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There was, of course, no engine beneath the truncated bonnet, and so this space was able to accommodate a shaft for back projections of the map images on to the radar tracker, which was replicated from the original prop. Even the telephone panel was recreated in the driver’s door, although that particular gadget does not appear at any point in the finished film.
ALPINE ACTION
On Monday 6 July, the unmodified DB5 set sail from Portsmouth to Cherbourg, in France, en route to a five-day shoot in Switzerland. It was intended to be the only one of the two cars to leave the country for filming, but this was not to be the case. The first setback came when the vehicle’s bodywork was damaged during the rough ferry crossing, making it less than ideal for lingering, close-up shots. Then, after the first day’s filming on Susten Pass near Andermatt in the Swiss Alps, the car’s ZF gearbox gave out a long way from any replacement parts.
By this time, the unmodified car was known as the “road car”, while the modified prototype was known as the “trick car” or “stunt car”. But with the road car now useless for anything but static, long-distance shots, it was obvious that the valuable stunt car would have to become a road car as well. Overnight, it was flown to Switzerland, but it could not make the location until the third day of the shoot.
So that the second full day in Switzerland was not wasted, the broken down car was towed into position for the famous overhead sequence showing Bond standing beside the car as he looks down from the Furka Pass to the distant figures of Goldfinger and Oddjob. This was the last time the unmodified car was used on the…
FIRE AND SMOKE
Both gadget cars were also fitted with the Miniguns, which operated on the same principle as the machine guns seen in Skyfall. A pneumatic ram moves the lights and allows the prop guns to protrude. Each gun then moves back and forth to simulate recoil, rotating like a Gatling gun and gas is fed into the barrels and ignited to create realistic muzzle flash. The guns could be activated from inside the car, but for the doughnut sequence they were operated remotely.
In an extra effect not seen before, the Miniguns also eject shells through the DB5’s side vents as they fire. This was achieved using pressurized tubes that forced out empty shells at the flick of a switch. Traditional Browning-style machine guns as seen in Goldfinger and Skyfall were also included in the gadget cars, but were now built into the top of the rear light clusters, and do not feature in the film.
The final gadget seen in the pre-credits sequence is the smokescreen – a simple practical effect realized using the same kind of smoke oil used in acrobatic air show displays. This was injected directly into the exhaust manifold of one of the gadget cars, and created enough haze to fill the piazza with a single rotation.
As in previous films, Bond activates his gadgets using a command console located in the centre armrest of the DB5. Updating the design seen in the Sean Connery era, the console seen in No Time to Die is a lift-out prop designed to fit snugly into the hero cars. Its interior is brushed aluminum with some LED illumination, and it was Fukunaga who asked for the slider to be included among the switches, hinting that the smokescreen can be deployed at varying strengths.
Though the stunt sequence ends after the smokescreen is activated, one early idea would have extended the scene further. It would have added a whole new threat to the DB5’s arsenal, in the form of an unmaned aerial vehicle – a.k.a. a drone. Launched from the car’s boot, the drone would have guided Bond out from a literal dead end before the scene concluded with Bond driving across Matera’s rooftops and then crashing through a house and its conservatory.
The drone is a great idea (obviously Raymond Benson had it first, but it makes a lot of sense) and I've wanted to see a Bond car with that for a while.
The thing about the Goldfinger car being damaged is quite funny: in that shot of Connery standing next to it on the cliff you can see the whacking great dent in the side! :)
Taschen's Ferrari Book. €5000...
Most of the two vertical bars that separate one kidney from the other made way for the iNext’s arsenal of sensors required for autonomous driving. “We test what works aesthetically,” said Dukec of the iNext, which “reinvented our icons and form language. We connected the kidneys because of sensors, but we’ve decided not to do it. It wasn’t considered to be a BMW kidney grille any more.
“The grille is critical, so the iNext, the i4 and the iX3 will get separated kidneys – we spent the money to have sensors that can see through the chrome.”
The IX3 doesn't look that bad...
A cool little sportscar: the Clio RS 2.0 16v (generation 1998-2001):
I will never have that as much as I would love to, LOL
:D
Oh dear, I favour a car that is driven, gets dirty, gets washed again and is well maintained. That's the fun of owning a classic car. But this, putting it on a pedestal, is obscene.
:-?
I must admit I think having any bit of car art on the walls generally looks terrible too! (With only a few exceptions)
Heaven to look at, a demon to drive
The Clarkson Review: Lamborghini Aventador SVJ
By Jeremy Clarkson (Sunday Times, March 29)
Ferruccio Lamborghini started wi' nowt. But he did have a shrewd mind, so, after the war, he realised Italy would need to get moving. He therefore cobbled together a few bits and pieces from Morris and pretty soon he had a tractor. Never mind that you had to start it with petrol and then switch to diesel before setting off, it was a machine. And Italians like machines, especially when you can use them to grow wine.
Having made a few bob from his tractors, he started a business making oil-fired heaters. But then he realised that Italy was quite a warm country, so, using that canny head of his, he developed an air-conditioning system.And soon he had a Ferrari 250 GT.
The clutch kept going wrong, so he took it to Maranello, where Enzo Ferrari basically told him to eff off. Ferruccio therefore decided to make his own cars. He had this mad idea you could mount a V12 engine, sideways, in the middle of a car, behind the driver. And it turned out he was right. You could. So along came the Miura — the world's first mid-engine supercar.
Its aerodynamics were so poor that at about 80mph it would try to take off. But it looked sensational and, actually, that's what people mostly want from a supercar. Styling that can melt a small boy at 500 paces. Everything else sort of doesn't matter.
This was an idea Ferruccio developed well with the car that replaced the Miura: the Countach.
Designed so that no human being could fit inside, it had steering set in concrete, the sort of clutch God uses to start galaxies and the all-round visibility of a postbox. But in 1971 it came into the world with the impact an Apache gunship would have had at the Battle of Hastings. It was the ultimate poster car, a trailblazer for Farrah Fawcett-Majors's right nipple and the Athena tennis girl.
After this, though, things started to go a bit wrong. Thanks to revolution in Bolivia, which was a big market for Lambo tractors, and the oil crisis, Ferruccio decided to spend more time on his unique, twin-Lambo-engined Riva Aquarama speedboat. So the tractor business was snapped up by an Italian rival and the car operation by various smoothlooking Swiss types.
There followed a period of great turmoil, and terrible cars, until, eventually, Lamborghini ended up in the hands of Audi.
The result of this marriage was the Aventador and, let's not beat about the bush, it was easily the most supercar-ish of all the supercars. It's what "Won't Get Fooled Again" is to the world of rock music. Definitive. Everything else is just a copy.
It's a car I know well. I've maxed an Aventador round the fearsome Nardo test track in southern Italy. I used one on the hill climb in Switzerland that very nearly claimed the life of Richard Hammond. And I spent two happy days thundering one around my favourite racetrack, Imola.
There's one thing I can tell you.
It is not a racing car. It does not like being on tracks. Ferruccio Lamborghini would approve of that. He once crashed his Fiat into a restaurant while competing in the Mille Miglia and for ever after nursed a dislike of motorsport.
Lamborghini has flirted with it a few times. It even made a Formula One engine in the late 1980s, but its cars are not built to take chequered flags. If you try, the brakes will fade. And then fail. Yes, they may have carbon ceramic discs these days, but the heat still has to go somewhere.
What the Aventador does very well is "being a car". I once drove one all the way up Italy, and it was quiet and easy and civilised. And that's always been the Aventador niggle. Because Lambos shouldn't be easy. They should be bastards.
Which is why I was delighted to take delivery last week of the new limited-edition Aventador SVJ Roadster. It's wider than the standard car and has a revised exhaust system with monstrous tailpipes located at the precise head height of a following cyclist.
There's also a new electronic aerodynamic system that changes the shape of the car as you drive. So on the straights it's smooth and slippery, and through the corners it becomes heavy and fat with air to improve grip. There's lots of mechanical grip too, thanks to four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering.
Couple all this to a mercifully unturbocharged V12 engine that produces 760 volcanic horsepower and you have a car that can, and did, lap the Nürburgring in six minutes and 44 seconds. No production car has gone round faster than that.
I would like, however, to meet the man who was driving it, because one thing's for sure: he wasn't man-shaped. I am manshaped, so getting inside was a five-minute job. Feet first, get them both under the brake pedal into the far corner of the footwell. Now, right arm on the road, ease your arse backwards, tucking your head into your chest until you hear your spine start to crack. If people are watching, you can be assured they will laugh at you.
It's easier when the roof is off — a simple job that requires only two laps of the car. But when it's off and stored, it fills the front luggage compartment. And when you put it back on, you need to be careful to do the job properly or the passenger seat will fill with water, which will cause your girlfriend to do a lot of swearing. Well, mine did.
Her mood wasn't improved when she found there were no door pockets and no glovebox.
There's nowhere to put anything. Even your head. I therefore had to get out of the car, onto my hands and knees — it's the only way — to remove my coat and thick jumper. This made me very cold, but at least meant I could lean back just enough to get my head inside.
Immediately the seat started to squeak noisily against the bulkhead, so to stop that happening I slid it forward a tad. Which meant I could no longer indicate left, because my knee was in the way. Not that I really noticed this, thanks mainly to the incredible smell of natural gas. People online say this comes from the brakes, but people online say veganism is a worthy lifestyle choice, so they're to be ignored. It's not the brakes. Maybe there are tanks on board to give the exhaust cloud that distinctive blue glow as you drive along. I don't know. But the smell is pig-farm bad.
The ride, however, is worse. It's the worst ride of any car I've driven anywhere in my whole life. It feels like there is no suspension at all, which means that whenever you go over even the smallest bump, your head hits the roof and you will be unconscious until you hit a tree and become dead.
Other things? Well, the Aventador is almost 10 years old now, so its Audi-based control system is Motorola 8900 backward. And the gearbox has a single-clutch system that Alexander the Great once called old-fashioned. Certainly, this is a car that accelerates from 0 to 60mph a damn sight faster than it changes from first to second.
The car was so bad, in fact, that I hardly drove it. It hurt too much to get inside, it hurt when I managed it, and it hurt to get out again.
All of which means Lambo is back to doing what it does best. Because this is a towering, thunderous, fire-spitting monster.
A howling blend of savagery and craziness, all wrapped up in a body that's more mad than the maddest thing ever to come from Hollywood's sci-fi CGI boys.
Lambo, then, has made another poster car. The best poster car of all time. I want one so much, it hurts. But I'd never actually drive it. For going to the shops, I'd use something ordinary. Like a Ferrari.
The BMW M2 will also get that fugly grille...
https://amy-macdonald.eu/en/her-passion-for-cars/
If you're ever in the neighbourhood... ;-)
Lookin' good. :D
I just realised that the 360 Modena was the last Ferrari I really liked until the 812 Superfast... (excluding some one offs). Their recent models look good.
I chuckled when he presented the touchscreen panel with the words "You have a clean, easy to read screen" and the reflections from outside make it hard to read the screen.
Apart from that, quite exciting.
Polestars have a beautiful design language: proper modern design of the kind you find in furniture and interior design- other car firms should learn from them.
Also, the Saint must drive the coupe one when he finally comes back :D
If it looks vaguely familiar, then maybe you have this in mind:
Maserati Sebring 3500 GTI. One of only 247 built. Now for sale.
Saw a ferrari f8 (I think) today in light metallic gray. Now I've never been a fan of ferrari, even though they've made a few nice cars, but who chooses the dullest colour possible on a thoroughbred?
Just like this generation of the Laguna (with it's bodywork that could tear...):
Yes that is nice. I just came across this Meccanica Maniero 4700GT the other day and fell in love:
https://viaretro.com/2018/10/meccanica-maniero-unique-italian-gt/
On the subject of your Corvette these Mustangs offshoots are lots of fun:
https://www.autocar.co.uk/slideshow/mustang-all-wild-and-wonderful-offshoots
Cooool :D