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  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited March 2022 Posts: 14,861
    The V12 Vantage has been unveiled, and although I don't really like Astons looking aggressive, I think it works for this one.

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  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    Posts: 4,311
    It generally looks sleek and fast. But then the sills are irritating and how they feed into the air vents behind the front wheels. They do not seem to have a purpose. The smallish headlights make the car look like a gaping fish. I am not entirely satisfied with the design.
    Are AM still losing money? Is the DBX selling well enough? Sometimes I think we are looking at a dying marque.
  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 7,948
    hmm. It does lack the elegance of the DB9-based line. I think I'll need some time to start appreciating this design. Looks like a shark.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    And now someone is building... a bulletproof Aston Martin :)

    It even has electric shocks built into the door handles

    https://www.topgear.com/car-news/modified/us-company-has-built-bulletproof-aston-martin-vantage

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  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou. I can still hear my old hound dog barkin'.
    Posts: 8,656
    mtm wrote: »
    And now someone is building... a bulletproof Aston Martin :)

    It even has electric shocks built into the door handles

    At least there's something electric about it...
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 12,914
    I do like that hood.

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    Land Rover Defender 90 Dons James Bond Livery
    The modified Defender 90 honors the Bond films' 60th anniversary with a black and gold color treatment.
    By Eric Stafford | Mar 29, 2022
    mf109390-r-1648562385.jpg?crop=1.00xw:0.535xh;0,0.198xh&resize=980:*
    • The Land Rover Defender dons a black-and-gold livery to celebrate the 60th anniversary of James Bond films.
    • Along with the commemorative design, this Defender 90 features a modified suspension and a fully integrated roll cage.
    • This one-off Defender was driven by Mark Higgins–a stunt driver in four Bond films­–in the 2022 Bowler Defender Challenge rally race.
    The automaker most often associated with James Bond is Aston Martin. However, Land Rovers have appeared in Bond films for almost 40 years, starting with Octopussy in 1983 and leading up to the most recent release of No Time to Die. To celebrate the film franchise's 60th birthday, Land Rover built a one-off Defender 90 with a black and gold livery.
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    Land Rover
    Land Rover didn't only build a special version of the Defender so it could don 007 graphics overlaid with a giant 60 on its doors and roof; the company also modified it for rally racing. Enhancements include a unique suspension setup with different springs and modified subframes. The body was fitted with a new rear spoiler, and the 18-inch wheels were wrapped with all-terrain tires. Inside, the Defender was equipped with a fully integrated roll cage for added safety. Under the hood, its standard 296-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four was paired with a sport exhaust system. Its engine and transmission also benefited from upgraded cooling components.
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    Car and Driver
    We’ve tested an unmodified Defender with the more powerful powertrain, the 395-hp turbo- and supercharged 3.0-liter inline-six, and the longer 110 wheelbase. It sprinted to 60 mph in 6.3 seconds and cleared the quarter-mile in 14.8 seconds at 94 mph.
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    Land Rover
    Behind the wheel of this custom-built Land Rover Defender is Mark Higgins, who has also doubled as a stunt driver on the last four Bond films, including Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre. Higgins and his co-driver, Claire Williams, competed in the 2022 Bowler Defender Challenge rally race, which was held on March 26.
    mf109412-r-1648562557.jpg?crop=1.00xw:0.490xh;0,0.194xh&resize=768:*
    Land Rover
    Land Rover Introduces Defender Rally Special - To Celebrate 60 Years Of James Bond

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    lr_bond_defender_challenge04.jpg

  • Posts: 5,772
    A few interesting models I saw in the past month :

    e7xg6vaxmaeem4o.jpg

    No, contrary to what they show in numerous american movies and TV series, almost nobody drives a DS in France. I has become an antique car, and quite rare on the roads. I saw it in a coach builder's yard near my home.

    IQP22US4_005_1920x1080.jpg?$1920x2000$&fit=constrain

    That one I saw near the Pont de Recouvrance in Brest last week.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    I went to a car show at the end of last year and we were admiring a particularly nice example of a DS: the owner enthusiastically showed us around it and encouraged us to sit in it- I've never experienced car carpets like it: they're the thickest I've ever put my feet on. And the seats were incredibly soft and compliant. Quite an amazing thing.
  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    Posts: 4,311
    Lotus, under owner Geely, enters the fully electric luxury SUV segment (where enormous profits can be made in the future), but with a twist: The Lotus Eletre only weighs around 2000 kg, even though it is really large (5 meters).

    lotus-eletre-das-exterieur.jpg

    lotus-eletre-das-exterieur.jpg

    Lotus-Eletre-2022-8.jpg

  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou. I can still hear my old hound dog barkin'.
    Posts: 8,656
    mtm wrote: »
    I went to a car show at the end of last year and we were admiring a particularly nice example of a DS: the owner enthusiastically showed us around it and encouraged us to sit in it- I've never experienced car carpets like it: they're the thickest I've ever put my feet on. And the seats were incredibly soft and compliant. Quite an amazing thing.

    I also fondly remember the rides in a DS21 owned by acquaintances who vacationed in the same place as we did. It was a marvelous feeling, like being on a plush sofa in the middle of a shag carpet landscape. Of course, it was the late 60s, when I was maybe 13, and I couldn't tell you anything about the car's other charasteristics. Only maybe ten years later, I once drove my cousin's Citroen GS, and it kind of reminded me of the "Goddess's" idiosyncrasies...but just kind of.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou. I can still hear my old hound dog barkin'.
    Posts: 8,656
    zebrafish wrote: »
    Lotus, under owner Geely, enters the fully electric luxury SUV segment (where enormous profits can be made in the future), but with a twist: The Lotus Eletre only weighs around 2000 kg, even though it is really large (5 meters).

    (deleted image links here)
    I can see and agree to what Geely is doing with Volvo/Polestar, but a two-metric-ton Lotus is out of the question for me. Lotus is virtually defined by lightweight cars. Why don't they expand on what Tesla did with its roadster, which after all was based on the Lotus Elise or whichever it was? Technology improvement in the meantime should enable them to produce a (relatively) lightweight sports car, instead of joining the somewhat tiresome movement to fill the world with SUVs. (Disclosure: One of my cars is still a Diesel-powered Jeep Grand Cherokee, so I'm not pretending to dislike heavier cars. It's just that I don't think they fit the Lotus brand.)
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    A very talented test driver showing that the Aston Valkyrie is a handful :)

    And it certainly sings like a Valkyrie too!

  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 7,948
    Gerard wrote: »
    A few interesting models I saw in the past month :

    e7xg6vaxmaeem4o.jpg

    No, contrary to what they show in numerous american movies and TV series, almost nobody drives a DS in France. I has become an antique car, and quite rare on the roads. I saw it in a coach builder's yard near my home.

    IQP22US4_005_1920x1080.jpg?$1920x2000$&fit=constrain

    That one I saw near the Pont de Recouvrance in Brest last week.

    It's funny, because someone in my neighbourhood owns a DS, so I see that one often enough. Admittedly, when I'm parking next to it I take that little bit more care..

    Another thing, amazingly there's a carpark in my city where, for no apparent reason, there's always a handfull of oldtimers parked. You might think they're from a public traider, but there's none around, and the cars are quite diverse: an 1970's honda, a Lada from the 80ies, some american cars from the sixties- to eighties. I always park on the side where most of them are parked, but I haven't figures out what is going on there.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    On a Bond link, the street in Waterloo where Q lives in NTTD is well known as being the street where some kind of Citroën fan/mechanic lives: it’s always full of DS, BX, CS etc :)
    You can even see them on Streetview: it’s Roupell Street in Waterloo.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    mtm wrote: »
    Now that s a car I could be seen driving.
  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    Posts: 4,311
    Quite interesting that they left the original engine and the leaf springs. Must-have level is 11 out of 10.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    I like cars with four wheels. Or five.
  • edited April 2022 Posts: 2,887
    Way back in 2002 the Sunday Times commissioned Jeremy Clarkson to write a trio of articles on James Bond's cars, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the series and the premiere of Die Another Day. The articles also premiered on the same day (Oct. 20) as the relaunched version of Top Gear, starring Clarkson and Richard Hammond (James May joined them seven months later). Here they are:

    Licence to Drive (Sunday Times, Oct 20, 2002)

    James Bond’s cars are usually just as eye-catching as his women. but sometimes 007’s choice of wheels suggests he’s had a few too many martinis, says Jeremy Clarkson.

    James Bond, in the books, has a blower Bentley. A big old truck with the engine from a Spitfire and the wheels from a unicycle. The sort of car where you had to go outside to change gear or blow the horn. This is fine for Mr. Toad, all goggles and earflaps. But it’s not so good for the most suave secret agent the world has ever seen. So when he’d found his feet in the films, they gave him an Aston Martin.

    Over the next 37 years, Bond remained as loyal to the car that brought him fame as he did to his women. Throughout what are best described as the “comedy years”, he used a Lotus Esprit, an amusing Citroën 2CV and even a car that flew. Yeah, right. But the lowest point came after we’d been through the Scottish Bond, the Australian Bond, the amusing English Bond and the Welsh Bond. Suddenly we had an Irish Bond and a corporate tie-up with BMW. In exchange for having their cars in the films, they’d spend a few million on promotion. How very tacky.

    Occasionally, over the years, he was to be seen back in an Aston. Arriving at the country house in The Living Daylights. Racing back to London from his Danish lesson in Tomorrow Never Dies. Improbably squealing his tyres on the sand in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. And now, for the film Die Another Day, he’s in a Vanquish. Actually, he isn’t. In real life, this, the latest and snazziest Aston of them all, is plagued with problems. The clutch gives up the ghost if you attempt a full-bore standing start, and in town the differential feels like it’s trying to hammer its way into the boot. So Bond’s car has the gearbox from a truck and, to make way for all the gadgets, including a hidden four-wheel-drive system, the 6.0-litre V12 has been swapped for a crude Mustang V8. In fact, it’s only an Aston Martin because the badge says so.

    What he should be using is the car he was first given way back in 1964. The DB5. This is the quintessential Bond car, as identifiable with 007 as the Walther PPK and the white tux. And this car did more than make Bond. It saved Aston Martin. All of the hackneyed old business clichés were coined for this little-known sports-car company. “How do you make a small fortune out of Aston Martin? You start off with a large one.” From 1923 to 1987, when the company was bought by Ford, there wasn’t a single year when it made a profit. Famously, its former boss, David Brown, who gave it the DB initials, was once asked by a customer who was jibbing at the £4,000 price tag on a DB4: “Can I have it at cost?” “Sure,” said Brown. “That'll be £5,000.”

    So, when Harry Saltzman, the Bond producer, called the Newport Pagnell factory in 1963 and asked if they could use a DB5 in Goldfinger, you’d have expected the answer to be a resounding yes. But it wasn’t. Aston Martin’s then general manager, Steve Heggie, explained that the company had many requests from film companies and it was rarely worth their while. Saltzman was stunned. “Haven’t you seen Dr. No?” he blustered. “No,” said Heggie. “From Russia with Love?” “No,” said Heggie again. Saltzman was amazed. Bentley had already turned him down, and now this! He pointed out that in the Goldfinger novel, Bond actually uses a DB3. He talked about all the extras Fleming had envisioned way back then: a Colt .45 in a tray under the driver’s seat, and a radio that was capable of receiving a homing device. He said he would make the car a star.

    And eventually, Heggie saw sense, saying they could have a DB5... for £4,500. He only backed down when he was presented with the scripts. And as a result, Aston Martin survived, and one of the most famous cinema marriages was made. Bond would get a DB5. Look at the publicity photograph of Sean Connery leaning on the car in the Swiss Alps. He simply couldn’t have driven anything else. This car is like Ursula Andress. Other Bond girls have come and gone, but none have ever matched the moment when she stepped out of the sea wearing only a knife. However, unlike Ursula, the DB5 still looks fresh today. Its styling hasn’t dated at all.

    Of course, everything else has. The headlamps were made by Lucas, otherwise known as the Prince of Darkness. The original gearbox, used up to chassis No. 1,340, was from a tractor, and don’t think the five-speed ZF replacement had any better genes. It was from a lorry.

    Power? Well, Aston said the 4-litre straight-six engine would deliver 282 bhp, although how they arrived at this figure is unclear, since their own factory test-bed recorded just 242 bhp. Hot hatchback stuff these days.

    I drove a DB5 recently, and I simply couldn't believe how antiquated it felt. As I’ve said many times, classic cars can’t be any good or they'd still be in production today. It was heavy and ponderous. And yet, when I saw Bond use his DB5 to take on a Ferrari 355 in GoldenEye, I didn’t scoff. Of course he was able to keep up. He was Bond. The only man alive who understands the rules of baccarat.

    And if Q was able to fit a Martin-Baker ejector seat into a car without arousing the suspicion of an unwanted passenger, then how do we know the DB5 in question hadn’t been fitted with retro-fit nitrous injection? When you look at what these special-effects boys did to the Vanquish, and hear how they turned an AC Cobra into a BMW Z8—as BMW wasn't able to supply the real thing on time—anything is possible.

    Well, not anything. Bond was not allowed to actually beat the 355. Contractually speaking, Ferrari was most insistent on that point. I’ve watched that chase sequence many times with my son, who’s six, and he doesn't know that in real life the Ferrari would eat Bond’s Aston for breakfast. So far as he’s concerned, 007 is driving very quickly down a hill in a very fast car that could very easily have been made yesterday. He even has a picture of a DB5 on his bedroom wall, and he likes it more than a McLaren F1.

    It’s hard to think of any other car that could have bridged the generation gap so effectively. An E-type Jaguar was faster, and much nicer to drive, than the Aston. And it still looks fresh today, but it’s too common, and a tad too sporty. So what about a Bentley? Nope. Too large, too scrap-metal-dealy. And, obviously, the usual suspects from Italy are out of the question for being too foreign. Perhaps a TVR, then. They’ve always been fast, and their sportiness is tempered with a healthy dollop of gentleman’s relish. But the simple fact of the matter is this: James Bond does not drive a plastic car.

    Bond only drove his silver-birch Aston for 13 minutes. But a quarter of the world’s population saw him do it. And as a result, they know. 007 drives a DB5.

    ***

    Bum steers

    Would you buy a second-hand motor from 007? not only does he push cars to their limits—he often achieves the impossible. Jeremy Clarkson chooses 10 unlikely auto stunts

    GOLDENEYE - THE TANK

    Plainly, it is not possible to power-slide a tank. I know this because I have driven one. If you apply the brakes suddenly, your face smashes into something hard and metal. If you stop one of the tracks, your face smashes into something hard and metal. And no, tanks do not have handbrakes—which means it is also not possible to do a handbrake turn. So when we saw that tank sliding sideways through the streets of St Petersburg we knew, for sure, that it was a cardboard tank-shaped body that had been nailed onto something like a BMW 330i. Wrong. It was a real tank, a Soviet T-54 that had been fitted with bigger armour, a bigger gun and the rubber tracks from a British tank so that it looked like a more modern T-72. One of the special-effects people, Andy Smith, explained that it had to look like a T-72 because Bond baddies “have all the latest gear”. Fine. So how do you make a tank slide like that? What trickery did you use? “Er, none,” he explains. “You just drive very fast, then brake one of the tracks and it slides.”

    So there you are. The greatest, most implausible stunt of them all... and it was all done for real.

    DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER - THE FORD MUSTANG

    Bond drove the Mustang Mach 1 down an alleyway on two wheels, and emerged on the other side on the other two wheels. I have no clue how he did this; more to the point, nor do I understand how he managed to get from one side of Las Vegas to the other without running out of petrol. The Mach 1, remember, could run Saudi Arabia dry from a range of 400 paces. And let’s not forget that Saudi Arabia ran the Mach 1 dry in the oil crisis of 1973. Despite Bond's patronage, this car withered on the vine. And died.

    TOMORROW NEVER DIES - THE BMW 750

    Ooh, I bet BMW was pleased. It went to all the trouble and expense of securing a three-film deal with the Bond people. It provided 22 £50,000 cars for Tomorrow Never Dies, and Q—the greatest, most knowledgable technician in the world—having seen in the script it was called a 750, promptly referred to it on camera as a “BMW seven hundred and fifty”. Not until Robert De Niro pronounced Hereford as it’s spelt in Ronin had we ever heard such a gaffe. Still, the car itself was remarkable. Fully capable of being driven by remote control (and I know this to be possible because I built a Corvette that could be driven from afar—well, who wants to actually drive a Corvette?), it also had a wire cutter that sprang out of the badge on the bonnet. Handy, since three minutes into the chase in Brent Cross car park, Bond did indeed need to cut through some steel cable. To incapacitate the pursuers, nails were dropped from the rear of the car—a feature that was fitted to the DB5 in Goldfinger, though it was never actually deployed back then, in case small boys tried the same thing for real. In addition, the BMW had self-inflating tyres, electrified door handles to scare away thieves, sledgehammer-proof glass, and a battery of missiles in the sunroof. As gadget cars go, it was way beyond the DB5. But it was a BMW saloon car. And BMW saloon cars are driven by German cement salesmen. Not James Bond. So it wasn’t the implausibility of the chase that wrecked this for me. It was the implausibility of the car.

    OCTOPUSSY - THE RICKSHAW

    In India, might is right. The truck is the biggest thing on the road and therefore has right of way over the elephant, which has right of way over the bus, which has right over way over the van, which has right of way over the car, which has right of way over the pedestrian, which has right of way over the dung beetle, which has right of way over the auto rickshaw. Of the 164 people killed every day on the highways and byways of India, nobody knows how many die at the wheel of their three-wheeled scooter. Nobody cares. I drove one once and simply couldn’t work out how anyone could ever make it go fast enough to be dangerous. Of all the vehicles in all the world, this is the most horrid. And not even Bond gives it any kudos. He used one to escape from the baddies in Octopussy. But do you know what? He’d have been better off on his hands and knees.

    OCTOPUSSY - THE ALFA ROMEO GTV6

    I apologise if you sat near me in the cinema when I saw this. I don’t normally scoff so loudly, but the notion that a GTV6 can outrun the German police in their BMWs is preposterous. I owned a GTV6 at the time, so let me tell you, it’s impossible—not hard: impossible—to change from first to second gear. The problem is that Alfa wanted its sporting coupe to have perfect weight distribution, so the gearbox was put at the back. Nothing wrong with that. But they linked it to the lever with a series of rods that operated with the smoothness of a washing machine full of bricks. Once, in my car, these rods detached themselves and played tonsil hockey with the prop shaft. It went from 100mph to 0 in 2.4 inches, and the sparks put the explosion at the end of Dr. No in the shade. Also, the car would let all the air out of its tyres overnight, refuse to disengage the clutch, and not start if it was hot, cold, wet, dry or overcast. Any agent who relied on a GTV6 would be shot on his first morning.

    THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS - THE ASTON MARTIN V8

    When Bond loses a tyre driving on a frozen lake, skis come out of the sills, and spikes shoot out of the tyres. Even if we allow for the problem of running electrical cable to the inside of a tyre, how did the spikes come through the rubber without letting the air out? We must deduce that the tyres were in fact solid. So he drove all the way from London to Bratislava with solid tyres, did he? Well, I suppose he did get past customs with missiles hidden in his bumper...

    THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH - THE BMW Z8

    It wasn’t a Z8. BMW did everything that was humanly possible to supply the real thing in time for the film, but in the end, all it could come up with was a selection of body panels. These were bolted onto a Dax Cobra, a sort of AC replica, and from a distance nobody was any the wiser. For close-up shots, a model was used. Happily, this half-arsed car was cut in half by a helicopter. Good.

    THE SPY WHO LOVED ME - THE LOTUS ESPRIT

    How did Lotus convince Bond to ditch the Aston? Simple. It parked one of its dramatic new Esprits near the canteen at Pinewood and waited for the call. In the chase, the car drove off a pier into the sea and became a submarine. Bond’s gorgeous passenger, a Russian agent, then operated one of the mines, saying she’d seen blueprints of the car. If she had, why did she scream when it plunged into the water? I suspect she knew ‘Lotus’ stands for Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious. A normal Esprit would struggle to get to the shops without exploding, so she would undoubtedly have been worried about how it performed as a submarine.

    FOR YOUR EYES ONLY - THE CITROËN 2CV

    After the excesses of Moonraker, in which James Bond revealed that he could not only move his eyebrows independently of one another, but also shoot down flying saucers from a space shuttle, the whole 007 story was brought down to Earth. For Your Eyes Only is a simple tale of Bond trying to get to a sunken British trawler before the Russians.

    And with this new-found realism, it was obvious that he should have a gritty, no-nonsense car. So they put him a Citroën 2CV.

    I’m sorry, but this simply didn’t wash. Had the story line been about saving a whale or disentangling the Greenham Common women from one another’s crotches, then maybe. But it’s really not a good idea to go up against the henchmen of a Cuban hit man armed only with a car that was made by a bunch of Algerians in a factory with a floor made out of mud.

    Actually, I don’t know if the factory floor was made from mud, but I can tell you that Citron never allowed a single journalist in there. Getting access to Saddam’s bunkers would have been easier.

    I didn’t like seeing this car on the road, and I certainly didn’t like to see it being used as a prop in such a great action movie. I want fantasy from my Bond films, not clown noises.

    In the chase, Bond manages to shake off three pursuing Peugeot 504s—even the baddie cars were boring—and, I’m sorry, that’s simply not possible. You could put Michael Schumacher in a 2CV and he wouldn’t be able to get away from Ray Charles. Even if he was in a wheelbarrow, being pushed around by Roy Orbison.

    ***

    The Road Ahead

    Bond's state-of-the-art cars are continually being overtaken by reality. What sort of vehicle does 007 need to stay in pole position, asks Jeremy Clarkson

    My, how we gasped when, in 1964, the centre console on Bond’s DB5 slid back to reveal a satellite tracking screen. And these days it’s available on a Volkswagen Golf. Now look at Bond’s car in Die Another Day. The Aston Martin Vanquish. It has a normal manual gearbox, but instead of pressing the clutch, then moving a tiresome lever, you just pull a paddle behind the steering wheel and a computer does it all for you. Great, but by the time the film makes it onto video, DVD or whatever format we’re using next week, gearboxes like this will be on sale in Toys ‘R’ Us.

    So, to ensure that Bond stays ahead of the game, it’s a good idea to snout around today’s concept cars, cars built to give us a flavour of tomorrow. If Bond sets off down the comedy route again, he may be tempted by the Nissan Yanya, which is every bit as cheeky as the Citroën 2CV in For Your Eyes Only. The roof, which can be removed in four sections, means anyone in it can be ejected: he doesn’t have to hope the target sits in the passenger seat. In addition, the centre console slides back to reveal four internet access points as well as all the usual in-car entertainment systems. And the whole caboodle comes with its own power supply, so it can be lifted out and taken to the beach. Handy for those dawn frolics with Mancunian countesses.

    But being a Nissan, it’s unlikely to be fast, so maybe 007 is better off with a Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution. Or maybe not. On the side is a huge badge saying it has a V8 engine, and in the blurb you’ll read all about the 4.7 litres of throbbing power. In fact, it has a miserable V6. So what’s a couple of cylinders between friends? The point is, it could have a V8. It could also have active yaw control and an active centre differential, stuff usually associated with Mitsubishi’s Evo rally cars. What we have here is a big, tall, fast off-road car. Ideal. We can even overlook the fact that it was designed by Erwin Himmel, who sounds like a Bond baddie. But we can’t, I’m afraid, ignore its name. “Pajero”. In Spanish, it means “w***er”.

    So what about the Mercedes F400 Carving? Forget the styling, which appears to have been done by someone who was either being deliberately stupid or was four years old. And forget the engine, too. It’s probably powered by something from a Kenwood mixer. Concentrate on the wheels, which tilt as you corner. You choose the sort of driving style you’d like, and a computer does the rest. When you turn into a corner on the maximum setting, the front outer wheel cambers inwards by 20%, while the rear inner wheel cambers inwards, then straightens itself up again. To cope with this, the outer half of each tyre is mounted on a 19 inch wheel, while the inner half is rounded like a motorcycle’s and mounted on a 17 inch rim. The result is cornering forces of biblical proportions. No car on the road—or the track, for that matter—will get close to it.

    But should Bond be given such a thing, I fear he will look a bit of a pajero. Which brings us on to the Alfa Romeo Brera. This one does have an engine, a 4.2-litre Maserati V8, which drives the rear wheels via a six-speed push-button gearbox. And because it’s a concept car, it’s freed from the usual EU rules on noise. As a result, it sounds like God. It goes like the devil, though. With 390bhp at the command of your right foot and a carbon-fibre body that weighs 1,300 kilograms, it is likely to be a member of the 200mph club. But it’s not the power that matters most here. I have argued for 15 years that Aston Martin’s DB7 is the best-looking car ever made. Not any more, it isn’t. The Brera has the strength of Sean Connery, the prettiness of Pierce Brosnan, the feistiness of George Lazenby, the talents of Timothy Dalton, and look at those headlamps: they’re even better than Roger Moore’s eyebrows. This car has Bond written all over it. Stylish. Powerful. Clever. And most importantly, timeless. 007’s car of the future is here, now.
  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 7,948
    I agree with the last one. The only other brand that has Bond-appeal is Alfa Romeo.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    It could do, but the Brera wasn't it. It wasn't exactly aspirational, and although it was pretty I always thought it looked too short in the wheelbase.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    edited April 2022 Posts: 6,758
    That was a fun read @Revelator !

    Now, bring on Bond in an Alfa ;), I’d adore that.
  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    Posts: 4,311
    Without repeating an old theme on the BMW design, I also think that there are even more problems with some modern cars like this: There was a time when fuel-efficient aerodynamics were the way to go and I think the principle even more so applies to battery-powered cars (besides weight). But from the looks of it the new BMW 7 series seems to be designed to attack the air in front of it with as much resistance as possible.

    Another issue is that the lights around the "grille" are allowed to shine at night, which, when picked up by other car companies, will lead to a rather distracting circus-spectacle of light effects in the oncoming traffic.

    Both developments I am not looking forward to.

    BMW-7er-i7-169FullWidthOdcPortrait-74b664b-1890649.jpg
  • LucknFateLucknFate 007 In New York
    Posts: 1,419
    zebrafish wrote: »
    Without repeating an old theme on the BMW design, I also think that there are even more problems with some modern cars like this: There was a time when fuel-efficient aerodynamics were the way to go and I think the principle even more so applies to battery-powered cars (besides weight). But from the looks of it the new BMW 7 series seems to be designed to attack the air in front of it with as much resistance as possible.

    Another issue is that the lights around the "grille" are allowed to shine at night, which, when picked up by other car companies, will lead to a rather distracting circus-spectacle of light effects in the oncoming traffic.

    Both developments I am not looking forward to.

    BMW-7er-i7-169FullWidthOdcPortrait-74b664b-1890649.jpg

    I was at the U.S. press preview for the new 7 and i7, and the car looks OK with the M Sport performance pack appearance package, but it's far from pretty.

    The tech inside is pretty hokey too, just grasping at anything the Chinese market may buy into with little consideration for other markets. Not an impressive car in any regard, except that they have one platform with three different powertrain options; gas, plug-in, and full EV. I do respect that they updated their V8, and it's still available. And they did development testing on the Nurburgring, so I'm sure it will drive relatively OK.

    But I don't want Bond within 100 miles of modern day BMWs.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou. I can still hear my old hound dog barkin'.
    Posts: 8,656
    zebrafish wrote: »
    Without repeating an old theme on the BMW design, I also think that there are even more problems with some modern cars like this: There was a time when fuel-efficient aerodynamics were the way to go and I think the principle even more so applies to battery-powered cars (besides weight). But from the looks of it the new BMW 7 series seems to be designed to attack the air in front of it with as much resistance as possible.

    Another issue is that the lights around the "grille" are allowed to shine at night, which, when picked up by other car companies, will lead to a rather distracting circus-spectacle of light effects in the oncoming traffic.

    Both developments I am not looking forward to.

    BMW-7er-i7-169FullWidthOdcPortrait-74b664b-1890649.jpg

    I never thought any "7 series" could be uglier than Chris Bangle's E65. But I was wrong. This is visual pollution at its worst. TND's E38 at least looked good for a saloon, however suited it was for a Bond car.
  • Posts: 5,772
    The other day, I saw a car with the most unfortunate name : a Toyota MR2. Frankly, I wouldn't want to be in a car that advertise itself as a piece of s**t.

    Explanation for those who don't speak french : pronounced the french way (M R Deux), MR2 sounds like "Et merde", which means "and s**t". Apparently, they don't speak french at Toyota.
  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    edited April 2022 Posts: 4,311
    That's hilarious. Usually international companies make sure that things like this do not happen.

    How do you feel about the Audi e-tron?
  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 7,948
    mtm wrote: »
    It could do, but the Brera wasn't it. It wasn't exactly aspirational, and although it was pretty I always thought it looked too short in the wheelbase.

    True, but the Disco Volante (2017) would've done nicely
    alfaromeodiscovolante-auxietreschmidt-03.jpg?itok=0MR3um8C
  • 007InAction007InAction Australia
    Posts: 2,341
    Ferrari SP48 Unica
    ferrari-sp48-unica-officially-unveiled-it-s-a-one-off-in-a-crazy-shade_7.jpg
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 14,861
    I'd say Ferrari still have it.
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