Film and tv vehicles

[ddock54]

Does anybody own a vehicle once owned by a celebrity or that featured in any film/tv series.I know of the museum in keswick where many are on display ,but would be interested to know if any film star vehicles can be traced...not the trotter van though..how about the ufo cars or the prisoner moke that used to live in portmeirion, or marty hopkirks red mini.......jason kings bently..joe gladwins bike from the hovis ads ,they say the bond moonbuggy from diamonds are forever just turned up in a farmers field down south

[christoph404]

name='ddock54']Does anybody own a vehicle once owned by a celebrity or that featured in any film/tv series.I know of the museum in keswick where many are on display ,but would be interested to know if any film star vehicles can be traced...not the trotter van though..how about the ufo cars or the prisoner moke that used to live in portmeirion, or marty hopkirks red mini.......jason kings bently..joe gladwins bike from the hovis ads

Cant think of any to hand, you could always place a bid on Steve McQueens 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso which he owned for ten years. It is up for auction on the 16th August in California by Christies at an estimate of 1.2 million dollars! Worth every dime as well!!.....

[christoph404]

Actually I think the UFO cars may have come to a sad end especially Ed Strakers car. It was owned by Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis in the seventies who was a big fan of the show. He bought the car with the intention of exhibiting it and hiring it out for promotiional events but he never got around to realising that. He did have the car resprayed and the basic interior retrimmed, he also had the word UFO painted on the doors in the same futuristic type face as used in the credits of the show ( nice!) He eventually sold the car and it was last heard of rotting away in a garden in Birmingham, the owner not that interested in restoring it or selling it on. Intrestingly the UFO cars were designed by Derek Meddings, well who else of course! Strakers car was an aluminium hand made body plonked on top of the chassis of a Ford Zephyr Mark1V with a Ford Escort Engine and Gearbox.Those gull wing doors didn't really work and required a stage hand off camera to raise and lower them, the magic of TV. The actors reported that the cars were awful to drive with terrible handling and exhaust fumes spilling into the cabin, they didn't go very fast either so any scenes that required the car to be speeding along were done in the traditional way, undercrank the film in camera to give speeded up effect,again TV magic at its best. The cars weren't road legal in terms of having MOT or Tax but were simply life size props of futuristic cars. I think those enthusiasts who purchased the car props after the series ended had a bit of work to do on them to get them road legal and MOT'd or whatever.And of course both Straker's and Forster's cars were left hand drive because that was considered the future of Britain. I think Col Forsters car is still around somewhere, owned by a UFO enthusiast.

[batman]

Bressingham Steam Museum in Norfolk has a Dad's Army section featuring reconstructions, vehicles and props from the show.



Bats.

[smudge]

I seem to recall Jeannie Hopkirk's mini was restored some years ago (not too many) and sold at auction. I did try to persuade Mrs. Smudge at the time (she was driving a Mini Cooper herself back then) but she was not convinced...



Smudge

[Sgt Dudfoot]

I remember a couple of years back a poster on Carryonline had managed to buy the ambulance that featured in Carry On Doctor for a quite reasonable price. Possibly not as prestigous as McQueens Ferrari, but a cute item nonetheless.

[smudge]

I've just recalled when I had to do a job in a nearby village, in a very exclusive neighbourhood - even back then (must be 10 or 12 years ago) the houses cost £750,000 +.



The owner of the address I visited was a classic car dealer and he'd just acquired a 60s/70s metallic green Roller, with a personalised plate. Chatting as I left, he let me have a look at it. It was ERB II, formerly run by Elizabeth and Richard Burton.



Soon afterwards he returned home to (I think) Germany and I never found out where the car ended up...



Smudge

[mariocki]

More on the UFO cars here:



UFO / Doppleganger Cars

[ddock54]

Some good shots of the ufo cars here ..cheers ..Strakers car looks a bit dinged in borehamwood and a wheel trims gone ,must have been jazzed up for the pinewood shoot...the straker car was going to be on show at an event in Bradford in 1992 but never showed up ,porbably due to the fact its sitting rotting in some yard...shame

[oldmantv]

I thought the bond cars would be the most expensive ones in the world; I am not sure are they? do you know any others?

[mariocki]

The actual Aston Martin DB5 used in Goldfinger and Thunderball (as opposed to the mock-ups produced for publicity & display purposes) was bought for $275 000 in 1986 but was stolen in 1997 and has never been recovered as far as I'm aware. One of the mock-ups went for over $2m last year which makes you wonder how much the original would go for were it ever to be found.

[oldmantv]

name='mariocki'].... One of the mock-ups went for over $2m last year which makes you wonder how much the original would go for were it ever to be found.

maybe that is the original. the thieves transformed it and sold it under a false pretense...?!!

[mariocki]

The original actually had all the gadgetry removed after the film before being sold on. A later owner then re-fitted all the equipment after realising the potential value.

[christoph404]

name='mariocki']The original actually had all the gadgetry removed after the film before being sold on. A later owner then re-fitted all the equipment after realising the potential value.

A restored DB5 even without any connection to the Bond films can fetch anything from £150K to £250K. www.carandclassics.co.uk . Thats a lot of dosh for a 40 year old car but any owner can consol himself with the fact that road tax is free on cars manufactured before a certain date (1971 I think) My favourite Bond car is not the Aston Martin but the sexy white Toyota 2000GT used in You Only Live Twice. I believe only two of those cars exist in convertible soft top form as they were especially built in convertible form for the film ,with the hard roof chopped off and a redesign of the rear of the car. I have read that the car used in the film is in a museum in Japan and possibly has a value that is getting on par with the original Aston.

I would have thought it a bit nerve racking driving around in a car worth more than a million, especially in London!! unless of course you have the charriot style wheel mashers potruding from your hub caps as in Goldfinger! not a bad idea I think as driving in London is akin to being in a ben hur style charriot race!!

[christoph404]

name='mariocki']The actual Aston Martin DB5 used in Goldfinger and Thunderball (as opposed to the mock-ups produced for publicity & display purposes) was bought for $275 000 in 1986 but was stolen in 1997 and has never been recovered as far as I'm aware. One of the mock-ups went for over $2m last year which makes you wonder how much the original would go for were it ever to be found.

The consensus on various Bond websites and forums and in classic car circles is that the theft was an insurance fraud with the owner colluding in order to collect a 3.5 million dollar insurance pay out. It has been suggested that the car was destroyed or buried somehwere to prevent any possibility of recovery, none of this can be proved as fact and the owner has never been arrested or charged but that is the conjecture that has been around since the theft. It would seem plausible to me because that is one stolen car that would be impossible to sell on or show in public anywhere in the world without it being recognized for what it is.

NB. The most recent infamous car insurance fraud related to Lord Brocket who "arranged" for his collection of vintage and rare Ferraris to be stolen from the grounds of Brocket Hall in Herts. He was experiencing financiall difficulties and neaded money urgently as his bank had refused to extend his loans and overdrafts. He made the mistake of dismantelling the cars and hiding them and burying them in various locations around his estate including in the lake, with a view to re-assembling them at a later date. The insurance company and police were on to him though and insurance investigators found the cars hidden on his own property! He was sent to prison for the fraud. The moral of the story; don't carry out auto insurance fraud ...and if you are intent on doing it make sure the autos will never be found, Brockets failure was that he really loved his cars and couldn't bear the idea of destroying them completely.

And BTW, Brocket Hall was the location used in the film "Night of The Demon" amongst others.

[mariocki]

Yes, that Toyota looked good and takes pride of place in Toyota's museum. The Cars Of The Stars museum in Lancashire has one which although it wasn't used in the film, does have the centre console they used for the interior shots where they look at the TV screen. Incidentally, the Goldfinger DB5 wasn't the first time it had been seen on screen - it was used in an episode of The Saint prior to Bond or at least the plates were.



Brocket Hall is only a couple of miles from where I live and I run along the footpath that runs through the grounds fairly regularly. I haven't found any hidden Astons or Ferraris as yet. It was also used as a location for The Avengers and Inspector Morse as well as Highlander.

[christoph404]

Yes Brocket Hall has been used as a location in scores of films, I attended a wedding reception there a few years back ( it is hired out to the public for weddings etc ) and in one of the corriders there are lots of framed and signed photos of famous stars who have visited Brocket Hall while filming there, inluding John Mills and Michael Winner and others. I think the father of the present Lord Brocket (Lord Brocket Senior) was very good at enticing film makers to use the property as a location (for a price obviously) Since the present Lord Brockets imprisonement and bankruptcy the estate was confiscated by the receivers.



As for Bond's DB5, yes I have heard that it was used in an episode of "The Saint", I have also read that the prototype DB5 used in Goldfinger started life as a DB4 and was modified (headlights being the main difference) to look like a DB5 design. I have a very good article in one of my classic car mags from the eighties about the Toyota, the writer points out that the back projection studio shots and the close ups of the video consul are obviously a completely different model of car with different steering wheel windscreen and dash,possibly a white Sunbeam Alpine! That would be feasable because all the close up driving shots would have been done at Pinewood via back projection and I doubt whether even the Bond producers would ship the actual car back from Japan just for that. I would imagine the car in Lancashire would have been mocked up with the video consul well after filming as some of the DB5s were. The Toyota in the museum in Japan has no video consul nor does it have the rocket launcher in the boot as per the vinatge "Corgi "diecast model version!

[Automotivehistorian]

I have also read that the prototype DB5 used in Goldfinger started life as a DB4 and was modified

True



At least one of the Toyotas I gather was used for promo purposes. Is that not the car in the museum?

[ddock54]

For many years there was a resteraunt in Bradford with a curled up picture of John Steed in the window posing by a Bentley.I later found out the car was rented for the series from a man in Driglington,just up the road from where i lived many years ago,I was and still am an avid Avengers fan

[christoph404]

name='Automotivehistorian']True



At least one of the Toyotas I gather was used for promo purposes. Is that not the car in the museum?

The car in the Museum in Japan was the white car used in the film according to the article in "Classic Cars"The writer of the article went to Japan to speak with Toyota staff who had worked on the project of converting the GT to a rag top for the Bond film, and to look at the actual car, all duly reported in the magazine. In the late eighties it had already been unused for at least 10 years and was unroadworthy in need of a complete mechanical overhaul, a museum peice in the true sense. There was a promotional car that was light blue in colour with the script "You only Live Twice" painted on the boot lid, very tacky. The interesting thing about a Toyota 200GT is that a convertible never existed as a production car but was in essence a one off conversion from a hard roof GT car for the film, it didn't have a working soft top or soft top frame but had some padding added around the area where the folded down soft top would be to give the illusion of a folded down soft top, giving new meaning to the term "a fair weather car"! I can try and send the article to anyone who is really interested