- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: NATIONAL MOTOR MUSEUM DISPLAYS CARS FROM JAMES BOND FILMS
- Date: 4th November 2000
- Summary: WIDE/ PAN OF EXHIBITION
- Embargoed: 19th November 2000 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW FOREST, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Entertainment,Transport
- Reuters ID: LVABO0ZZ6231H7GRX0V84A127WN3
- Story Text: The cars, the girls and the gadgets are all synonymous with Agent 007 James Bond. While the girls come and go, the cars and gadgets always have a starring role as is the case in an exhibition that opened at the National Motor Museum in Britain's New Forest.
From the ultimate to the most sophisticated, six of Special Agent 007's car's have been brought together for the first time at a unique exhibition which also features many of the props and gadgets from James Bond films.
The exhibition features those cars that have managed to survive even the deadliest of stunts and the hands of Bond and his enemies. Among them - the BMW Z8, from the latest Bond saga "The World is Not Enough", cut in two halves by a gigantic round saw and the ultimate gadget car, the BMW 750 iL from "Tomorrow Never Dies", which possessed rockets in the sunroof and a defence system that emits a 20,000 volt shock to any would- be -thief.
"This exhibition all began because our museum curator Michael Wear, saw one of these Bond cars at another exhibition elsewhere in England and got the gem of the idea to bring them to Beaulieu so he then got in touch with Eon Productions who are custodians of the collection and they were very excited at the thought of bringing the Bond collection to the home of the motor car really, the National Motor Museum so it grew from there", said Margaret Rose, the museum's Director of PR.
"Goldfinger" was the film that introduced the Bond's Aston Martin DB5. It subsequently became known as the most famous car in the world.
"I think people always associate Bond with Aston Martin's and the DB5 in particular and if you ask people to name any one Bond Car. That would be it so I think that's very very special in the collection", added Margaret Rose.
Among the most distinctive pieces in the collection is the Lotus Esprit from 'The Spy who Loved Me'. As well as being amphibious and without wheels, the Lotus features cannons that spray cement and had wheel arches that turned into fins. It's weaponry also included rockets, limpet mines and surface to air missiles.
As well as the car from 'Tomorrow Never Dies', on display is the BMW R 1200 jump bike and handcuffs which were used in an intense action packed chase scene through Saigon and culminated in a spectacular stunt which involved jumping from one building to another over the rotating blades of a helicopter.
Pride of place however goes to the 1937 Rolls Royce Phantom III from 'Goldfinger' (1964), owned by Auric Goldfinger - "the man with the midas touch" who melts down gold and recasts it into parts for his Rolls Royce in order to smuggle billion around the world without detection. Driven by Odd Job, his deadly manservant, whose infamous bowler hat also features in the exhibition, this is the RR's first appearance in Britain in 35 years.
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