The Midas Touch: The true value of a James Bond car

[Hagerty]

With the latest James Bond film No Time to Die debuting this weekend, we've opted to take a concrete look at how enthusiasm around 007's motoring habits have affected real-world values. Given that MI6 remains in Her Majesty's service, we look to our own British agent, John Mayhead, publisher of the U.K.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/valuation/the-midas-touch-the-true-value-of-a-james-bond-car/

[MoparMarq]

The front wheel track width and front fender wheel openings on the Hornet look substantially different than what would have come from the factory. I never noticed that before. It appears the there is a roll bar installed and possibly the dash is different also. Now I have an excuse to take another look at that downtown/levee chase scene in the movie.

[farna]

I don't remember the details, or where to find them right now, but the car was modified to make that spiral jump. I swear that at least the Javelins used in the stunt show that toured the country had the driver's seat moved to the center, but can't find that reference now. Might have been for a different stunt. The only detail I could find about the Astro-Spiral cars was that a small fifth wheel was added under the differential to kick the rear end up a bit when leaving the take-off ramp. There was a special track on the ramp for the wheel. Of course safety equipment was added -- like the roll bar.

[SJ]

Love that Cougar with the 428 Cobra Jet.

[Inline8OD]

What's this ".... 007’s motoring habits have affected real-world values?" Nonsense like this underscores that the semi-literate, dumbed down have replaced literate car buffs, not that Ian Fleming's novels were great prose, if good potboilers. Because apart from one woefully inaccurate exception, not one of the above conveyances have a n y t h i n g to do with the cars in Fleming's books. Not a single thing, only embarrass those motor fans among the reading public; reminding us that the movie industry's target audience has long been adolescent boys.
Where are Bond's various Bentleys Fleming carefully described, including his "battered, elephant's breath gray Bentley?" Where's Felix Leiter's "low-slung Cord saloon?"

[cwfritz]

I'm with you, Inline8OD. Leiter was a gearhead; in the original Goldfinger he had a black "Studillac," which was actually a custom conversion available at the time, a big Cadillac V8 with a four-on-the-floor in a Studebaker Golden Hawk. Sounds pretty good!

The most exciting car passage in any of the books was in Moonraker, a cross-country road race between Bond in his Bentley and Hugo Drax in a Mercedes 300, plus an early Alfa Romeo roadster that joins the fun but crashes dramatically. From London to the Channel coast in Kent, Fleming described the route in such detail that you can trace it on Google Earth today, landmarks and all.

[BiffNotZeem]

At least one other Bond Lotus Esprit has been sold at auction. The copper-colored one in 'For Your Eyes Only' (which also played the 'burglar protected' white one) was in the Lotus factory collection until the collection was auctioned off in the late 90s. It came up on eBay in 2006 and sold there for $210,000.

I thought that the driveable white Esprit S1 from "Spy Who Loved Me" (the one that Bond picks up from Q and used in the chase scene (but not launched off the end of the pier)) was also part of the factory collection auction as well. (I need to remember where I put the list of auction results. It was some time ago now.)

[Inline8OD]

How  could i forget Goldfinger's Studillac?  Thanks.  Bill Frick  produced over 250 of them.  Right, y'are, CWFritz,  and that Moonraker chase including the poor lad  on leave in his Alfa was terrific.    It's a tragic loss that studios can't present such non-CGI excitement from when "doing the ton" was the equivalent of going 200 mph in some carbon fiber/plastic ground effects thing cobbled for billionaire Walter Mitties sans a dollop of charm.

   Fleming may've known more about cuisine,  skiing, and  British naval bureaucracy than automobiles,  his favorite personal car a '57 T-Bird,  but he knew enough to get it right; leave us stirring passages.   

     Sad Ian Fleming's entertaining adult novels reduced to cinematic comic books.  Sadder still a cottage industry today raving about vehicles and gadgets having  absolutely nothing to do with his novels.

       Perhaps Hagerty and more readers will eventually tire of their  Camaro/Mustang/muscle car/super car kick and rediscover earlier, more interesting rides.

[51JaguarC-type]

I will buy the Aston Martin DBS6 for the Hagerty appraised value, can sell the mechanical for triple that price, now idea how they get to this valuation.

[jwiley]

All values in the article are for the time of the sale, which for the DBS dates way back to 1978. The market has moved on a bit since then. 

[BMWZ3]

I’m disappointed that you didn’t include the BMW Z3 from the 1995 movie Golden Eye.

The first BMW in a James Bond film took place in a chase scene in 1983's Octopussy. ... After the producers visited BMW's design center in Munich, the decision was made to use the Z3 roadster as James Bond's official car. It was the first German car that Bond drove as his official car.

[Gary_Bechtold]

The Jaguar C-X75 should have made production. It looked so good.