Sunbeam Alpine: Dr. No (1962)
In his first outing, Bond (Sean Connery) starts off modestly with a hired Sunbeam Alpine that features in a dramatic car chase along rough Jamaican mountain roads, pursued by unsavoury assassins in a pre-war Packard hearse, which doesn't look as if it's enjoying being thrown around corners too much.



Aston Martin DB5: Goldfinger (1964)
This car needs little introduction. Fitted with machine guns, radar, a rear bullet shield and that famous ejector seat, it is still the most famous piece of hardware in the Bond armoury. In Goldfinger, the DB5 expires against a brick wall after an exciting tear-up with a brace of black Mercedes 220 saloons, but it is revived for a brief appearance in Thunderball, where it blasts baddies with a powerful jet of water in the pre-title sequence. Four Bond DB5s were built, two for filming and two for promotional work.



Toyota 2000 GT: You Only Live Twice (1967)
Toyota obligingly sliced the roof off its rare, expensive and exotic 2000GT especially for this film, because Connery couldn't fit in the coupe, and, in any case, an open top made filming rather easier. In the film the only gadget in this car is a TV monitor, from which Connery watches a Toyota Crown full of baddies being dropped from a helicopter. However, the Corgi version had rocket launchers.



Mustang Mach1: Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Mustangs pop up frequently in Bond films - early models featured in both Goldfinger and Thunderball - and here, the massive Mach I shows its paces in Bond's most dramatic car chase to date, out-witting the inept Las Vegas police as he drives over the roofs of parked cars and goes on two wheels down a narrow back alley. In a famous continuity error, the car was filmed entering the alley on one pair of wheels - then exiting on the opposite side. There is a memorable moon buggy chase too, and a brief appearance of a then new Triumph Stag.



AMC Hornet: The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
The basis for the car that was capable of flying was also from AMC, but it was a Matador Coupe model. With the flight tail unit, the complete machine was 9.15 metres long, 12.80 metres wide, and 3.04 metres high. It was exhibited several times at motor shows. In the film it flew from Bangkok to an island in the China Sea, but in reality it could only go about 500 metres, so it was replaced by a metre-long remote-controlled model for some of the filming.



Lotus Esprit: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
The Lotus Esprit and its underwater exploits are second only to the DB5 in the Bond car hall of fame. To escape a rocket-equipped helicopter Bond (now played for laughs by the bouffant-ed Roger Moore) drives the Esprit off a pier into the sea, where it transforms into a submarine at the flick of a switch and blows up the helicopter with its own rockets. More underwater action ensues, until Bond emerges victorious on a beach full of holidaymakers. The stars, Barbara Bach and Roger Moore, never saw the Bahamas though - they did their fighting in the sealed car in the diving pool on the grounds of Pinewood Studios in London.



Lotus Esprit Turbo: For Your Eyes Only (1981)
The only change to the original was the mounting of a roof rack for four pairs of skis. The antenna had to be taken off, since it would not have been good for the shooting, and the brake lights were disconnected – after all, James Bond never brakes, he only accelerates. At temperatures down to 18 degrees Celsius below zero, the car was only to be seen in two short scenes: once during the arrival in Cortina in front of the Hotel Miramonti, then once in front of the ice stadium.



Aston Martin V8 Volante: The Living Daylights (1987)
Moore had retired now to make way for Shakespearean actor Timothy Dalton, who always looked rather embarrassed to be a Bond. To give him some much needed gravitas, producer Cubby Broccoli brought an Aston Martin back, not the slender DB5, but the dinosaur-like V8. With its rocket launchers, spiked tyres, laser tyre-slashers and skis, it certainly came fully-equipped, but it didn't have the charm of the original.



BMW Z3: GoldenEye (1995)
BMW was more than happy to supply their effete roadster for a walk-on role in the first Bond film for six years. BMW promoted the film - and the film promoted BMW. The Z3 hadn't even been released when it appeared in the film, and it occupied just a few minutes of screen time. Q was seen showing Bond the car's gadgets, but none were actually used. More memorable than the Z3 in this one is the return of the Aston Martin DB5, which features in a wild chase at the start of GoldenEye and serves as a feelgood factor to smooth the introduction of a new actor as Bond, the oily Pierce Brosnan.



BMW Z8: The World Is Not Enough (1999)
For Brosnan's second Bond film, BMW supplied 7-Series saloons en masse, and there was yet more crass product placement for BMW for its new flagship retro roadster, the Z8. Like the Z3, this was still only a prototype when the film was being made. The cars used in the film were actually highly accurate replicas of the Z8, based on Chevrolet-powered Cobra kit cars built in the UK. Just as well they were plastic, as they didn't last long before they were chopped in half.



Aston Martin Vanquish: Die Another Day (2002)
The world’s most famous spy, James Bond 007 is back behind the wheel of an Aston Martin. Four were specially created and equipped with the gadgets - a pair of machine guns that come up through the bonnet vents, five heat-seeking missiles and a brace of shot guns that operate from the front radiator grille.