Why Bond should never have got rid of the Esprit.

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ExigeEvan

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7356916.stm
BBC News
A stunt driver has crashed the car used by movie secret agent James Bond into Italy's Lake Garda during filming of 007's latest movie, Quantum of Solace.
The driver was delivering the iconic Aston Martin DBS to the film scene in heavy rain when he lost control around one of the lake's narrow curves.

The driver was quickly rescued and taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Italian TV showed the car, reportedly the only one available for use in the film, being winched out of the lake.

Filming for the movie - starring Daniel Craig as the latest Bond - has already taken the crew to England, Panama, Chile and Mexico.

The newest film in the long-running 007 franchise is to be released later this year.

The driver was certainly lucky, and I'm sure a replacement will be quickly found but you can't help but laugh abit.
 
Uhm, GTP has a much more reliable source that has said that there's 19 others he can ruin before they have to worry.
I shall repeat the key word, available. I don't imagine you can record half the movie with one coloured car and another with a different colour. Though, I don't think too many owners (Any delivered yet?) would complain about have their car as the bond car. Must be worth abit on resale.
 
Since I watched the entire order of identical 'Bond 22' cars roll off the production line, I'm guessing they can find one at fairly short notice. BBC News not entirely accurate here.

Over 150 production cars have rolled off the track at the moment, at the rate of between 12 and 28 a week.

And the AML-employed driver of this car will be reminded of this for a very long time.
 
Video

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7356916.stm


The driver was certainly lucky, and I'm sure a replacement will be quickly found but you can't help but laugh abit.
Uh, that story is wrong. I've been following production of the film and I know they were using five identical Aston Martins for the sequence. As none of the others have been destroyed - because the car actually survives, this time - they'll just use one of those. The car in question was to be used at the end of the car chase where Bond makes his escape.

The part about there being only one Aston Martin is just tabloid trash: the likes of The Sun and News of the World love picking on the films when they're not blatantly making up lies. I know the BBC is reliable, but the first stories were written by tabloid papers, and it triked down from there.

Seriously: what film with a (rumoured) $230 million budget only uses one car when there's likely to be damage in the process of filming? EON Poductions are no strangers to this sort of thing, and you can bet they'd have budgeted for this kind of thing just in case. Hell, I've seen a video of no less than five Aston Martin DBSs and at least three Alfa Romeo 159s being tended to; most of them were already showing cosmetic damage like bullet holes. Since this car has been destroyed, all they had to do was get one of their other cars once they knew everything was alright. None of the others were being used, because director Marc Forster doesn't use a second unit for scenes like the one they were filming.
 
For that matter, they already had 5 (or was it 3?) BMW Z8s (how many of them were fake is irrelevant) for TWINE, and that car wasn't even near production yet when the movie was in development.
 
Damn, I thought it was a DB5 from the news yesterday. Someone can't read "S"

It's a new car anyway, so a new one can just be built, or this one fixed. That WAS quite a drop, though.
 
If it was an Esprit, he probably wouldn't have had time to crash it between breakdowns. And even when it was running, it wouldn't have taken wet weather to make him crash it.
 
If it was an Esprit, he probably wouldn't have had time to crash it between breakdowns. And even when it was running, it wouldn't have taken wet weather to make him crash it.

Also take a look at the video; that Aston Martin took quite a beating yet the driver was still OK. Think an old Esprit would've held up so good?
 
Uh, that story is wrong. I've been following production of the film and I know they were using five identical Aston Martins for the sequence. As none of the others have been destroyed - because the car actually survives, this time - they'll just use one of those. The car in question was to be used at the end of the car chase where Bond makes his escape.

The part about there being only one Aston Martin is just tabloid trash: the likes of The Sun and News of the World love picking on the films when they're not blatantly making up lies. I know the BBC is reliable, but the first stories were written by tabloid papers, and it triked down from there.

Seriously: what film with a (rumoured) $230 million budget only uses one car when there's likely to be damage in the process of filming? EON Poductions are no strangers to this sort of thing, and you can bet they'd have budgeted for this kind of thing just in case. Hell, I've seen a video of no less than five Aston Martin DBSs and at least three Alfa Romeo 159s being tended to; most of them were already showing cosmetic damage like bullet holes. Since this car has been destroyed, all they had to do was get one of their other cars once they knew everything was alright. None of the others were being used, because director Marc Forster doesn't use a second unit for scenes like the one they were filming.
While you make a good point I think you need to realise that they probably weren't planning to lose a car off-set and with a car like the DBS you can't just put in infinite orders for it. It also wouldn't surprise me if there were serious modifications made to the Bond cars e.g. The Jag's used in one movie for the ice scene were converted to 4WD. And out of interest, where do you get this information from?

Rue
No, but the point is that Bond's old white Esprit was amphibious.
I was beginning to wonder...
 
My bad, guys. I thought there were more, but in fact eight Bond 22 cars were manufactured according to my colleague (and I was too busy/lazy to check on the system... although I remember starting to do so, so I must have had a busy day...)

It is entirely feasible that five were allocated to the film, and three for PR.

The driver (Fraser Dunn) is extremely lucky to be alive, he suffered from a broken wrist. The metal railings at the side of the road punctured the car in at least two places, one of them went under his legs.

My source: I work for AML. It was a bit of a shock this morning when I realised the Aston Martin wings flags outside the offices were flying at half-mast. We thought Fraser might have popped his Sparcos until later we discovered that Geoff Polites, an ex-JLR manager, had died aged 80.
 
My source: I work for AML. It was a bit of a shock this morning when I realised the Aston Martin wings flags outside the offices were flying at half-mast. We thought Fraser might have popped his Sparcos until later we discovered that Geoff Polites, an ex-JLR manager, had died aged 80.

Oh yes, I heard that Geoff Polites head of Jaguar and Land Rover died today. I saw it on Topgear's website when I got home.
 
V8. Big carb. Reeked the press garage out every time we started them - I don't think they ever rejetted them for mild conditions.
 
Yeah, I remember reading about those... Ford Racing carbbed V8s, what I assume was a mix/match set of AWD components from classic Ford trucks, all stuffed neatly under the body of a Vanquish and a XKR.

Badass if you ask me...
 
They were/are hideous, intractable abominations. But, they did the job. :)

However, back to the story.

We weren't asked many questions about modifying the cars this time - although the airbags have been removed from at least one car. I suspect this 'at least one car' also has a few mods for fast stunt driving.

But... it's all guesswork. We'll have to wait for the film. :)
 
I know it's off-topic, but Geoff Polites was only 60.

He was instrumental in turning the fortunes of Ford Australia around so he was very well respected here in Oz.
 
While you make a good point I think you need to realise that they probably weren't planning to lose a car off-set and with a car like the DBS you can't just put in infinite orders for it. It also wouldn't surprise me if there were serious modifications made to the Bond cars e.g. The Jag's used in one movie for the ice scene were converted to 4WD. And out of interest, where do you get this information from?
I understand that they can't put an infinite order for the cars in, but the cars haven't been extensively modified the way the Jaguars were for Die Another Day. They could just use another vehicle.

However, it seems there have been two more accidents on set. The first was a fairly minor affair, with the driver being discharged from hospital the day he was admitted, and apparently required fifteen stitches for a cut on his hand. The other accident, however, was far more serious: a Greek stuntsman who has been working on the films since Tomorrow Never Dies was taken to hospital in a critical condition. Most of the reports are in Italian and I've had to get them translated, but it seems he and another stuntman were driving an Alfa Romeo 159 when th accident happened. A second 159 with two dummies in it was being towed by a lorry and was supposed to hit the truck while the 159 with the stuntmen in it was to go around the outside. However, the cable connecting the second Alfa allegedly broke and the two 159s came together, with the car containing the stuntmen punching through the brick wall separating the road from the lake below. I know it's The Sun and therefore crap (no-one is talking about a curse on the film), but a picture of the aftermath can be seen here.

As for where I get my information, most of it comes from two forums about the films - MI6forums.co.uk and CommanderBond.net - both of which I'm a member of, and both of which are very reliable. The members have a habit of finding every single news story related to Bond and putting all of it together to get a pretty accurate picture of what is going on.
 
I smell curse. Which means more reason to go see it when it finally comes out!
 
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