The Classic Car Show 9th April 2015 Channel 5

Tonight's show is a James Bond Special and begins with Quentin Wilson's article about the Aston Martin DB5. This car became the most famous car in the world after only a combined screen time of 13 minutes during Goldfinger and Thunderball. This was also the most successful example of product placement. When launched in 1963, it cost £4,000. This could have bought you two E-Type Jaguars. The E-Type was faster, more advanced and nicer to drive. The DB5 was a rebodied DB4 that weighed a tonne and a half that came with a 4 litre straight six engine that goes from 0-60 in 8 seconds and has a top speed of 143mph. The gearbox is said to be delicate with a heavy clutch. The interior of the DB5 is stunning. This reminds me a lot of the DB4 I drove. This car quite simply was made to be driven on the open road. 

So how did the DB5 become anicon? Aston Martin intitally refused to lend Eon Productions a car because in the past they came back damaged. Ken Adams, the production designer  and John Sears the special effects supervisor really wanted a DB5, so they went to the manager of Aston Martin and convinced him that a product placement deal would be a good idea and he relented. The car left the factory as a normal Aston Martin but once at Pinewood Studios, that all changed. In six weeks however that all changed. It was from red to birch silver, it was fitted with all of the gadgets such as the ejector seat, the revolving number plate, the Browning machine guns, the bullet proof screen to name a few. The bill for all of this was £45,000 and the producer Harry Saltzman said that this car was not to be used in high speed chases so another DB5 was bought from Aston Martin. This would be a quicker DB5 and used for the high speed sequences. Another two DB5's followed for the promotional US tour. The original Bond DB5 was sold to a private collector in Florida in 1969. In 1997 the car was stolen from a hangar an Boca Raton and it has never been found.

Next up is Will Best takes a look at the Bond in Motion exhibition at The London Film Museum. This is a 50th celebration of all things James Bond with a vast array of vehicles and props from the films. I have been to the one at Beauliea I will add the photos I took as Will has a wonder around and picks some choice vehicles to show us. We have:

Bond's DB5

Goldfinger's Rolls Royce

The Lotus from The Spy Who Loved Me

Some of the light aircraft used.

The trike used by James Bond

Some of the American cars used

And finally

If you do get a chance to see this exhibition it is well worth it as you can get up close to all of this and much more.

Next is Alex Riley driving a classic you can buy for under £5,000. As this episode is a James Bond special the car is a car that has been driven by the super spy. Today Alex is driving a Triumph Stag. Sean Conney drove this car in Diamonds Are Forever while on his way to Dover to meet Miss Moneypenny. The Triumph Stag's story begins in 1964 when designer Giovanni Michelotti persuaded Triumph's Harry Webster to give him a Triumph 2000 saloon on which he could do something special to show off his skills. Once Webster had seen what Michelotti was able to do he orderd full scald development of the car. This car was set to be a winner but in true British Leyland style things went wrong. The Stag had a new 3 litre V8 engine, it was modern, compact and powerful but they manufactured badly and used cost cutting methods, its reliability was dreadful. Timing chans broke, cylinder heads corroded and water pumps failed. Overheating soon became the bane of Stag owners lives. With a bad reputation, sales never took off, so in 1977, the Stag was withdrawn. 

Next we have Ben Collins driving the inspiration behind the Bond car the Aston Martin DB2/4. Ben Collins has been the stunt driver for the last two James Bond films. Turning to the car, the DB2/4, launched in 1953 as the worlds first Hatchback, this is the car that inspired Ian Fleming to swap Bond's allegiance from Bentley to Aston Martin in the Goldfinger novel. Looking at the DB2/4 you can see how Fleming was inspired to create the car for Bond's use as a spy. The reinforced bumpers are ideal for smashing other cars out of your way. On the inside there are also some familiarise. Mounted into the dashboard is a two way radio and a taco device used by rally drivers that would become a homing device. Between the seats there is a pull up panel and hidden beneath it you could put some gadget in. Pull the outer shell of this to reveal a place that a gun could be stored. All of this was standard with the DB2/4. This car is a classic GT car best on the open road, the engine in a Lagonda Straight Six it goes from 0-60 in 12 seconds and has a top speed of 120mph. Once up to speed, the Aston is luxurious and sedate, the handling is not good and the breaking is best taken slowly. There are no seat belts so trying to use this for a car chase is not a good idea. So how did Ian Fleming find this car? This car was owned by a man called Squdron Leader Phillip Ingram Cunliffe-Lister. It's this man that modified the Aston and put all of the gadgets in the car so that he could take it on international rallies. It's belived that this man was good friends with Ian Fleming's next door neighbour and that Fleming went to their house and saw the Aston with all of the modifications during the time he was planning Goldfinger. The reason Bond had a DB3 in Goldfinger is that Fleming wanted Bond to have the latest kit from his shoes to his car and his gun. Everything had to be accurate and cutting edge. The DB2/4 was at the end of it's time and was replaced by the MK3, three being in Roman numerals. Here is where Fleming made an uncharacteristic mistake because in Goldfinger he called the car a DB3 again in Roman numerals when it should have read MK3.

Next up is Bruno Senna driving a classic around the handling track. Today Bruno is driving the Aston Martin DB3. Introduced in 1951, the DB3 was built purely for racing. It was powered by a 2.9 litre Lagonda Straight 6 engine giving the car 163BHP. This car took on C-Type Jaguars and Ferrari 340 Americas at Le Mans and Sebring. It's finest moment was winning the Goodwood 9 hours in August 1952 driven by Peter Collins and Pat Griffith. On track the DB3 looks and sounds great. At the halfway point the DB3 is just over a second behind the E-Type. By the end of the lap the DB3 2.7 seconds down completing the lap in 51:026 seconds. That's s great time for a car of this age. That puts the DB3 3rd fastest behind the E-Type and the Healey

Next up, Jodie Kidd looks at some classic car adverts. We havePeugeot 205. The 205 is made to look like the it should be in James Bond. It gets shot out of its parachute mid air and survives the attempt to try to blow it up.

Lastly Jodie Kidd drives the James Bond Lotus Esprit. Ths car was in production for over 28 years. This is the longest production car that Lotus have made. In 1970, Colin Chapman realised he needed a car that looked like a Ferrari or Lamborghini. So he called Giorgetto Guigiaro, the man responsible for the DeLorean, the Maseratti's Ghibli and the BMW M1. Guigiaro's design and Chapmans engineering skills made a sports car dream team. The way the world heard about the Esprit was brilliant too. PR guru Don McLauchlan parked a pre production Esprit outside of James Bond Producer Cubby Broccoli's office and the rest was history. A generation of car lovers had a new car to fall in love with. It's not just this cars looks that are good, this cars handling is legendary, Chapman engineered a super lightweight body with a two litre four cylinder engine giving it a 0-60 time of 8.4 seconds and a top speed of 133mph. During the 28 years of production, the Esprit changed, in came posher interiors, spoilers and turbochargers diluting Chapmans vision. 

This has been an insightful episode, being a fan of the James Bond series, I have learned a lot about the cars and Ian Fleming. Alex Riley States the good points about the Triumph Stag but should also give more reasons as to why these cars are £5,000.