Plug-in hybrid Aston Martin for Bond?

Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
AM is making a 1000 horse power hybrid plug-in car. I think it would work. That should be fast enough. For tactical use it can be useful to be able to move quietly when driving slow, and at high speeds the gas engine kicks in and produces the roar and speed we expect from a Bond car. I have some problems seeing Bond drive an all-electric car like the Tesla, but the AM plug-in hybrid would show Bond moving with the times while maintaining tradition. What do you think?

Comments

  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,644MI6 Agent
    Well, creator Ian Fleming certainly backed electric cars very early on in his "If I Were Prime Minster" Spectator article from October 1959, so he would likely have approved of this...

    You can read this fascinating article here:

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2015/05/if-i-were-prime-minister-by-ian-fleming/#

    An excerpt:

    After dealing with the spiritual comfort of the electorate, I would proceed to his physical state, and my first step would be the abatement of noise, carbon-monoxide gas and exasperation caused by the traffic problem in our big towns. I would solve these with the help of Mr Francis Bacon’s recently invented, much-publicized battery. Our present internal-combustion engine is a ridiculous steam-age contraption which turns only a modest proportion of fuel into energy and spews the rest out in the form of petrol vapour of a more or less solid consistency. When there is no wind, this lies in a dense layer in our streets and we breathe it in day and night. It then rises into the upper atmosphere, where I am told, it forms a kind of envelope round the world which has the effect of interfering with the beneficial rays of the sun. Whether that is so or not, the petrol engine is obviously a noxious and noisy machine, and I would gradually abolish and replace it by some form of electric motor. This would take some time, but I would hope that, within three years of assuming office, I could have converted the whole of central London to electric transport. Very cheap, State-owned garages would be built at the point of entry into London of our main roads and drives would there transfer into electric buses or the Underground and later into cheap, state-run electric taxis. There would be quiet, no smell and no parking problems. Gradually I would extend this system to our other great towns and in due course the problem would be solved for the whole country.
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    So a hybrid car can be said to be Flemingesque? Great :007)
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,644MI6 Agent
    Number24 wrote:
    So a hybrid car can be said to be Flemingesque? Great :007)

    Yes, I'd say so. -{
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • FiremassFiremass AlaskaPosts: 1,910MI6 Agent
    Bond is always on the cutting edge of technology. I hope he gets an invisible hybrid-electric car.
    My current 10 favorite:

    1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,644MI6 Agent
    Firemass wrote:
    Bond is always on the cutting edge of technology. I hope he gets an invisible hybrid-electric car.

    Pushing the envelope there! :))
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    Yes, an Invisible car is several steps too far.
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,644MI6 Agent
    Number24 wrote:
    Yes, an Invisible car is several steps too far.

    No, can't see them ever going for that in a Bond film. Wait... :D
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    I actually thought there would be some oposition against the idea of Bond in a hybrid car, but nothing so far.
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,644MI6 Agent
    Number24 wrote:
    I actually thought there would be some oposition against the idea of Bond in a hybrid car, but nothing so far.

    It does seem something that John Gardner might have introduced in Licence Renewed (1981).
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    What car did Bond drive in that novel?
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Some of these electric hybrid cars, like the McLean P1 are fantastically fast !
    In LR Bond drove a Saab 900 turbo. ( At the time one of my big brothers had one )
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    But the Saab was never electric or hybrid????
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I guessing,but I think it would have been something J Gardner would have done. As he loved
    New technology and giving it to Bond ?
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    I see. I drove a plug-in hybrid about a month ago, just borrowed it for a day while my car was in for a check-up. No Aston Martin, but the newest Prius. A very pleasant drive and it barely used gas at all. I hope to get a plug-in hybrid next time I buy a car.
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    Well, about the invisible car (Vanquish), it could've been a hybrid as no noise was heard when Bond creeped up in the Ice Palace. Then again, I'm trying to add logic to a film which threw it out the window...
    A plug in hybrid car would be the business if it had the right combination of looks, gadgets and exposition; which the Astons no doubt have offered in the past.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • PeppermillPeppermill DelftPosts: 2,860MI6 Agent
    I would be all for it!!
    1. Ohmss 2. Frwl 3. Op 4. Tswlm 5. Tld 6. Ge 7. Yolt 8. Lald 9. Cr 10. Ltk 11. Dn 12. Gf 13. Qos 14. Mr 15. Tmwtgg 16. Fyeo 17. Twine 18. Sf 19. Tb 20 Tnd 21. Spectre 22 Daf 23. Avtak 24. Dad
  • superadosuperado Regent's Park West (CaliforniaPosts: 2,651MI6 Agent
    What did Fleming say about the nature of the Bond stories, being set one minute into the future? Fleming was a champion of innovation, judging by his collection of rare "thousand plus volumes of pioneering on subjects ranging from science and technology to politics and sports." In TB, he even had Bond and Patricia Fearing carry out their tryst in a bubble car. However, he also nurtured a romance with motor sports in terms of the purr or growl from the engine of a formidable car. In that regard of Bond’s automotive lifestyle, I think the most modern he went was the then current model of the Aston Martin in GF, whereas his Bentley’s were either the relatively old 4.5 litre, the briefly mentioned Mk. VI at the end of MR (the only other exception of a “new” model of any car) and most famously, the Locomotive that was a patch job that albeit had a “press button” convertible top that seemed like the only concession to a modern convenience.

    Though Fleming’s personal cars sometimes were of the mundane, like his Morris Oxford or Riley, he did own I think 2 Thunderbirds that IMO were not necessarily indications of a flair for the modern but more for their macho qualities. Since Fleming is on the record for being an advocate of electric cars, one would wonder why he didn’t somehow feature in his stories at least one of the several models of electric cars that already existed, in the same way he worked into DAF the innovative Studillac as Felix Leiter’s car. I therefore believe that as far as Bond was concerned, Fleming preferred the sexier aspects of motoring vs. any idea of putting Bond into the blander alternative of a futuristic electric car.
    "...the purposeful slant of his striding figure looked dangerous, as if he was making quickly for something bad that was happening further down the street." -SMERSH on 007 dossier photo, Ch. 6 FRWL.....
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    https://youtu.be/OL_eIZjiLUk
    Just a little info on a Bland electric car ? :D
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    I think Superado forgets two things:
    - The car in question is a hybrid and not a fully electric car, so it has a powerful gasoline engine that roars.
    - The car is an Aston Martin and won't look much more fururistic than the AM 10.
    The plan is to make a plug-in version of the DBX Crossover, so it'll look pretty much like this:


    Aston-Martin-DBX-concept-107-626x382.jpg

    aston-martin-dbx-concept-inline-photo-677675-s-original.jpg
  • DEFIANT 74205DEFIANT 74205 Perth, AustraliaPosts: 1,881MI6 Agent
    Number24 wrote:
    I actually thought there would be some oposition against the idea of Bond in a hybrid car, but nothing so far.

    My only "objection" is that I'd rather he drove a Bentley than an Aston Martin, but no issue with the idea of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.
    "Watch the birdie, you bastard!"
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