Inside Look: Stunt Driver's Experience in James Bond's Epic Car Chase 

A 2008 Aston Martin DBS V12 with Milan plates caterwauls along a tunnel that skirts Lake Garda followed by an eager duo of black Alfa Romeo 159s. The road is ludicrously busy but the rat-a-tat of a Heckler & Koch G36C assault rifle from one of the pursuing cars means that adhering to the Italian speed limit is not an option for the recognisable DBS driver. Even when a door disappears following a collision with a lorry, our hero remains fully focused on outrunning his adversaries. An oncoming HGV is expertly dodged but one of the Alfas behind is unable to make the gap and is slammed head on.

With a twist of the steering wheel 007 throws his DBS into a sharp left to avoid an unexpected roadblock and powers through short tunnels, but once under a full sky the raucous 5.9-litre engine attracts the attention of the Carabinieri, who join the furore in a Land Rover. The Aston is aggressively nosed onto the gravel track of a fully working marble quarry and a WRC-tinged downhill pursuit ensues along a dusty cliff-edge trail. The police are not up to the task and fall by the wayside, literally, while the lone Alfa finds itself outmanoeuvred and is furiously sprayed by the DBS driver’s submachine gun. The Alfa spins spectacularly down a ravine and the threat has gone. Apart from the missing door and a few dents and scuffs, the DBS remains doggedly mobile – and stunt driver Ben Collins has opened his account for the James Bond franchise.

“Quantum of Solace – my first Bond appearance and that’s probably the car chase I’m most proud of,” Collins affirms. “The fact that the film opens with the car chase that I drove on is a pinch-yourself moment. That part of my life, stunt driving, started when I watched Ronin. In that case it was the Audi screaming through the streets of Paris. I was motor racing at the time and perhaps naively thought, ‘I could do that.’ I started ringing people and got in touch with Gary Powell, a stunt co-ordinator who had worked on Bond movies in the past, and at the time was making Casino Royale. The next thing I’m at rehearsals in Italy and it was, ‘Right, you’ll be driving the Aston.’”