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In Ian Fleming's novel "Moonraker," the book-bound 007 prominantly drives his 1933 Bentley Mark IV convertible ... eventually to its destruction (for the second time actually, it was crashed in "Casino Royale" like the DBS in the movie). But there's no Bond car in the 1979 film "Moonraker." In fact, there's actually barely any cars in the movie...

"Can you swim?" Roger Moore floors the turbocharged four-cylinder engine behind his shoulder and the pristine white 1977 Lotus Esprit hurdles down a pier that leads to nowhere but the Mediterranean. It dives its sharp pointed nose into the sea. As the coolest Q car since the DB5 (and perhaps ever), the Esprit transforms into a fully functional submarine complete with oil slick, rockets and mines...

"An AMC Hornet, you got to be kidding me!" Well, that sentiment is often said throughout "The Man with the Golden Gun," one of those movies that is so awful it orbits back to being good for sheer camp factor. The villain's henchman is Tattoo from "Fantasy Island," the title song is laughably bad. Austin Powers didn't spoof the Bond franchise this well...

"Live and Let Die" is more associated with having the coolest boat chase ever rather than cars. In fact, there is no "Bond car" in the movie. There is, however, a New York highway filled with almost nothing but 1973 Chevrolet Caprice sedans and wagons -- take a look at the screen shot below...

"Diamonds are Forever" is basically unwatchable. It's boring, totally absurd and barely follows up on the events of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." Oh, and in four years between Bond appearances, Connery looks like he aged about 20 years. Now to the car...

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is one of the best 007 films, period. If you liked "Casino Royale's" down-to-Earth, novel-based style, you'll love "OHMSS," which features basically the same interpretation of Bond and his world as the most recent Daniel Craig movie. One-time 007 George Lazenby isn't Sean Connery, but he's just fine in the role...

  With recent models like the Nissan GT-R, Mitsubishi Evolution X, Acura NSX, Subaru STI and Toyota Supra, high-performance sports cars coming from Japan is common place. But once upon a time, Japanese makers were peddlers of only small, practical and economic little vehicles -- ones of no interest to Americans. Arguably, that all changed in 1967, when a sexy white roadster driven by Akiko Wakabayashi burst onto the scene to rescue Sean Connery in "You Only Live Twice." It was the Toyota 2000GT, a car Road & Track at the time called "one of the most exciting and enjoyable cars we've driven." Although on the radar of car guys since being introduced at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1965, the exotic Toyota (that just sounds funny) became known to the world because of James Bond -- even if he didn't actually drive the thing...

"From Russia With Love" had a few black Citroens and an old pick-up truck, so we've already reached the most famous Bond car of them all. An Aston Martin DB5 painted in Silver Birch has appeared in five Bond movies, although there have been three different cars (well, sorta). The original is the most famous of the most famous...

Welcome to a new feature here on Thoughts from the Curb. With the release of "Quantum of Solace" only 18 weeks away, I thought I'd take a look at the many cars that have appeared in the 21 James Bond films. Cars and Bond go hand in hand, with the venerable British spy making legends out of cars that could have easily been forgotten today. Just two weeks ago, a young boy pointed at my Z3 in excitement because it was "the James Bond car," completely dismissing the Ferrari 599 in front of me...