Spy Octane – The Vehicles of James Bond (Volume I)

Marking the 60th anniversary of Goldfinger, and the gadget-laden Aston Martin DB5 that became its four-wheeled star is Spy Octane: The Vehicles of James Bond.

Written by acclaimed Bond historians Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury this is the first of three volumes that take an in-depth look at every one of the vehicles in the James Bond movies – which have become the longest-running film franchise of all time.

Through incredible detective work the authors have unearthed undiscovered and ground-breaking secrets behind the vehicles such as the autogyro Little Nellie, the Toyota 2000GT Convertible, the Moon Buggy and of course the iconic Aston Martin DB5 – which secured the most successful product placement deal in movie history and was described as ‘the most famous car in the world’.

Spy Octane presents for the first time the definitive, in-depth story of each of these vehicles – and many more. It draws upon hundreds of exclusive interviews with the filmmakers, actors, stunt-drivers, motor industry executives, museum curators and private vehicle owners, and countless motoring and entertainment periodicals, books, magazines and unpublished ephemera.

Some of these cars and crafts embarked on glamorous promotional tours around the world, others ended up on the race track, in museums, in the hands of collectors – or abandoned to rot, only to be rediscovered decades later.

Hundreds of photographs take the reader on a journey through the golden age of James Bond in the 1960s, exploring Bond creator Ian Fleming’s passion for exotic travel and individualistic motor cars before detailing the array of vehicles which propelled 007 through the first seven Bond films on land, sea and in the air.