- The Power Pit
- James Bond Cars – No Time to Crash
James Bond Cars – No Time to Crash
Where James Bond gets in, nothing is standard anymore. More like “prototype under pressure.” Q calls it development. Bond calls it “interesting.” “My name is Bond. James Bond.” And these aren’t cars, they’re statements on four wheels. The Aston Martin DB5 isn’t a vehicle. It’s a myth with a license plate. Goldfinger made it famous. Q armed it. Bond survived it. Revolving license plates. Oil slick at the push of a button. Smoke out of nowhere. And an ejector seat that ends discussions before they begin. “Shaken, not stirred” applies to the driving dynamics here too. Just with explosions as an aftertaste.
"My name is Bond. James Bond." And these aren't cars, they're statements on four wheels.
Q builds security systems. Bond tests them in real time. In free fall. Tires aren’t changed, they’re sabotaged. Pursuers don’t just lose ground, they lose their composure. Machine guns appear like a bad mood on Monday morning. Elegantly concealed. Politely British. Until things get serious. A bulletproof shield rises in the back. Not out of fear, but with a smile.
And while Q is still optimizing instruction manuals, 007 has already found the red button. The wrong one, of course. Which means the right one. The cars rarely come back in the condition they started in. If at all.
"My name is Bond. James Bond." And these aren't cars, they're statements on four wheels.
The Bohema – the idea turns into madness
According to Praga CEO Tomas Kasparek, series production marks a major milestone in the brand’s 117-year history, because manufacturing began just one year after the prototype was unveiled. The design draws heavily on Praga’s motorsport experience — every element was engineered for minimum weight, right down to the passenger cell made from just 56 individual carbon parts with a total weight of 34 kilograms.
Technically, the Bohema surprises: instead of an exotic V12, there’s a 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6 in the rear, originally developed for the Nissan GT-R — tuned to 700 hp by British GT-R specialists Litchfield and converted to dry-sump lubrication. That delivers 0–100 km/h in 2.3 seconds and a top speed of around 317 km/h. With a curb weight of just under a ton, it generates up to 900 kilograms of downforce at 250 km/h — developed by a Formula 1 team in wind-tunnel testing.
Where James Bond gets in, nothing is standard anymore. More like “prototype under pressure.” Q calls it development. Bond calls it “interesting.”
“My name is Bond. James Bond.” And these aren’t cars, they’re statements on four wheels. The Aston Martin DB5 isn’t a vehicle. It’s a myth with a license plate. Goldfinger made it famous. Q armed it. Bond survived it.
Revolving license plates. Oil slick at the push of a button. Smoke out of nowhere. And an ejector seat that ends discussions before they begin. “Shaken, not stirred” applies to the driving dynamics here too. Just with explosions as an aftertaste. Q builds security systems. Bond tests them in real time. In free fall. Tires aren’t changed, they’re sabotaged. Pursuers don’t just lose ground, they lose their composure. Machine guns appear like a bad mood on Monday morning. Elegantly concealed. Politely British. Until things get serious. A bulletproof shield rises in the back. Not out of fear, but with a smile.
And while Q is still optimizing instruction manuals, 007 has already found the red button. The wrong one, of course. Which means the right one. The cars rarely come back in the condition they started in. If at all.
From Chaos to Icon: James Bond Cars by Assouline
This exact blend of elegance, destruction, and tech fetishism is celebrated in the book “James Bond Cars” from Assouline. It’s less a catalog than a cinematic homage to over 50 years of automotive espionage history. The vehicles aren’t just shown here – they’re staged: iconic Bond cars, design studies, film stills, and technical details merge into a luxurious coffee table book that itself feels like a Q-Branch project. Premium materials, powerful visual language, and a layout that practically screams for a start button. And the best part: here they’re all still intact. No smoke, no explosion, no total loss after a chase. Just pure, gleaming fantasy on paper. The cars, however, are only half the story. Equally iconic are the locations – from snow-covered slopes to futuristic villas – and the styles that have defined Bond for decades. These three worlds – Cars, Locations, Style – are available as a magnificent Assouline book series in a slipcase. Luxury that stacks up like files in Q’s office.
Jürgen Preuss, infact.digital
Copyright: Assouline
