Meet the one-off James Bond car that... never existed: the Bentley 'Locomotive'

Ask any James Bond fan what car he drove and almost everyone will say Aston Martin. However, the 007 who lived in Ian Fleming's original novels had a penchant for Bentleys. And for car designer Tony Hunter, there was one Bond Bentley to end them all: a 1960s Continental Mk2 dubbed ‘The Locomotive’.

The only snag was, the car was a figment of imagination. Until now.

Having spent years looking for tangible alternatives to what Fleming described in the novel Thunderball as “the most selfish car in England”, Hunter concluded he’d have to pull the car from the pages himself. Using a 1953 Continental R-Type as a donor, he shipped it off to a bodybuilder in Poland where it spent the next seven years.

Photography: Bentley

“This car is possibly the most famous Bentley that never existed, and I always wondered why no one else had tried to build something like it,” Hunter said. “I quickly realised why.” What naively began as a projected 18-month build spiralled on until the dream was achieved. But the project’s length was no comparison to the decades Hunter spent dreaming, sketching and researching The Locomotive.

Unlike the rounded edges of the early 1950s Continentals, Fleming painted the Mk2’s rear end as “knife-edged" and "rather ugly”, so... Hunter exercised some creative licence and crafted beautifully streamlined rear fins instead. The idea was to faithfully design something that could have been built in the ‘50s while staying true to the source material.

The Locomotive is, of course, no standard Bentley. Hunter ensured it was complete with various spy-related switches and gadgets. Each detail was considered for its authenticity and beautifully tactile feel. Its working telephone is from a 1950s RAF bomber with some genius wiring to an iPhone beneath. Switches for machine guns, oil and smoke are labelled with the period-correct Gill Sans typeface and a secret compartment is hidden behind the speaker grille. The icing on the cake is a small pop-out drawer with Bond’s essentials: a hip flask, cup and Benzedrine tablets.

Elsewhere inside, the goal was to achieve a gentleman’s club vibe with large armchairs and a custom American walnut veneered dashboard. Throughout Hunter’s career quilted seats have been a personal signature, so even though a Bentley of this era would’ve had fluted leather he jokes, “flutes are fine but diamonds are forever”.

At each stage of the design process, he consulted Bond as if he were a customer of Mulliner. Picturing the view from the driver’s seat, bonnet louvres were a must as a nod to the spy’s previous Bentley Blower. “I also imagined Bond driving this car down through the UK then onto the continent and having to pull the fuel pipe across the car. That’s why it’s got two fuel fillers.” Hunter said.

While The Locomotive’s visible design was a priority, Hunter said: “It was important to me to capture the driving experience, the excitement, feel and sounds of what I imagined this car would have been like.” It’s fitted with a restored Bentley S1 engine (a 4.9-litre straight-six) mated to a manual gearbox, and a supercharger will find its way into the mix soon.

While some would keep a labour of love like this tucked away in a garage, Hunter plans to take inspiration from Bond and use the car as it was intended. “Cars are there as a tool to have an adventure, there to help you enjoy the world, see things and go places. That's one of the reasons I became a car designer because of that love of driving. I love when a car has been used and has a bit of patina about it. My intention is to use The Locomotive but I’m not going to pamper it.”