Discussion about James Bond hero cars does tend to be a bit one-dimensional. Oh look at the lovely Aston Martin. Hang on, he’s driving a BMW! Phew, he’s back in an Aston. The end.
For more variety, look to the Bond baddies. The most gadget-laden villain car in Bond history must be Zao’s Jaguar XKR from Die Another Day (2002), complete with Gatling gun and rocket launchers. Bond was surely quite jealous, as he was stuck with an Aston Martin “Vanish” featuring some preposterous invisibility technology.
Die Another Day is one of the silliest of the Bond movies, but it was also the film where Bond returned to Aston after the BMW era, and the first where Jaguar Land Rover was an official partner (it was part of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group at the time, with Aston and Volvo). The Zao XKR was painted in the same green as Jaguar’s Formula One cars and it did look great in the big chase sequence on ice.
Another notable JLR Bond-baddie model: the C-X75 driven by Mr Hinx in Spectre (2015, pictured at the top of the page)). The C-X75 was a supercar concept unveiled by Jaguar in 2010 and destined for production, but later scrapped; it came to life again briefly for the movie’s big chase through Rome.
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Rewind to 1964 and you have to admire Auric Goldfinger’s 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III. Especially as the bodywork was made out of gold.
We also cannot ignore the only time a Ferrari has made a big impact in a Bond film: the F355 driven by Xenia Onatopp in Goldeneye (1995), dicing with Bond’s DB5 on the roads above Monaco.
Speaking of red mid-engined exotics, can we go off-canon for a moment to enjoy the Renault 5 Turbo of Fatima Blush in Never Say Never Again (1983)? She spins it during a chase with Bond’s Q-issued motorcycle; don’t worry Fatima, that happened a lot with the R5.
While we’re on motorcycles, Fiona Volpe’s gold BSA A65 Lightning is one of the more exciting things in Thunderball (1965), thanks in part to extra-cost-option missile launchers.
Let's finish up in fine style with some flying cars: the aforementioned Rome car chase from Spectre where Mr Hinx's Jaguar C-X75 pursues Bond's Aston Martin DB10. Spoiler alert: the bespoke Aston (created just for the film, although obviously based on the later Vantage production model) gets launched into a canal.
And an actual flying car: Scaramanga's car from The Man With the Golden Gun (1974), which escapes Bond by sprouting wings. Which sounds ridiculous, but it's only slightly more ridiculous than the too obvious AMC product placement: everything from Scaramanga's Matador coupe-cum-plane to Bond's Hornet (which does that incredible, very real corkscrew jump) to most of the police cars. Ah well, that's the world of Bond. Don't forget to check out the gallery at the bottom of the page!
