Matthew Field & Ajay Chowdhury 'Spy Octane: The Vehicles of James Bond' | Book Review

The authors deal with each movie in turn, from 1962's Dr. No to 1971's Diamonds Are Forever, covering, with molecular authority The Story, Production Background and Vehicle Profile and a plenty more beside.

Goldfinger will hold a special place in car fans' hearts; it was the first to feature Bond's Aston Martin, and the DB5 in the film was also the first car to come laden with gadgets. The book covers the apparatus in full, noting the GT's revolving number plates, the tracker system used to shadow the eminent Mr Goldfinger and the browning machine guns, smoke screens and ejector seat Bond used to get himself out of various sticky situations.

They're documented in an original blueprint of the car and a cutout diagram that illustrates each feature in beautiful detail with pull-out explanations describing exactly how they work.

As the authors explain, Bond's famous ejector seat didn't come from a fighter jet as might be assumed – it wouldn't fit the chassis and, as a slight aside, its rockets would have seriously singed its occupant – instead, compressed air did the heavy lifting and a lightweight dummy took the place of a living and breathing human – health and safety not present in all the films’ stunts. 

The book tells us that the machine guns at the business end of the Aston were actually hollow tubes on a rack and pinion system, igniting a mixture of acetylene and oxygen with a distributor to achieve the effect of a recoiling machine gun, with smoke and flames discharging its muzzle.

The Brownings and all the other gadgets were fitted to BMT 216A, which started life as a Dubonnet Red DB4 Series 5 that served as the film's effects car.  Previously, it was a show car at Earls Court, and it also appeared in an episode of The Saint, driven by one Roger Moore. The book gives us an idea of the stresses of filming a blockbuster movie; tight schedules equalled late nights for the effects crew, and fitting all the gadgetry to a sports car with little space wasn't easy.

BMT 216A was the only effect car used on the film, so the team got one bite of the apple when it came to nerve-wracking jobs like, say, cutting a hole in the roof of a car that cost more than £100,000 in today's money.

While BMT 216A dealt with effects and close-up gadget shots, the FMP 7B road car was in far superior condition and dealt the hand of appearing in long shots and high-speed scenes. It has rounded number plates that fill its plinth and lacks the aerial and side indicators of the effects car; bloopers that only buffs with the most incredible attention to detail are likely to spot without being tipped off. 

It's not just Bond's cars that are covered, the book also goes into great detail on the machines favoured by the numerous baddies 007 encounters on his various assignments. In the case of Goldfinger, we take a closer look at the homonymous gold smuggler's Rolls-Royce covering its time during the film – it was leant to the production company by the Rt Hon Lord Fairhaven – right up to its current custodians, EON Productions, sometimes ferrying the stars of James Bond to their premiers. It's a detail you won't find anywhere else.

Detail can be a double-edged sword, however, because while cinephiles will delight in it, car fans might find themselves thumbing through the book to get to the 'good' bits, those purely about the cars themselves. There's also a sense of scene-setting that's understandably there to establish the significance of the vehicles in the book, but long-winded if you've already seen the films. As volume 1 in a trilogy, we suspect the pure car facts could be condensed down to one edition. 

But that would underestimate the magnetism of one of the world's most famous film franchises. The book’s dilution of its car trivia may irk pure motoring fans, but the encyclopedia-like breakdown of the movies will broaden its appeal to everyone else. The care with which it's been written and the beauty of the photography that bursts its covers make it a magnetic addition to any coffee table.