James Bond's Automotive Legacy with Mike Smith
It’s me, Mark Stone, and in this episode of the Backseat Driver Podcast, I’m joined by Mike Smith, a respected authority in automotive consulting and cinematic history — particularly renowned for his expertise on the iconic vehicles of the James Bond franchise.
Mike shares his deep-rooted passion for Aston Martin and his extensive experience as a senior consultant on acclaimed publications such as Spy Optane and The Self Preservation Society. Together, we explore the captivating stories behind some of cinema’s most recognisable cars, as Mike offers first-hand insights and anecdotes from his involvement in the production of several James Bond films.
I also talk with Mike about the intricate process of establishing the provenance of classic cars — the research, documentation, and attention to detail that ensure their authenticity and preserve their legacy. This episode takes listeners into the fascinating space where automotive heritage meets film history, celebrating the stories that continue to bring these legendary machines to life.
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Transcript
I'd like to introduce the backseat driver, Mike Smith, a man who pops up everywhere from film watches to car launches, to a major consultant on some of the greatest books going.
Speaker A:Aston Martin enthusiast, Aston Martin olner, Aston Martin expert, James Bond expert and senior consultant on Spy Optane, the book by Matthew Field and AJ Chowdh, who I interviewed a while ago.
Speaker A:Also a major man on the Self Preservation Society book, because he knows all about the Italian job cars, where they are.
Speaker A:He's probably owned one or two of them.
Speaker A:I mean, what an introduction.
Speaker A:Mike Smith, welcome to the Backseat Driver.
Speaker B:Thanks very much.
Speaker A:Did I get anything wrong there or did I leave anything out?
Speaker B:Well, you left plenty out.
Speaker B:That might be a good idea.
Speaker A:I mean, you're also a man who was, besides being a James Bond expert, has, although you weren't really seen, appeared in James Bond films.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker A:Driving the Aston Martins.
Speaker B:Driven the Astons about.
Speaker B:Different cars I've driven about.
Speaker B:But I actually appear with Piers Brosnan.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Where you can see me in a hilarious little extra bit on Die Another Day.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:Where he comes down off Westminster Bridge and goes into the little secret door.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:With the monument with the lion on top.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It was actually a practical joke on the production manager, Terry Bamber, because he got cut from the world.
Speaker B:He's not enough.
Speaker B:He was in the restaurant during the boat chase, where the boat goes to the restaurant, and Terry played a French waiter with the mustache and everything, and he just laid all the tables and then bombed Rex and.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:But they couldn't.
Speaker B:So they said to him, right, we'll definitely get you in Die Another Day.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So they put him on Westminster Bridge in this sort of green suit, which was hilarious.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And a briefcase, and said they were filming it, but they weren't.
Speaker B:It was another joke.
Speaker B:What they were really doing was they were filming me.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:With this girl who was a lap dancer, who they put me with.
Speaker B:And as Bron walks down the steps, me and the girl walk right behind and they.
Speaker B:And I did say something quite.
Speaker B:Quite a rude joke.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:About Pierce, that I didn't realize the cameras would pick up and all the sound would pick up and.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And SHE LAUGHS So, yeah.
Speaker B:And I laugh.
Speaker B:And they left that in.
Speaker B:They don't leave in what I said.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But they leave us in laughing.
Speaker B:Anyway, the premiere, Terry was right behind me, but he's like.
Speaker B:And I could see him getting ready, you know, this is my.
Speaker A:This is my dick.
Speaker B:And then.
Speaker B:And then as it came, you know, all he was greeted with was me looking towards the camera.
Speaker B:With a big grin on my face.
Speaker A:It's amazing what all the Aston Martin or a good few of them, could bring you into it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:That was through BMW, all that stuff.
Speaker A:How did all this come about?
Speaker B:The Bond stuff?
Speaker A:No, you in general with the cars.
Speaker A:The film industry.
Speaker B:Oh, Madon cars.
Speaker B:Just Madame Cars.
Speaker B:As a little boy, I like the Persuaders.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:With the dbs.
Speaker A:As did I.
Speaker A:The Dino.
Speaker B:Yeah, and the Dino.
Speaker B:But more the DBS I saw on a Majesty Secret Service on telly.
Speaker B:Quite young.
Speaker B:So they had a dbs.
Speaker B:Return of the Saint was a really big one.
Speaker A:With the Xju or XJS, with the.
Speaker B:XJS manual V12 prototype.
Speaker B:With the sunroof.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And two backup cars.
Speaker A:That's the other thing.
Speaker A:Just quickly, every car that appears in a film, there isn't just one of them, is there?
Speaker A:There's a few.
Speaker B:See?
Speaker B:Depends.
Speaker B:I mean, like, for example, on the Persuaders, it's one.
Speaker B:Yes, it's one Dino 246 GT.
Speaker B:Not a Ferrari, Even though Tony Curtis says it's a Ferrari.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:They only work.
Speaker B:They were almost the Ferrari the advertising strut line went and the Dino brand did.
Speaker B: Lasted till: Speaker B:And the 308 GT4 got renamed.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:In May 76, I think, because, I.
Speaker A:Mean, ultimately into Ferrari were built by Fiats, weren't they?
Speaker A:Did he?
Speaker B:A bit.
Speaker B:It's a bit both, wasn't it?
Speaker B:Ferrari and Fiat.
Speaker B:Honestly, they had the Fiat Dino as well.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:There was a Dino that was an obligation job.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, they're pretty much accepted as a Ferrari now.
Speaker B:And I'm certainly not snobby about it, other than the make of car is a Dino.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And the model is the 206 or the 246.
Speaker B:Whatever.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:There's no Ferrari badging on a Dino.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker B:It's only if people put it on.
Speaker A:After any Dino you see with Ferrari on it.
Speaker A:Somebody stuck it.
Speaker B:Well, someone stuck it on the wings.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Or they put the prancing horse on the back or they put the badge across the back.
Speaker B:And I think the Colonel Lonnie or.
Speaker B:Yeah, from Maranello.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Was a bit worried about him selling.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So most of the English ones got it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I'm told the American importers did as well, but I've not really seen evidence for that.
Speaker B:But I mean, going on to the persuaders, I mean, what a great.
Speaker B:You know, even if people say it's old fashions now.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:What a sort of perfect world that was of two guys who were good looking, they like Girls, they've got loads of money.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Both got a great car and they try and do good.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:Oh.
Speaker B:And the same time into it, he's always trying to do good.
Speaker B:And the things that in today's world you just can't do, you're not.
Speaker B:Because of all the mobile phones, people taking it the wrong way.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Etc.
Speaker B:Etc.
Speaker B:So it's quite nice going back to those.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:TV shows to.
Speaker A:I must confess, I'm a great lover of talking pictures.
Speaker A:Tv.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah.
Speaker A:The old black and white films.
Speaker A:Because all the.
Speaker A:All the great classic guys that you see.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, my friend Caroline Monroe is the horror queen.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:She presents a lot.
Speaker B:In fact, quite a few friends.
Speaker A:Well, she'd seen a long film.
Speaker A:She was sure enough, she was also the Lamb's Navy Rum girl.
Speaker B:She was.
Speaker B:And she's also in a film with David Hasselhoff where she's the star.
Speaker B:Oh.
Speaker B:And it's called something like Star Carlos.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And he wasn't the star.
Speaker B:He was like the new up and coming man.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And quite often I've taken these stars to these autograph shows and they're sort of true.
Speaker A:Should never invited me to sign up.
Speaker B:Come and buy the autograph, mark.
Speaker B:So Caroline is quite a good signer.
Speaker B:She's really good with.
Speaker B:With fans.
Speaker B:And it sort of be split between.
Speaker B:Roger Mori was a power through his pa, Gareth.
Speaker B:He'd have a gang of people and then Caroline's manager, Jane should have a gang of people.
Speaker B:And I'd sort of be the one that knew everyone on both sides.
Speaker B:So it's all doe across.
Speaker B:So the talking pictures thing has continued that Sarah Cronin and her dad run talking pictures and they've got people like Maddie Smith.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, Renault, Caroline.
Speaker A:Another girl.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Another bongo from Live and Let Die.
Speaker B:And also what's quite funny is there's a guy called Henry Holland.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Who's now a retired tube driver.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But I've known him like 30 years.
Speaker B:And when it's Henry's birthday, you often go to this pub in London.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it's hilarious because there's Henry and like 14 Bond girls.
Speaker B:And I've taken a couple of people along, not saying anything.
Speaker B:You know, people who are well known, like R. Kane, who used to be the eye in the sky in London and he's got his own radio show and everything now.
Speaker B:First time I took this, he was just sitting there speechless and R everyone, right.
Speaker B:And he's like, is that Meline Smith?
Speaker B:I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:And he was like, absolutely.
Speaker B:Can't believe it.
Speaker B:You know, it's beside.
Speaker B:Today I took him, introduced him and when they say, oh, we used to listen to you on the.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Maddie says, oh, I. I used to listen to you in my dressing gown.
Speaker B:He went, oh, that's like a fantasy, you know.
Speaker B:But all those like cars.
Speaker B:I mean, Caroline loves cars.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:She absolutely loves the fast cars and anything we can get her to where she gets to go in the car.
Speaker B:Yeah, she loves it.
Speaker B:And she loves helicopters.
Speaker B:You know, she flew the Ellie.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So her part is you find the helicopter, but she goes to the helicopter museum in Western Super Mare.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it's a prize for people on the day.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:They get to go in front of a helicopter, a car line.
Speaker A:So thanks.
Speaker A:What we're talking about the cars, I mean, the involvement, I mean, besides being keen on these cars.
Speaker A:I mean you now either own them, have owned them or dealing them.
Speaker A:Where do you find, where do you find them?
Speaker B:It's a good question.
Speaker B:The first one I sold, I was 14.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Which was the.
Speaker B:One of the two copper bronze lotus Esprit Turbos from Foyerise only.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The other famous Bauer millet in Manchester.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:So in those days it was Chris Bauer and Lawrence Millet.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And you should go in there and drools.
Speaker B:So When I was 10, I started racing Minis.
Speaker B:My mum and dad had no money, so the neighbors did it because they were in Bangor racing and I used to help them with the spanners and things.
Speaker B:They paid for it.
Speaker B:Yeah, did that.
Speaker B:Then I would see all these sort of typical banger races who were mechanics and bevy shot workers and things like that, buying these cars for nothing, like, you know, and.
Speaker B:And I sort of said, why are they so cheap?
Speaker B:Because I was only used to seeing Parker's Guide.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And Manchester Evening News.
Speaker B:And we went from Buxton Raceway on this particular day in this Cortina MK4.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:1977 R, a light blue one, done 100 odd thousand miles and it had three months ticket and he just given 25 quid for it.
Speaker B:And I couldn't believe it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B: So this is like: Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So it was only six years old.
Speaker A:You're busy driving a 25 quid Cortina or you're in a.
Speaker B:Well, I'm in the 25 quid Cortina.
Speaker B:And I couldn't believe it and I said, could I buy some cars like this?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And he says, oh, you'll have to give me a 10 of profit.
Speaker B:So I'm like 35 quid?
Speaker B:Are you serious?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I think probably the cheapest I'd seen of stuff like that was about 400.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:25 quid.
Speaker A:What was the average going price or something?
Speaker B:What do you remember?
Speaker B:I was literally going off Parker's Guide.
Speaker B:So there was poor, fair and nice.
Speaker B:Yeah, it was.
Speaker B:And I think that car was in as 400 and something.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And 700 and something.
Speaker B:And then like a grand, you know.
Speaker B:So he said, you'll have to give us a 10 of profit.
Speaker B:So I said, yeah, recklessly.
Speaker B:It paid at our house with assistance of other people, obviously.
Speaker B:And what I did, I was good at washing my dad's car.
Speaker B: My dad's car was a: Speaker A:Yeah, well, we used to use it as well, but it was a bit.
Speaker B:More orangey than that.
Speaker B:I think it was called Sunburst.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I found out many years later.
Speaker B:But can you imagine being the.
Speaker B:The calm mad kid at quite a posh school where my dad was sort of headmaster.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And all the other kids like lived in the posh bit of.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Bowdoin and Hail and Ultra WSA shopping.
Speaker A:Jangs and all sorts.
Speaker B:Oh, I mean, you know, one mate had a Daimler 4.2, a Pagoda SL.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Brand new Granada Estate.
Speaker B:Somewhere else and somewhere else, you know.
Speaker B:And other one had a wire edge more at 380sel.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B: upporters Club dating back to: Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I was getting to go to the factory as a little boy.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I was getting all the Aston Martin brochures sent to me for free by this club, which was like the Glorious Days Bushes.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:But it was Glorious Days in Newport Pagnel.
Speaker B:They just got going bust.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I'd sent in my spends, raided my dad to let me send this six quid or whatever it was then.
Speaker B:And I'm going to tell you what that is.
Speaker B:That's Mark taking my car keys off me because I'm fiddling with them.
Speaker A:Sorry.
Speaker B:I'm well faced for adr but not a keenum.
Speaker B:So, yeah, so I was doing loads of things and I used to go in all the local showrooms and get to go to the motor show.
Speaker B:My poor dad would get dragged around with a thousand carrier bags.
Speaker B:But I was pretty good at getting on the stands, which started with my owner's club, my young supporters club card.
Speaker B:And do you remember people used to queue around the outside.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Or just not get let in.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So you go to the commissioner with me little card.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Straight on.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then some people were great with me by, by the way, Roger Bennington from Stratton Aston Martin in Norfolk.
Speaker B:He who looks after the Bond Aston Martins and stores them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:He was really nice to me when I was like 12, 13 and the only way he sort of believed I'd own my cars.
Speaker B:And yeah, Victor Gauntlet.
Speaker B:Oh, he was mint.
Speaker B:He was just great.
Speaker B:He used to sort of get me into the office and saying that he was really posh, like.
Speaker B:Now then, young man, tell me how you're going to get the money to get one of these cars.
Speaker B:And that's what he'd do.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's great.
Speaker B:I mean, some of the highlights of that was I saw the Bulldog being built off site in an airfield.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I had a ride in it with William Towns.
Speaker B:Yeah, that was cool.
Speaker B:Went in Lagondas quite a few times.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Even before they came out.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:So it's all that was like really exciting to me.
Speaker B:And then progressed to the owners club and everything.
Speaker B:But going back to the cars, so.
Speaker B:So, I mean, I put out Cortina in at 395 in the Manchester Indie News and the News agents, you've got 8p.
Speaker B:And the phone went mad.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And people were almost fighting over, you know, they were saying, would you take a bit more?
Speaker B:So I sold it that night for 195 quid and my dad was that shot and mum was a teacher.
Speaker B:They thought it was illegal that I'd made this profit out of a car.
Speaker B:So he went and asked the of their solicitor.
Speaker B:That's how old streetwise my dad was.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And Mike said it was really good.
Speaker B:She said, okay, I'll introduce you to our accountants, being your name, Ron and all this.
Speaker B:So all through school I was like doing this buying and selling and the highlight of that was when I was 14, I was able to buy my dad a nice and inverted commerce car.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And said car was a Granada 2.8 KRX.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:On a Y. I actually wanted the injection, but they didn't have one.
Speaker B:But it came into Bauer Millet as a swapper and I'd been buying swappers out of there cheap.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I think retail on this cow was about six grand.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And he said, you can have it for four grand.
Speaker B:Yeah, all right.
Speaker B:He said, but you better really having a warranty and everything on it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I says, okay.
Speaker B:So it was around four and a bit.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Anyway, so dad gets this car and it was like, you know, it was like having a brand new old busy for up to old Jerry and all the electric bits.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And do you remember how well equipped they were?
Speaker B:All the way heated seats, electric seats, electric roof, you know.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:They made jags look sick, didn't they?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, yeah, I love the jug of the period, but these were better equipped.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it was just an awesome car, even though I was always annoyed it wasn't the.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Injection.
Speaker B:But it was great because then he had to give me lifts to bca.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, and because I was buying a solid from BCA in Cub's name and using their transporters.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I'd like be buying in Scotland and Manchester.
Speaker B:It was great.
Speaker B:And then I thought it'd be a good idea to get into the main dealer, so I wanted to go to Bauer Millet.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Who were the main dealer for Audi vw, Lotus and tvr.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:As well as all the Rolls Royce and they were the usury you American in.
Speaker B:Well, they were the only General Motors dealer for the American stuff that could give a warranty.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So that was exciting too.
Speaker B:But they wanted me to work in service.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And the service offer was like 30 quid a week.
Speaker B:YTS.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I wrote to everyone out the yellow pages and only two replied.
Speaker B:Nightfay Audi vw.
Speaker B:And they wanted me for service.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And a guy called Lionel Smith who had Audi vw.
Speaker B:And when Bauer Millet found out I was going to Lionel's, they weren't happy.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because they were rival Audi vw.
Speaker B:Anyway, Lionel was great because we did.
Speaker B:He did racing.
Speaker B:So he put us on a contract for racing.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And why a proper wage for selling.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So even if I didn't sell anything, I was getting this wage because he wanted to train me in every department.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's a part service.
Speaker B:It was mint.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then I went on and sort of sell or sold and, you know, away we went.
Speaker B: all brand new company cars on: Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:He got me my test on my birthday.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then he knew I liked classic cars.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So he let me deal in only classic cars.
Speaker B:And it was a weird time.
Speaker B:Do you remember like, things like NGBS were classic cars even then, even though they were quite young and they've never sort of had the increase that everyone thought they would.
Speaker B:No, there's certain cars in like the Merc SL from the 70s.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And MGBs, they're not that different in what they were then to now.
Speaker B:And Moldroy Silver Shadow.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So it was great.
Speaker B:And then I went to end up at Toyota.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:At 19 the sales manager and I got to Launch the Lexus LS400.
Speaker B:Oh yeah that was fantastic because it was a great car with everything standard three year warranty.
Speaker B:But the swappers I was getting in, in the, you know, in the recession.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Was amazing.
Speaker B:So I'd always arrange the delivery to be on my way home.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I could leave two hours early and then go and pick up the Bentley.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Or the Rolls Royce or the Ferrari or the Jag or the publish and use them and.
Speaker B:And the garage was scared of them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I thought don't worry, I can get us out of it.
Speaker B:You know like I'd say to all my mates, so it's a great time.
Speaker B:And then I went to work for a lady called Sue Brownson.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:MBE who was mega.
Speaker B:She was more like M from Bond and the Queen than the Queen and M from Bond.
Speaker B:Very posh lady.
Speaker B:Brought me in quite a sleepy.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Cheshire BMW dealer.
Speaker B:Not selling that many useless at used cars.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:She wanted to turn it around and I, I, as I was getting more and more money was desperate to move to London and have the excitement of London and she said if you sort all this out I'll help you.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Move to London.
Speaker B:I mean how many people say that, you know?
Speaker A:Cuz your other ambition was.
Speaker A:Was it to own a Rolls Royce by the time you return?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:It was.
Speaker A:Which you achieve.
Speaker B:Well, yeah, it was bizarre because I bought a Ferrari when I was 16.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B: At the: Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Which was sort of mad because I had about 40k in the pot.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And the car was 45.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But there was this long waiting list and all the cars were going up in value.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I signed up on the stand.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I think the weight was supposed to be three years.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But it sort of turned up two years later in the summer and I, I had enough.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I put 5,000 down on it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I remember and like no one believed me but I bought this car.
Speaker B:Even my sis, my big sister who was next to me at the time, she thought that was a wind up by me.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But no, I did buy it anyway.
Speaker B:It came in summer of 89.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:What, which model was it?
Speaker B:328 GTS.
Speaker A:Very nice.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:And, you know, it's a late version of the Magnum thing.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I had this magnificent three weeks.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Of going everywhere in it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And, you know, nice weather and all that.
Speaker B:I used it for this three weeks.
Speaker B:And then I sort of thought I better sell it.
Speaker B:So I sold it for 94 grand.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:The man who I sold it for traded it the next day for 98 grand.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:The money we sold it to sold it for 107 grand.
Speaker B:And then that one got caught with it.
Speaker B:Is everything turned to boo.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And the recession hit and it actually wiped out Ron Stratton.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:They.
Speaker B:They were like doing deals on old testerotters from the 50s and they had a special book.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, and it was like buying somewhat for 750 and selling it for a million.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:They just got caught out.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And they ended up having to sell it to Stratstone for £1.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And runner to agree not to use his name or anything.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:For a little while.
Speaker B:So they changed Ron Stratton into Strat Stone.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Which was their London.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And that's how all that happened.
Speaker B:But, well, Stratton owed loads of property and everything, so he's okay.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's interesting times in the Rolls Royce.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I decided more.
Speaker B:More than an Aston Martin.
Speaker B:Aston Martin is the favorite.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:Because.
Speaker B:Because a lot of the Aston Martin were doggy old cars.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:The first DB5 I bought was 8, 000 quid and it was a shell in a bag of boxes.
Speaker B:Not bag of boxes, it was boxes.
Speaker B: k in like: Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But I really wanted a Rolls Royce.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I thought it could have read a book by a guy called Fred Eyre.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:He's a millionaire stationary guy who used to play for Man City.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But then didn't quite make it.
Speaker B:But he got this Rolls Royce.
Speaker B:And I learned a lot of business lessons off Fred.
Speaker B:I know him now.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so I wanted this silver Shadow too, because that's what he had.
Speaker B:Anyway, I managed to buy one for ten grand.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Two weeks before my 21st birthday.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Only it needed an exhaust and I didn't have the spare.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:To put one on.
Speaker B:To put the exhaust on.
Speaker B: And I think about: Speaker B:And so I drove it around, but it sounded like a hot rod or a banger or something.
Speaker B:Remember taking my mom out in it?
Speaker B:My mom's like, what's that?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:And I said, oh, a special experimental one.
Speaker B:Mom on a more powerful engine.
Speaker B:And it was this Yellow roll.
Speaker B:I think you've seen the picture.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:So the yellow Rolls Royce and the company car then was a Celica GT4 Turbo four wheel drive, which was a mega car.
Speaker B:I really like them.
Speaker B:I really like Toyota.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And Lexus.
Speaker B:They were great.
Speaker B:But then I went to work for Mrs. B at BMW and then that's where I got access to F1 stuff.
Speaker B:BMW Amazingly, got signed up to do bond with the Z3 and everyone thought it was going to be a DB7.
Speaker B:The watch became an Omega.
Speaker B:You know, all these brands had to participate, otherwise they wouldn't have had the money to do it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And they were really nervous about it and they were saying, like in the press, you know, he's Bond out of date.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because it had been delayed because of the argument between MGM and Sony over who owned what.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So there was a real feeling on do and I of trying to make it happen.
Speaker B:So I was lucky enough to get invited to watch some of the filming and everything.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I thought it was great.
Speaker B:And then it sort of went from there, you know, and ended up doing various things and supplied cars and got to meet loads of people and I managed to meet every Bond.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Apart including Bob Holness, who did it on the radio.
Speaker B:I only met him at Water Rats dinner when he was quite ill. Yeah.
Speaker B:But I met him.
Speaker B:And the one not proper Bond that I didn't meet was David Niven.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But Connery met him in the Bahamas in Great Cliff's Restaurant as a coincidence.
Speaker B:Not an hunt that distinct.
Speaker B:And that was good.
Speaker B:Georgia know really well where it's a bit.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Pel's with him.
Speaker B:Roger.
Speaker B:Of course.
Speaker B:I mean, he was my mum's favorite.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I loved him, you know.
Speaker B:I mean, my favorite role of his is the Persuaders.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But I like watching.
Speaker A:I think the thing about Roger Moore was he was smooth, wasn't it?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Where Connery was rugged.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But you know, in a fight, in a real life fight, Roger would kill you.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:He always played it down.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, Lee Marvin was drunk once in Shout at the Devil.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And started taking the mick out of him.
Speaker B:And they had to do a scene.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And Lee Marvin properly started hitting Roger.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So Roger battered him here for an 800 trip, you know, And Roger.
Speaker B:And when people asked Roger about that, he'd always say, are you kidding?
Speaker B:Lee Marvin had killed me.
Speaker B:Yeah, fine.
Speaker B:All the crew in that area running.
Speaker B:Sorry.
Speaker B:Happen.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So he is hard.
Speaker B:And then it was Tim Dalton a couple of times.
Speaker B:Did Some stuff on Hot Fuzz.
Speaker B:He's a City fan.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then obviously, Pierce numerous things.
Speaker B:And then Daniel, obviously, just from, you know, sort of being in the different places.
Speaker A:So how did you start?
Speaker A:I mean, it's like I said earlier on, you were consultant on the new books by Octane, which is the book that.
Speaker A:Because there's going to be a volume two and potentially a volume three.
Speaker A:Volume one is what you'll call the classic Bond cars, because it covers all the cars in the films, not just the cars that Bond drove, was the vehicles.
Speaker A:It's the vehicles.
Speaker B:It's both just the planes, et cetera.
Speaker B:So that book, the basis of that book, you have to say, goes back to the late 80s.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:When Dave Worrell by himself couldn't get a publisher.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And for six years.
Speaker B:I mean, imagine that by yourself.
Speaker B:He's working in sales, I think.
Speaker B:I think he worked for advertising and marketing or something, or typesetting and.
Speaker B:And he had a bit of a bong background because his uncle sold Gillette razors and took him on the set of you Only Live Twice.
Speaker B:So he saw that big volcano set.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And he started, for some reason, asking about the DB5, starts investigating it, finds out there was two in the film, in Goldfinger and Thunderball, and two that were built after filming.
Speaker B:And he has, like, quite a story.
Speaker B:So he goes publishes it himself.
Speaker B:That's why it's called Solo Publishing.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But he made contacts, Aston Martin and with these owners that merely.
Speaker B:If he hadn't done that, that story would not be told.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And he brought out his book, the most Famous Car in the World, because.
Speaker A:I think a lot of the on tour scenes like that, I mean, there's a story that the Aston Martin, the original one with all the gadgets on, that really made it incredibly popular after it had done what it was doing in the film, had everything taken back off it.
Speaker B:It did.
Speaker B:It did.
Speaker B:But there were two cars.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:But these cars would have gone into obscurity without people writing about them to find them.
Speaker B:Well, certainly in America they wouldn't have gone into obscurity because that was where they all ended up for quite a long time.
Speaker B:But they followed this story, brought out this book, which was epic.
Speaker B:Looking back on it now, there's a lot he couldn't find out.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And there's some stuff where he sort of guessed it from his perspective.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But Dave's book is at the heart of Spy Octane.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And if you look at the back of the book.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:The one above me, I'M the motoring consultant.
Speaker B:It's dedicated to Dave.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And he.
Speaker B:And he gave a lot of time.
Speaker B:He gave all his time for free and everything, like designing it and like someone else designed.
Speaker B:But he helped scanning all the stuff and made all the intros.
Speaker B:So if you take from the late 80s, right.
Speaker B:A Matthew Field was a young kid.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Very young kid who lived around the corner from Dave.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And I've known Matt since he was a kid.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so if you take that as a basis of the book and then expand it, this really has been going on, the creation of that book for 40 odd.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:50 years.
Speaker B:Because Dave was going to write a book on the cows of Bond.
Speaker A:And, you know, how did you become involved in all this?
Speaker A:I mean, you have.
Speaker A:I mean, besides the DB7 that I have parked outside at the moment, I mean, you've got a lot of cars.
Speaker A:We know you've got a lot of cars.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Probably too.
Speaker A:Probably too many of them.
Speaker A:But you have a few Aston Martins.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And everything.
Speaker A:I mean, you are.
Speaker A:I mean, I would say you're probably regarded as the Aston Martin man.
Speaker A:Are you?
Speaker B:Well, I think a lot of people do call me Mike Aston Martin.
Speaker A:There's a club in London, they call me various things.
Speaker A:But as almighty doesn't figure in it.
Speaker B:There'S one where they call me Mike Ferrari.
Speaker B:That's almost right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think, I think the title of Mr. Aston Martin, you got to be careful because there's a lot of good historians.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, Steve Waters, my.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:My best mate.
Speaker A:What if he.
Speaker B:What are you.
Speaker A:Who was a guest on the then radio show.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So he.
Speaker B:He's now Aston Martin's historian.
Speaker B:Historian.
Speaker B:And so he should be.
Speaker B:You could call him Mr. Aston Martin.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I know Dr. Bez, who was the CEO, once, wanted to call his book Mr. Aston Martin, but people didn't like it because there's a lot of other people.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Involved.
Speaker B:So I wouldn't call myself Mr. Aston Martin, but I would call myself a member of a pretty elite, knowledgeable team.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And you're always learning.
Speaker B:So the key to learning is surround yourself with people who know more than you on a given subject.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And that's sort of for business as well.
Speaker B:So me and Steve Roddingham will be talking a lot.
Speaker B:Me and Tim Cottingham, the registrar.
Speaker B:I'd be talking a lot.
Speaker B:Chris Bolton, who also works on the registrar.
Speaker B:In fact, yesterday something came up to do with a Viraj Volante that a guy's selling straight away.
Speaker B:I recognized it.
Speaker B:I'D bought it.
Speaker B:I bought it over another Aston guy before that.
Speaker B:I know another Aston guy had sold it to him.
Speaker B:I recognized the car.
Speaker B:I knew exactly what had happened to it.
Speaker B:I said to him, don't put the mileage on that car as being definite because I know what happened.
Speaker B:It wasn't anyone clocking it.
Speaker B:But the digital readout kept breaking, you know, and they kept having to try and fix it or replace.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So that sort of thing.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And within about three hours, the team had identified its chassis number.
Speaker B:It's build, what happened there, you know, and it's quite good like that.
Speaker B:And I noticed you got Ben's book, Ben Stig book that he wrote on Aston Martin.
Speaker B:Well, he did that with the permission of Aston Martin.
Speaker B:Well, your official cooperation.
Speaker B:Yeah, because that's what they sort of like to do to see if they can help.
Speaker B:And then there's places where I have contacts where they don't.
Speaker B:You know, it would be true to say I knew the location of the cars better than them, but obviously they know where certain ones are.
Speaker B:Eon.
Speaker B:Which is now Amazon in charge.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Know where those ones are.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And that's what we do in Spy Octane.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:We literally go through the history of these cars and Matt is a consummate researcher.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So he goes and finds the info.
Speaker B:He sort of.
Speaker B:Well, I mean, in.
Speaker B:In the interview you did.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:AJ Chowdhury sort of admitted he didn't really know.
Speaker B:He hung onto Matt's coattail.
Speaker B:So Matt White uses him a bit as he'll say, go and look at the filming dates for so and so.
Speaker B:And then he goes and does it, you know, and Matt calls him Tibbett because of you.
Speaker B:To a kill where Roger and Patrick McNear in it.
Speaker B:And he like, treats him like a chauffeur.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So Matt says, go and find.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B: s I'll have Matthew asking me: Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Often these conversations are 12 o' clock at night to 3 o' clock in the morning.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, Matt's got a job, you know, he produces advertising films.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Extras for dvt.
Speaker B:So he is off dead writing these books, you know, as I can sort of do what I want.
Speaker B:I mean, the amount of work that kid puts in.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Is beyond belief.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And also I can.
Speaker B:When he gets stressed, I can make him laugh.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Change the subject.
Speaker B: ch is the two Japanese Toyota: Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:GTs.
Speaker B:What a story that is.
Speaker B:And he was doing all these interviews with a Japanese interpreter and not giving up.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Until he got to them.
Speaker B:Oh, the other one.
Speaker B:Did he, did he tell you about.
Speaker B:I think he did mention about like the mafia, didn't he?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I thought that was Goldfinger and the man who's.
Speaker B:When the cow got nicked.
Speaker B:Yeah, they got warned off.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Matt got warned off by the mafia through Doug from the Infleming foundation in Chicago.
Speaker B:They contacted him and said, tell this Matthew Field.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Stop contacting your bloke.
Speaker B:And Anthony Puglazy.
Speaker B:And we didn't give up.
Speaker B:And Matt managed to get across.
Speaker B:Look, we're on the side of Mr. Puglazy.
Speaker B:Yeah, we were.
Speaker B:He's never had an opportunity.
Speaker B:He's in his 80s.
Speaker B:He's never had an opportunity to say, look, I didn't have it nicked.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:This is what happened.
Speaker B:So when you see it in the book, it's a massive section in the book.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:All about the theft, all about what actually happened, all about his perspective.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:His brother in law, who he'd helped out a lot financially, was the one looking after the car.
Speaker B:So when the car got nicked he wanted a load of money out of the tail.
Speaker B:Matt managed to talk to all the solicitors and lawyers, both sides and how it all came out and it's an amazing story, all that and that.
Speaker B:And that's the quality in this book.
Speaker B:We go to the most inane levels and then my, my biggest skill in the book is giving it some nuance and reality.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And explaining.
Speaker B:So give you an example of what I mean, if you've got aj, who's never been in the car job, he has a 17 year old and it's a micro, but never drives.
Speaker B:You got Matt who does quite like cars, but he had.
Speaker B:I got him a Mini because obviously likes Minis because of the Italian job that they've still got.
Speaker B:And he's got an all three series diesel off his brother.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Two all right cars.
Speaker B:And he's now restoring a black rsp.
Speaker B:Oh yeah, Classic Mini that Matt wears it up to because you never chase it up and.
Speaker B:But they haven't been and bought a brand new Aston Martin.
Speaker B:Yeah, they haven't been and bought a 400 grand Esther Martin.
Speaker B:They haven't driven them.
Speaker B:You can't give a verdict on those cars or an opinion on those cars unless you've done that.
Speaker B:It's like you.
Speaker B:Yeah, I know.
Speaker B:I can talk to you properly about driving fast on circuits because we've both driven circuits in the world.
Speaker B:I can talk to you about the purchase process of a nice 50 grand car.
Speaker B:100 grand car one.
Speaker B:Could you dumb it?
Speaker B:They haven't.
Speaker B:So that's not being snobby or horrible.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker B:It's just that I need to explain certain things.
Speaker B:So I'll give you a classic example.
Speaker B:Two things.
Speaker B:One, I banned the word probably.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And Matt then used as the mantra for the book.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's not probably.
Speaker B:It either.
Speaker B:We know 100% or we go, we don't.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:There's no.
Speaker B:Oh, maybe this happened.
Speaker B:I hate it.
Speaker B:I hate it on social media when these noobs flip in post about a car.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And they give some opinion.
Speaker B:Oh, I expect this happened.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Or they introduce a new bit of the story that never happened.
Speaker B:They just literally made it up.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I don't get that.
Speaker B:So Matt's really good at trying to keep to it.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And then the.
Speaker B:The second thing is with trying to get it absolutely level is that we won't be swayed.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So sometimes telling people when you've done the research something about their car or what they thought their car was and it's not is quite awkward.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:So for us, the only thing is.
Speaker A:More than anything else, it's probably just knocked about 100 grand off its value.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh.
Speaker B:Oh.
Speaker B:When it turns out their car isn't.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The car.
Speaker B:And it's in a museum and it's advertised.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:That's really bad.
Speaker B:And sometimes it's embarrassing as well.
Speaker B:But we've had cars that have been repainted the same color.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Sorry, the wrong color.
Speaker B:That was an awkward one.
Speaker B:Just after it had an 80 gram paint job.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:A car that someone thinks stars in a film abroad.
Speaker B:And it didn't even go abroad.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, there were two of them.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And yours didn't.
Speaker A:The other one.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So we had quite a bit of that.
Speaker B:And also you also have people who don't want the other cars when there's more than one to get any credibility.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So the Tugas, you know, and the Mustangs.
Speaker B:There's one guy on the Mustang who, you know, was all.
Speaker B:He really claimed this was the car and we proved it wasn't.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And we actually put it in the book.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:We actually say it's not the car.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Even though it went around the world.
Speaker B:The Esprit from Spy who Love Me.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know the car that's advertised as the road car in a certain museum up north.
Speaker B:It's not the car.
Speaker B:It's the car that did the photographs.
Speaker B:On the lawn with Barber and things.
Speaker B:So it's still important, but it's not the car from the film, you know, and then it's just a very tricky world because it involves so much money.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So, yeah, that.
Speaker B:That's my sort of main role, really.
Speaker A:Because the other thing is, you mentioned it earlier on one of the other books you were heavily involved with is the book on the Italian Job Assault Preservation Society.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And numerous cars that claim to be that aren't.
Speaker A:I mean, that would have been another minifigure.
Speaker A:I think the other problem was with that is the Aston Martin or one of the Aston Martins was destroyed.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:The two E types of which there were more than one of each.
Speaker A:Two of each were destroyed.
Speaker A:And then the Minis, because apparently these Minis have popped up here, there and everywhere.
Speaker A:Well, apart besides having rolled down a mountainside.
Speaker B:Do you want to tell you.
Speaker A:And then there's a coach, then there's the minibus, then there's a Land Rover, then there's all the alpha males and there's the Daimler and the Dino coupe.
Speaker A:And the Dino coupes.
Speaker B:The Daimler.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, it's all in the book.
Speaker B:But I mean, a quick version of that is the Minis that you see now.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Have absolutely zero.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:To do with the film.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:They are replicas.
Speaker A:I mean, the only thing you can say about them is they go promo for.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:There's about four sets out.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But what happened.
Speaker B: ilm was made, as you know, in: Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B: They used: Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:For S's.
Speaker B:They had six Hero cars.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:For the first time ever, we reveal in that book.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:The reg numbers of those six cars.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And they had to.
Speaker B:And they weren't all blue, red and white.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:There was a gray one and, you know, and they all had to be painted a certain way.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And we got all the paperwork.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Of a big box belonging to David Salamoni.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:So David and his dad are Blenheim Motors.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:They were taken on board to supply all the cars.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:They were also going to do quite a bit of the stunt driving because they were like.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Racing drivers.
Speaker B:And what happened was when he.
Speaker A:The one with.
Speaker A:The one with very posh accent was actually a proper racing driver, wasn't it?
Speaker B:All three were.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, all three were.
Speaker B:And then they were voiced over.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So what happened was when.
Speaker B:When E and Allan got involved, they were recommended to use Remy Julian.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So because Remy Julian got involved, that Meant that David and his.
Speaker B:And Barry and.
Speaker B:Can't remember any of the guys didn't get to do things like jumping over the bridge.
Speaker A:Theoretically from.
Speaker A:Well, the.
Speaker A:Theoretically from, like, Lingotto to another building.
Speaker A:Now, having been to Lingotto.
Speaker A:Yes, geographically, yeah.
Speaker A:But the building that they jump onto.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's the same effort.
Speaker B:So it's a combination of the lads driving the English lads, and the English lads had to do loads at Twickenham Studios with icle Kane and everything and Remy Julien's team.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And the car supply sort of was sorted out by the Italians over here.
Speaker B:You know the story that Michael Deeley, the producer, and Michael came the app to say, oh, Fiat gave us everything for free and England gave us nothing.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's not true.
Speaker B:Ralphia billed them for everything.
Speaker B:We got the invoices and.
Speaker B:But they did get the permissions, but they had to pay for everything.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker B:BMC gave them six free cars and a load of stuff.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker B:Because we've got all the job sheets, all the invoices, and then they had to return those six cars.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And BMC scrapped them because they were knackered and the roofs were bent and everything.
Speaker B:So one of the cars, the one of the white ones, does appear in a promo film for Dunlop and it's David driving it and it's in Trafalgar Square.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So the lots of lower minis, you know, 850s and things that were dressed up as well.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Pushed off the cliff.
Speaker B:But so much poo around that, you know, and when we did the book, I said to Matt, we have to take out the chassis number and the engine numbers, key numbers, because I'm telling you now, it's already happened.
Speaker B:People are going to clone them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So we kept that out.
Speaker B:But what complicated it for a lot of people was the reg numbers were never issued.
Speaker B:They were made up.
Speaker B:G regs.
Speaker B:All the cars are ref.
Speaker B:Regis.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And then dvla, as DVLA do, they'll often issue a number much later.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So Cheffins did an auction, a DVLA auction.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I can't remember if it was 96, whatever, but they put those three number plates up for auction.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The rights to those number plates.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The guy that bought them is the one that created the cars.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:He says they were created from a box of bits after filming.
Speaker B:Well, they weren't, you know, and.
Speaker B:And I've had it out with him.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, but you do get people like the Daily Mail reporting it incorrectly.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:What's that singer from ACDC called Brian Thingy.
Speaker A:Yeah, I know.
Speaker B:You mean he did a show where he says these are the actual chaos.
Speaker B:Well, they're not the Aston Martin.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:They made 70 DB4 convertibles and they were split into series four.
Speaker B:DB4 and series five.
Speaker B:They had two.
Speaker B:Yeah, they had a series five that was a development car for David.
Speaker B:Registered to David Brown's.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because he had the track to place in Huddersfield.
Speaker B:But it's a development car.
Speaker B:That was a right dog.
Speaker B:It's totally different when you look at the two cars together.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The aerials in a different place.
Speaker B:The indicators are different, the bumpers haven't got over it.
Speaker B:There's loads of differences and we list them all in the book.
Speaker B:And that was intended to be wrecked.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Then they bought two of each E type.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So nicer ones and two horrible ones.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Minute.
Speaker B:Only 500 quids worth.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, you do the scenes in England, then the others go out to Italy and get trashed.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The two E types, trash scrapped.
Speaker B:The Aston Martin had explosives in it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:They lift it up with the digger.
Speaker B:The digger driver was the coach driver, by the way.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:You know, like.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:He was called Mick Toms.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And when he goes to lift it up, it's actually exploded.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Nearly killed him and nearly killed the Italian actor, Raffoni.
Speaker B:Whatever.
Speaker B:If you watch the film where the car lifts the digger onto the wall, it cuts and you can see on the floor all the burn mark.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:On the floor and on the wall.
Speaker B:Then David Salamone had to go out in a Fiat 500 to find another old Aston Martin and he didn't have a chance.
Speaker B:But he did find a Lancia Flaminia 3C convertible.
Speaker B:That's what comes back.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And pretty much at the side of the road, a base camp.
Speaker B:David using Fablon.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Turned it into an Aston Martin.
Speaker B:And what a great job he did.
Speaker B:I mean, if you think 50, 60 years later, we're having to freeze frame on the car.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:To see the differences, like the left hand drive, the way the bonnet opens, the cardboard number plate.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, that's what goes over.
Speaker B:So it's two cars that are wrecked and not one.
Speaker B:And it would have been the Aston.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:If the explosives hadn't gone.
Speaker B:But amazingly, 68 of those 70 DB4 survive and that's how we were able to identify the other car.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Then the one that survives, pal Brian owns it.
Speaker B:That had a fantastic restoration.
Speaker B:Late 80s, early 90s.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because even that was a bit you know, a bit of an old dog.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:During filming it was all right.
Speaker B:It drove and that was one.
Speaker B:This is a big nuance between me and Matthew of that car.
Speaker B:Matthew, when writing the book, viewed the DB4 convertible.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:As.
Speaker B:As a.
Speaker B:As a fantastic car in relationship to Bond driving the DB5.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:What I was trying to explain to Matt is Bonds there in the latest brand new Aston Martin.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:With all these gadgets.
Speaker B:Charlie Croaker isn't.
Speaker B:He's in a seven year old Aston Martin.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:That in those days cars became rough pretty quick.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Six, seven years, I said.
Speaker B:And he's.
Speaker B:He's like a cheap criminal who's trying to aspire.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:To be rich.
Speaker B:And there's a part in the film that's caught, and we describe it in the book where it illustrates that even more.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know when you get hempled.
Speaker A:The boy.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Model.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And now she has all the hotels and that.
Speaker B:She's in a scene that got caught.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:She's in a brand new DB6.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Volante.
Speaker B:And they pull up at the lights and he sees her car and he's coveting her car and.
Speaker B:And he's like saying nice things about it.
Speaker B:But she thinks she's talking about her.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But he's not.
Speaker B:He's talking about the car.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And there was a line I saw sort of explaining to Matt, you know, this is a guy who wants to be big.
Speaker B:I suppose it's like somebody turns up in a DB7 Vantage Valante.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:He wouldn't spend 450 grand on a new.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Vanquished.
Speaker B:Because I'm not wealthy enough to take the depreciation.
Speaker B:I can only buy one for 450 if it doesn't lose money.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So that was a good nuance, you know, Matt was like, oh, that's fantastic to know.
Speaker B:You know, so that's where we work good as a team.
Speaker B:And also there was a.
Speaker B:There was a great reference in it where he says to Anoush Vahempel, you might consider a Burns conversion.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Matt had no clue.
Speaker B:And I bet you know what that is.
Speaker B:What car had a Burns conversion?
Speaker A:No, go on, Alvis.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Remember that bloke had the.
Speaker B:And he was up for sale in Yorkshire, wasn't it?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:For a while.
Speaker B:So he had that V8 put into the TD or TD21.
Speaker B:Is it a TF21?
Speaker B:Well, it's about Sea reg.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And he's got double headlights on the front.
Speaker B:Well, that's what he was referring to.
Speaker B:That was what the writer was referring to, you know, because he has another six cylinder engine and the V8.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:What other cars do you particularly like?
Speaker B:TV shows?
Speaker A:It's hard to say really.
Speaker A:I mean, I could have one.
Speaker A:If I could have one car, what would I have?
Speaker A:I'm just trying to think the one that I own.
Speaker A:More TV, I would say TV.
Speaker A:And it will probably be the Jensen CV8 out of the Baron that still exists.
Speaker B:That does it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It got painted red.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Mainly because as a little boy I thought Sue Lloyd looked sensation.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And you see that car went quite rough.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Then it got painted red and then it sort of an inverted comma has been being restored for the last 20 years.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Like a lot of the cars.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I'm guilty of that with the same xjs because it was so good to drive, even though the body was a bit rubbish.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I enjoyed the luxury of being able to hammer it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And park it anywhere and everything.
Speaker B:And then my pal, we'll call him Mr. P.S.
Speaker B:persuaded me that it should have a lot of money invested in it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And he's.
Speaker B:He's kindly spending the money on it.
Speaker B:So it's.
Speaker B:I mean it's having a 220 grand restoration, I'm almost embarrassed to say because I thought It'd be about 70.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And when you say 70 to someone on a 3H E X Jesse, I think you're mad though.
Speaker B:But this restoration is magnificent.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Well, you've seen the pictures and it's taken down to nothing.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it.
Speaker B:And it's been hand rubbed down and every single little bit done.
Speaker B:So as he says, if we had this sort of thing done on a DB5 or B4 or a DBS or a Lagonda or a V8 Aston Martin, it'd be what, 450 grand?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So 220 in that world.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it's insured for four times, so it doesn't really matter.
Speaker B:And it's the only one in it, it's the only surviving one.
Speaker B:So I like that car very much.
Speaker B:Obviously the Persuaders dbs, which is now in the same stable.
Speaker B:But I nearly went abroad that relate to stop that from going abroad.
Speaker B:I quite like the professionals cars.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:As you know, I've supply some of them and help get them into different collections.
Speaker B:So it's amazing how many have survived.
Speaker B:Well, you know, about six or seven Capris have survived.
Speaker B:The Escorts survived.
Speaker B:The only thing with them is where they're different.
Speaker B:I think to the Jack, is that the Jag we've kept so many original bits.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And obviously you've had to put new bits on as well.
Speaker B:But the originality thing wasn't too much of a problem.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:With the Fords and talking to Bob Rock and my pal, who discovered a lot of these cars back in the early 90s, when they weren't worth anything.
Speaker B:They were so rusty as Fords, you couldn't do anything but replace the panels.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So people sort of accuse some of them of being triggers.
Speaker B:Broom.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think that's a bit unfair.
Speaker B:I think, you know, it's a car, it needs.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You could get a brand new car, couldn't you?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And say after it's oil service, it's not original.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because it's got new oil in it and an oil filter.
Speaker B:So I think 50, 60 years on, you've got to give a bit of sympathy.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:To the fact that they didn't build cars to last.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:Knowing in America it was even more so, wasn't it?
Speaker B:They were only last.
Speaker B:They.
Speaker B:They had a business model of people swapping once a year, didn't they?
Speaker B:And bits literally used to fall off them.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, so some of the interesting things in Spy Octane with the American cars is how quickly they weren't worth a lot.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And also what we investigated is how these cars were supplied.
Speaker B:So for Goldfinger and Thunderball, you've got the old prototype DB5.
Speaker B:So it's a DB4 Series 5 Vantage on the production line, gets grabbed by development, turned into a DB5.
Speaker B:Go.
Speaker B:And it was red with black leather.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So it appears in the road test when it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The bonnet red with black leather.
Speaker B:Then it appears in the Saint, a Sir Anthony Quail's character's car then.
Speaker B:And then it goes to Eon.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So Eon put all the bits on it whilst it's a bit scruffy.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And the bonnet in the bonnet, red.
Speaker B:And they had correspondence between Aston Martin and them about what color should we have for the film.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I think they recommended satin bronze.
Speaker B:I think it was to reflect off the camera.
Speaker B:But when it went back from Eon at Pinewood to Aston Martin to get painted their new DB5 demo, your silver birch with gray leather.
Speaker B:Not black leather with gray leather.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So they painted the car to match that.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:That's why it's silver birch.
Speaker B:It's not snow shadow gray as other people have trying to change the story to snow shadow.
Speaker B:Gray is the color of the Italian Job car.
Speaker B:And then boat cars went out for filming.
Speaker B:But one big Thing is, the gadgets were only on the prototype drawing.
Speaker B:Goldfinger.
Speaker B:Then you know the beginning of Thunderball where you're seeing.
Speaker B:With the water coming out.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Both cars are there for that effect.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Because they put the jet pack into the boot.
Speaker B:One car had a boot full of gadgets.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The other one didn't.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And then the fire engine does the auto thing.
Speaker B:However, the DB5 appears again, doesn't it, at Silverstone.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And when it's at Silverstone, it gets chased on.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:By then it's been back to the factory and the factory put the gadgets on, not Aeon.
Speaker B:So it does have them.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then when you see that film where it's getting chased, you know the little console.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:When that opens, it's just a comedy console that they've propped up.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's rubbish.
Speaker B:You know, it's like a.
Speaker B:It's just.
Speaker B:You just see it for like a second.
Speaker B:So there's loads and loads of bits where you don't know which car you see unless you do what we did.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Which is freeze framing it for hours and hours and hours and hours, double checking, triple checking.
Speaker B:And because it.
Speaker B:The cuts in the film come so fast, it's like, you know where you see.
Speaker B:He's following Goldfinger.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:The girl's gone past in the Mustang.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And he's.
Speaker B:And Golfinger's down below his teeth.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So you hear the Aston Martin pull up and go run.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But you don't see it pull up.
Speaker B:No, that's because they've just pushed it into place.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:It's the demo and the clutch and gearbox have a problem.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:It's not Connery, it's Bill Baskerville.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The stuntman.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Immediately the next shot is looking up at Connery.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it's the Gadget car.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:So you've, you know, you literally going from one second to that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know where he pulls up at the petrol station to let Tilly out.
Speaker B:That was a VW deal about that.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:The DB5 Vantage demo is in the VW garage having the clutch and gearbox.
Speaker B:And we managed to find the son of the owner of the garage and interviewed him.
Speaker B:That's what the whole thing's like.
Speaker B:All these ridiculous how.
Speaker B:You know the zombie Malpine?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:He found the son of the woman who owned it.
Speaker B:The woman who owned it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, how do you find the flower?
Speaker B:You know the hearse.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Which is two hearses.
Speaker B:Your Humber goes over the edge and the other one's called.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:He found out the full history of that and you know what happened flat.
Speaker B:It broke down.
Speaker B:Yeah, Right.
Speaker B:It was already quite old.
Speaker B:It broke down and got left outside.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Some baddies come and stripped it.
Speaker A:Mike Smith, it's been an absolute pleasure.
Speaker A:I am jealous.
Speaker A:Crushing all the Bond girls as well, which I find.
Speaker A:Really.
Speaker B:Did not all of them find one.
Speaker A:For you, but, Mike Smith, it's been a pleasure chatting.
Speaker A:Thank you very much indeed.
Speaker A:Very Intro Back Sea Driver.
