The secrets behind James Bond’s car chases: Spy Octane book review

Book of the month

What is it about 1964 spy flick Goldfinger that gives it such ‘rewatchability’? Of course there’s Sean Connery as James Bond, who brings humour-tinged rock-hard assurance to the role, but equally alluring is Q’s stunningly cool Aston Martin DB5 with all its fanciful gadgetry. “Ejector seat? You’re joking?” guffaws our hero. And with this sparkling aside the 007 franchise found itself with millions of friends for life.

You’ll need a sturdy coffee table for this 400-page new book which focuses on the vehicles of Bond – mainly cars. This is volume one of three, released to mark the 60th anniversary of Goldfinger and the DB5. The first in the triumvirate take us from Dr No to Diamonds Are Forever – a Connery parade only interrupted by George Lazenby’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service which, on recent viewing, hasn’t aged well (unlike Goldfinger).

For a 007 fan the detail within the pages of Spy Octane is spellbinding. It’s a joint venture between Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury, who both worked on the 2015 Bond book Some Kind of Hero. Field serves on the board of The Ian Fleming Foundation and in 2019 won the RAC Book of the Year Award for The Self-Preservation Society, which celebrated 50 years of The Italian Job. Chowdhury, meanwhile, is the spokesperson for The James Bond International Fan Club. We’re in good hands here.

The facts arrive thick and fast. Bond creator Ian Fleming was a friend of engineer Amherst Villiers. You’ll recall in the original novels that Bond had a Bentley 4½ Litre with Amherst Villiers supercharger that he “drove hard and well”; Fleming also sat for keen artist Villiers – and the portrait is in this book.

Aston Martin loaned two DB5s from its R&D wing for Goldfinger and much space is given to the cars that appeared as BMT 216A. The story of Tilly Masterson’s Ford Mustang is noteworthy too – it was the first of its type in Europe and was prepared and delivered to Switzerland by race team owner Alan Mann. He’d been sent a pre-production Mustang and secretly trialled it at Goodwood.

For some genuine sport action in the Bond sphere we had to wait until 1969, with Lazenby alongside Diana Rigg’s Tracy – who drives a 7-litre Mercury Cougar. She becomes part of an ice race among Escorts (supplied by Ford), a Mini and a Beetle – 11 pages are given to this spectacle. Local rally ace Erich Glavitza was tasked with forming a team of racing talent, who also enrolled Avon to produce spiked tyres for the cars. The Escorts performed well; the Cougar not: “It’s hard to drive a powerful car like that without spinning – but it was fun,” says Glavitza.

Spy Octane looks to be the start of a Bond adventure of its own. And perhaps by volume two we’ll know who the next 007 will be. The bookie’s favourite is Josh O’Connor who played Prince Charles in The Crown so he has experience with an Aston DB6 Volante from the series. Daniel Craig was peak Bond so whoever gets the job has a momentous task ahead. But there’ll always be the DB5 – which starred brilliantly in 2021’s No Time To Die. Long may that continue.

Spy Octane
Matthew Field & Ajay Chowdhury
Porter Press International, £99
ISBN 9781913089856