Roger Moore’s Bond cars: the Hornet, the Lotii, or the Citroen?

Images courtesy Internet Movie Car Database.

With the news that actor Roger Moore died earlier today in Switzerland at 89, we can think of no better way to memorialize him than to consider his best Bond car: a 1974 AMC Hornet X.

Of all the actors to have played Bond, Moore is the only one not to have spent any screen time (as Bond) in an Aston Martin. Instead, over a seven-film stretch, Moore is perhaps best known for a parade of atypical Bond cars, including probably more American cars than any other period in Bond history.

The Hornet – as depicted in 1974’s “The Man With the Golden Gun” – came about through a product placement deal with American Motors that also placed a Matador coupe and sedans (as well as an entire AMC dealership) in a Bangkok car chase scene that culminated in a version of Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory’s Astro-Spiral Jump, previously done with an AMC Javelin.

If we’re to go by one of the publicity shots for the AMC product placement deal, however, Moore seemed less than thrilled about the tie-in.

Moore’s previous outing as Bond in 1973’s “Live and Let Die” involved plenty of Chevrolets – including Bond in an Impala and Kanaga’s Corvorado – but for sheer lunacy there was the Citroen 2CV from 1981’s “For Your Eyes Only,” a car that could apparently survive multiple rollovers and a ramble down a Spanish olive orchard.

And while Moore as Bond never got into an Aston or a BMW, Q did provide him with at least a couple Lotuses. The same “For Your Eyes Only” featured two Lotus Esprits, surely brought back to the franchise after the Esprit that featured in the Sardinia car chase in “The Spy Who Loved Me” turned into a submarine to finish off that chase.

Of course, Moore shared screen time with plenty of other cars both within and without his time as Bond. He did drive an Aston in “The Persuaders,” and, of course, there was the Volvo in “The Saint.” Which do you find most memorable?