"The Real James Bond Cars" – with Top Gear's Jason Barlow

SpyCast

Summary

Jason Barlow (X; Biography) joins Andrew (X; LinkedIn) to discuss the iconic James Bond vehicles. Jason is the longstanding editor-at-large at Top Gear.

What You’ll Learn

Intelligence

• How the “Bond car” phenomenon came to be
• Ian Fleming’s love for cars
• The different “nationalities” of Bond cars
• What it’s like to be behind the wheel of some of these iconic cars

Reflections

• The making of pop culture
• The “personality” of cars

And much, much more …

Quotes of the Week

“Something strange happens in popular culture, where worlds kind of collide and cars assume these sorts of statuses far in excess of what they're actually doing in the movies. I find it fascinating as a process. Nobody can predict how these things are going to go and it's wonderful when these things do happen.” – Jason Barlow.

Resources

SURFACE SKIM

*Spotlight Resource*

• Bond Cars: The Definitive History, Jason Barlow (BBC Books, 2021)

*SpyCasts*

• The Real Ian Fleming with Nicholas Shakespeare (2024)
• The James Bond Collector with Mike VanBlaricum (2024)
• Bond After Fleming, the Continuation of an Icon with Mark Edlitz (2023)
• 70th Anniversary of James Bond, Special with Alexis Albion on 007 (Part 1 of 2) (2023)
• 70th Anniversary of James Bond, Special with Alexis Albion on 007 (Part 2 of 2) (2023)

*Beginner Resources*

• A Complete List of James Bond Cars, J. Osborn, Man of Many (2023) [List of cars]
• Aston Martin DB5 and 007 - A Special Bond, Aston Martin, YouTube (2021) [1 min. video]
• Why are cars interesting anyway? R. Meester, Medium (2021) [Short article]

DEEPER DIVE

Cars Mentioned

• Aston Martin DB5
• AMC Hornet
• Mustang Mach 1
• Lotus Esprit
• Aston Martin V8
• Toyota 2000GT
• Aston Martin V12 Vanquish
• BMW 750iL

*Wildcard Resource*

• “Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz …”
• We’ve now firmly established that film can immortalize cars for decades to come. Well, it’s the same in music – Think “Little Red Corvette” by Prince, or “Ol’ 55” by Tom Waits. Perhaps one of the most iconic cars in music is Janis Joplin’s 1964 psychedelic Porsche, now remembered fondly through her 1971 song “Mercedes Benz.”

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