’s Monterey Car Week at the end of this month — features two glass panels in the roof separated by the car’s signature centre-spine.
Each panel measures 65cm by 44cm and is designed to — shock — let more light into the cabin.
Bugatti says the glass panels enhance the overall stiffness of the $4m-plus hypercar’s body and feature UVA and UVB light-filtering technology in the glass, meaning your oil tycoons’ bald pates won’t suffer in the Mediterranean sun.