The best Bond cars ever, part 4: the Aston Martin V8

Now, Bond 25 is imminent. No Time To Die arrives in cinemas this week, allowing Daniel Craig to flex his actorly muscles as he signs off from playing 007, putting him through the emotional wringer, while the film’s stunt crew and production designers reimagine the very essence of a car chase yet again. Apparently No Time To Die features the most brutal one ever seen in a Bond movie. Which made us think. Six actors have played 007 on the big screen, and they’ve all had carefully cast automotive co-stars.

In fact, for many of us, watching a Bond film on the TV at a formative age is one of the reasons we became consumed by cars in the first place. The ginormous global 007 fan base endlessly debates who the best Bond is, but which Bond had the coolest car? Choosing one per actor, Top Gear gathered the key vehicles together in the same part of the space-time continuum to explore their history, and conduct a quasi-scientific but mostly subjective test. Step forward, Timothy Dalton and the delightful Aston V8...

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Photography: Mark Riccioni and John Wycherley

Bond had to get ‘woke’ in the Eighties, the casual sexism and ‘nudge nudge, wink wink’ humour that characterised the later Roger Moore era now intolerable. New Bond actor Timothy Dalton brought a lantern-jawed seriousness to the role. “First and foremost I wanted to make him human. [Bond] is not a superman – you can’t identify with a superman. I wanted to capture that occasional vulnerability. And I wanted to capture the spirit of Ian Fleming.”

The Aston Martin V8 (a series five car, newly fuel-injected for 310bhp) he drives in the film connects this 15th Bond film with the DB5 that appeared in the third, whilst delivering a gravitas that matched Dalton’s vision for 007. That said, The Living Daylights V8 – categorically not a Vantage as is often thought – does still have lasers in its wheel hubs, retractable outriggers, a jet engine hidden behind the rear numberplate, and a self-destruct mode. And when Bond and Kara (Maryam d’Abo) abandon it, they escape using her cello case, an idea director John Glen tested with a sceptical Cubby Broccoli at the LA Philharmonic.

The truth is, the V8 was a bit of a dinosaur by 1987

The truth is, the V8 was a bit of a dinosaur by 1987, an eternally evolving update of the late-Sixties DBS as Aston’s latest saviour, charismatic businessman and aviator Victor Gauntlett, worked his nethers off to keep the lights on. He loaned his personal V8 Volante to the production, which we later see being ‘winterised’ by Q’s team. But you can’t turn a convertible into a coupe that easily, so the production team sourced another three cars and mocked-up seven facsimiles. “Unless you’ve got an unlimited supply of action vehicles, which you rarely do, they have to be nurtured and caressed, as they suffer constant abuse,” special effects supervisor John Richardson remembered.

Few if any cars achieve maximum handsomeness at the end of their lifespan, but the Aston V8 is one. Yes, it feels ancient by today’s standards, poorly packaged, its switchgear sprayed around the cabin apparently at random, and so lazily louche in its performance and dynamics that it would be taken to the cleaners by a Fiesta ST. But you can see why the director of the new Bond film, Cary Fukunaga, was keen to feature it in No Time To Die. Daniel Craig’s take on Bond majored on the blunter aspects of the character, but has mellowed into a more nuanced portrayal as he prepares to surrender his 00 status. The V8 suits that, somehow.

Gadgets: 8/10
Speed: 6/10
Pulling power: 7/10
Skids: 6/10
Stunts: 7/10
Star status: 7/10
Total: 41

Click here for the DB5, here for the DBS, and here for the Lotus Esprit and stay tuned as tomorrow we feature Brosnan's painfully cool BMW Z8...