No Mr Bond, I expect you to fly…

‘Ah Mr Bond, we’ve been expecting you since last year…..to arrive in a car fit for an Alpha male, who doesn’t have to try too hard…’.

Sadly, the eau dear cologne Christmas gift of Denim was about as close I got to any of those fantasies, but who hasn’t dreamed of driving a Bond car? Not the wedge of Red Leicester Bug variety, I mean Astons, Lotuses, even taking a 2CV for a lovely drive in the country.

Though Fleming put him in raffish sideboards of Bentleys, on screen Bond, along with his DBs, has been licenced to drive plenty of other dashing yet affordable models to give us hope though – Sean making Amsterdam in a Triumph Stag in Diamonds are Forever, Rogers Alfa GTV6 outrunning the Polizei’s 5 series in Octopussy, (both proving Bond films are indeed fantasies), and Pierces corporate BMW phase.

Indeed, GoldenEye marked a new woke era in Bond films, not just because Dame Judy scolded him for being a sexist, misogynist dinosaur, but really put him in his metrosexual place by giving him a BMW Z3 as his company repmobile. Finally, a Q car so attainable, Kia even sell the missiles now.

The Espirits were my archetypal Bond car though. They looked so darn cool, rakish and raffish, so low slung they could have driven clean under that barrier that scythed the Renault 11 decapotable. And Espirits have some surprising New Zealand connections.

They were actually evaluated for manufacture here, with model 006 being crated over in bits, (hence why Q always requested 007 returned his in one piece).

Indeed, designer Giugiaro allegedly wanted to call it the Lotus Kiwi. Given they’re a flightless hairball of a bird we should all be grateful he didn’t major in marketing, as most cars named after birds tend to be more like Brown Boobies. Reliant Robin, Nissan Bluebird anyone?

Hence calling a Kiwi made Espirit lookalike the Heron MJ1 didn’t help its supercar claims. Neither did its Fiat powerplant or slightly squashed looks with buck toothed headlights rather than wedge-tastic pop up ones. Only 30 odd made 1980s production before Mazda’s RX7 ate its eggs for breakfast.

If you fancy being stirred and slightly shaken in the exotic location of New Zealand, RentAClassic has a Bond baddie Jaguar XK8 convertible on our hire fleet, (mortar bombs extra), and our MGB GT was known as the poor mans Aston, could sort of count as another. Drive that under a stupidly low barrier and you could end up with Golden Gun Agent Goodnights MGB roadster. It would also be goodnight to your no claims bonus, but I’m sure Q would sort it in no time….providing you’d left his lunch untouched.