007 Relations

Villain/henchmens vehicle

Persuers vehicle

Notes

The first James Bond movie - and the first action scene featuring this vehicle as a henchmen car.

The gang who previously shot Strangways and his secretary pursued Bond on the way to miss Taro house. The pre-war hearse performed astonishingly well on the sandy road, following the small, fast sporty Sunbeam, The hearse driver however took a wrong decision seeing the roadblock - the hearse went off the road and crashed in a spectacular way.

LaSalle was a GM sister company created in 1927, assigned to fill the market gap (defined mainly by price level) between the Buick and Cadillac (top segment). This marque ackquired lot of attention with very modern design style, confortable interriors and very detailed top-point finishing with special care of the details. Smooth oval lines, lot of chrome add-ons that was attracting the eyes.

The LaSalle ended its quite succesfull life in 1940. There were two attempts to reactivate the marque in 60 and 70.

For the movie purposes two cars were used: LaSalle was the main car in the chase scenes. The crash  was filmed with a diffferent hearse (some says it was Humber). Unfortunately the sequence was so dramatic and long enough to mark the difference and report the movie continuity goof.

LaSalle marque can be spotted on the US and Australian car shows - cars restaured to the original state can be bought for quite expensive price. Hearses/ambulances (commercial chassis) are very rare, but due to the low mileage and function they still can be found in perfect shape.

Where is our 'Dr. No' movie star now and who loaned car for filming? This still remains a mystery.

Technical Data

• Manufacturer: General Motors Corporation
• Model: Series 39-50 LaSalle Hearse/Ambulance
• Year: 1939
• Engine: V-8, 322 cui ( 5,27 l)
• Power: 125 BHP @ 3400 rpm
• Transmission: 3 gear manual, automatic in option(?)
• Wheelbase: 156" for commercial chassis, 120" for series cars
• Tire Size: 7.00x16 inch
• Weight; unknown ( 3735-3830 lbs was typical weight for 120" wheelbase cars)
• Colour: Black

Gadgets

• None

Sources and Links

• carnut.com