The James Bond Bentley
Eagle-eyed viewers of ‘Together we are Extraordinary: The Story of Bentley Motors’ will notice that the number plate on the 1953 R Type Continental featured (BLT 934) is actually that of Ian Fleming’s personal car.
The James Bond author’s car is thought to have inspired him to give his iconic British secret agent just such a model in his 1961 novel, Thunderball. The car that James Bond ‘loved more than all the women at present in his life’ is one of Bentley’s most iconic and was the design inspiration behind the all-new Continental GT.
While the car in the film is a CGI homage rather than the original, it is unthinkable that any celebration of Bentley’s near-100-year history could omit the famous R Type. Fleming – a keen petrolhead – is believed to have seen this Chapron-coachbuilt Bentley in London while writing the novel, and subsequently had Bond taking his own fictional R Type Continental coupe to H.J. Mulliner and converting it to ‘a convertible two-seater affair’.
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