The James Bond franchise loves some good car action and sometimes manages to push the envelope for car stunts. There’s one moment in the franchise that’s especially silly, but we can crank up the funny even further.
Jason wrote about when henchman Jaws beat up a poor Sherpa in the film The Spy Who Loved Me. I’ve never heard of this scene before, so I need to watch some old Bond. Anyway, Ash78 has some funny ideas:
If you want more car action, you need to go deeper into the Bond Catalog — you could try On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Department, Volkwagen Quantum of Solace, No Time to Daihatsu, Diamantes Are Forever, and the epic love letter to TVR, Tamora Never Dies.
In other news, police departments are scooping up V8 Ford Mustangs to chase the goobers who drive recklessly for clout. Abdominal Snoman:
David wrote about how unsafe brakes used to be. Autonerdery has an edge-of-your-seat story:
Back when I was in high school, I worked weekends and holidays at Legoland. The employee parking lot at the time was—maybe still is, I don’t know—accessed at the top of a steep hill, at the bottom of which was a busy, six-lane road (Palomar Airport Road).
Leaving at the end of a shift one day in my ’65 Corvair, I only discovered after turning out of the lot and starting my downhill descent that I had no brakes. Again, I am hurtling down the hill toward a major road, gaining speed at an alarming rate. The car’s an automatic, so engine braking wasn’t really on the menu. Thankfully, I had a green light and clear road ahead when I reached the bottom of the hill, and my little green deathtrap flew into a left turn onto Palomar Airport Road, me clinging to the skinny plastic steering wheel in terror.
A mile or so down the road, I pulled into a gas station and was able to time it right to pull into a parking spot in front of the mini-mart and pull the hand brake to bring it to a stop. Pop open my single-pot master cylinder—fortunately easy to access in the trunk, just below the base of the windshield—and, of course, it was dry as a bone.
Fun times. But, here we are more than 20 years later, and the car still has its original single-circuit master cylinder, so I guess I learned nothing.