007 Relations

Company vehicle

Vehicle Bond drives

Never Say Never Again - 1983

Company vehicle

Vehicle Bond drives

Notes

Headlines
• Appearances
• Facts
• Trivia

Appearances

From Russia With Love
The green 1938 Bentley 4¼-litre appears only in a very short scene, the first scene involving James Bond. We do not see him behind the wheel of this classic, but he does find a novel use for it when he raises the hood, and invites Sylvia Trench for 'a spot of lunch'. Q-branch has installed a car-phone with pager, and Bond calls Miss Moneypenny at the office when the pager beeps.

Never Say Never Again
Bond is driving to Scrublands in a black 1937 Bentley 4¼-Litre ordered by M to get rid of the 'free radicals'. This Bentley has a different body work than the 1938 model in From Russia With Love.

Facts

The Bentley 4¼-litre is based on the Derby Bentley chassis launched in 1933 and was exclusively coachbuilt. Half of the cars were bodied by Park Ward. But other British coachbuilding firms offered different bodywork designs for the Derby Bentley chassis. Among them were Vanden Plas and Gruney Nutting.
About 2.442 cars were produced based on the Derby Bentley chassis from 1933 to 1939. Between 1936 and 1939 only 1.234 of the 4¼-litre Bentley were build. The cars in the Bond films are both drophead coupés (convertibles).

From Russia With Love
The Bentley, EYX 393, used for filming the short scene has bodywork by Vanden Plas.

Another car has been on display in 2003 at the Bond Exhibition in Barcelona and posing as the From Russia With Love Bentley. That car has the number plate YFF 417, but it has a different bodywork (cut down doors) than EYX 393.

Never Say Never Again
Chassis B129JY is one of the few bodied with this three-position drophead coupé style. This one was designed by John Blatchley when he worked as a designer for Gurney Nutting.
The life of DYM 800 is very well documented by its owners. It was finally tested on 15. July 1937 and sold to its first owner for the purpose of touring in the UK.

Owners/auctions:
1937 Miss Josefina Tarafa, Havana, Cuba
After WW2 Mr. Jack Hamson, Newton Mearns, Strathclyde, Scotland
1972 Mr. Ivor Gordon
1992 Mr. Gert Kaiser, Stuttgard, Germany
1994 Mr. Anthony Moody, Hong Kong
2001 Mr. Arthur Freeman, Fort Launderdale, Florida - Restored in 2003
2004 unknown at Bonham auction, lot 191, GBP 188.500
2010 unknown at Bonham auction, lot 338, GBP 221.500

Besides it's appearance in Never Say Never Again in 1983 the car, DYM 800, also appeared in the TV series Magnum, P.I. (season 6, episode 1), Déjà Vu in 1985 starring Tom Sellek.

Trivia

In Ian Flemings novels the Bentley is Bonds personal possession. But in From Russia With Love, the car is a company car issued by Q-branch. This is the only appearance of a Bentley as Bonds car. In Goldfinger there is a hint why, as Bond asks: 'Where's my Bentley?' and Q answers: 'Oh. It has had it's day, I'm affraid.' and present its replacement: the Aston Martin DB5.

In the unofficial Casino Royale from 1967, Bond is driving a Bentley 3-litre posing as supercharged.

Technical Data

• Manufacturer: Bentley Motors Limited
• Model: 4¼ liter Drophead Coupé
• Chassis: Derby Bentley
• Engine: 4.398 cc, 4-cyl
• Transmission: 4-speed manual with Overdrive
• Brakes: Servo-assisted
• Length: 4,42 m (174 in)
• Width: 1,753 m (69 in)
• Weight: 1.625 kg (3.583 lb)
• Wheelbase: 3,2 m (126 in)
• Suspension: Semi-elliptic springs front and rear
• Seating: 2

From Russia With Love

• Year: 1938
• Coach work: Vanden Plas
• Colour: Dark Green
• Number plate: EYX 393

Never Say Never Again

• Year: 1937
• Coach work: Gurney Nutting
• Engine number: T7BR
• Chasis number: B129Y
• Colour: Black
• Number plate: DYM 800

Gadgets

From Russia With Love

• Mobilephone with Pager (Hi-tech in 1963)

Sources

The Essential Bond, by Lee Pfeiffer & Dave Worrall, page 29/30.