NO TIME TO DrIvE
Posted
on Tuesday, 12 October 2021
by CarTakeBack
With the premier fast approaching, we're getting very excited about the arrival of James Bond. It's been a very long wait for avid fans of 007, who've been expecting to see Daniel Craig showcase the end of his reign as Bond since early 2020! But it's not just the character we're keen to see back in action, many Bond fans get just as excited about his wheels!
After an animated conversation in the CarTakeBack office about how important the Bond cars were to the film franchise, we decided to find out how long each iconic car actually featured throughout Bond history. You may have seen our job advert for working out the stats… We even made headlines in the U.S. in our search for the right person for the job! Here’s a screenshot of the coverage our Bond-related role had, all the way from Pennsylvania!
![U.S. media coverage of CarTakeBack Bond job](/media/5790/amerciannewscoverageofcartakeback.png)
The results from this sort-after statistical role were just as surprising as the reaction to our job advert! While most people may consider Bond's car a key part in delivering the character's image, as well as featuring in many iconic scenes over the years, none of the cars have ever appeared on screen for more than 11 minutes in an entire film! In fact, after the Aston Martin DB5 that racked up a total of 10 minutes and 42 seconds in Goldfinger (1964), the next highest featured car is on screen for the total of a mere 6 minutes 48 seconds!
![Bond car appearance stats](/media/5797/james-bond-driving-stats-final2.jpg)
The car make most of us agree is synonymous with Bond, is of course, Aston Martin, which appear in 11 out of the 24 films leading up to Spectre (2015), 5 of them being DB5's. We wholly agree this stunning car deserves to take the top spot in terms of the number of films, however, in Tomorrow Never Dies, this iconic car features for all of 17 seconds! For such a famous connection from such a minimal role, it just proves what an impact these incredible cars can have in such a short time.
![Winning Bond Car Aston Martin DB5](/media/5795/winning-bond-car-aston-martin.png)
While we are clearly fans of Aston Martin, let's not forget the other memorable makes that have served James Bond well over the years… Starting with the Sunbeam Alpine in Dr No (1962), which, prior to any prestige the future films offered, wasn't supplied by a manufacturer, but borrowed from a Jamaican resident where they were filming. Other Bond cars causing a stir, and no doubt sending sales figures soaring, include the Toyota 2000 from You Only Live Twice (1967), the Lotus Espirit from The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) although we're not sure that the submarine model was widely available, and the BMW Z8 in The World Is Not Enough (1999).
So which model has been your favourite? And more importantly, which car should take our future 007 into their next mission?
*SPOILER ALERT* While the talented Lashana Lynch makes her debut as the next 007 in No Time To Die, that is of course just the job title. The coveted role of James Bond is still up for grabs and our mega-fan poll put Idris Elba at the top of the list of actors to portray him. What we're most excited about, is that with the opportunity for Lashana to feature in a new film as the next 007, and another actor to play James Bond, there could be two high-profile spy cars to admire in the future of the franchise. We can't wait to see what happens next!
![New Bond and 007 actors](/media/5796/new-bond-actors.png)