Bond in Motion: Getting Around in High Spy Style

It’s been 50 years since Sean Connery sauntered onto the screen as James Bond in Dr. No, and for 50 years we’ve been captivated by the way Bond gets around. The sauntering remains spectacular, but it’s the planes, the boats, and the hot, hot motors that have come to define a Bond film more memorably than any Bond Girl ever could.

In honor of the Bond film’s 50th anniversary and in advance of Number 23 in the Bond film canon—Skyfall starring Daniel Craig, set to premiere in September—the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in England presents Bond in Motion, an exhibition of 50 Bond vehicles from 50 years of Bond movies (through December 2012).

What’s your pleasure? The 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III that Auric Goldfinger drives from England to Switzerland? (You might recall the bodywork on that one is worth a fortune.) Little Nellie, the gyrocopter Bond piloted around the volcano in You Only Live Twice? Halle Berry’s Ford Thunderbird from Die Another Day? An Aston Martin from The Living Daylights, Casino Royale or Quantum of Solace?

Personally, I’m leaning toward the Glastron GT-150 speedboat from Live and Let Die. That baby can fly!

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Leslie Gilbert Elman, author of Weird But True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous, and Totally Off the Wall Facts, would like to remind you—subtly—that books make excellent gifts. Follow her on Twitter @leslieelman.