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007 car heaven

Movie vehicles let group bond -- James Bond style -- with charity

By Luann Grosscup | Newsday Staff Writer

November 9, 2008

Doug Redenius, vice president of the Ian Fleming Foundation, with the Zao Jaguar and the Mercury Cougar Cobra Jet convertible driven by Contessa Tracy Di Vincenzo -- or do you call her Mrs. James Bond? -- in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." (Tribune photo by Michael Tercha / November 7, 2008)

While you may have done a double take if you saw James Bond's amped-up, weapon-laden jet boat zip along the Kankakee River, you did see the real deal: Bond's "Q" boat from "The World Is Not Enough."

But at the helm was Redenius, Doug Redenius, for a 9/11 anniversary regatta.

Redenius of rural Kankakee County is vice president of the Ian Fleming Foundation, which owns the boat, among nearly 40 vehicles from every Bond movie except "Dr. No" and "From Russia With Love."

Established in 1991, the Ian Fleming Foundation is a California-based charity comprising seven board members—one in Canada, two in Britain and the rest in the U.S.—who use their vehicles to help non-profits raise funds.

"If your charity is having a Bond-themed fundraiser, for example, we would provide a vehicle for a fee, or we'd provide them free of charge and we would get a small percentage of what you'd raise," said Redenius. "That amount then goes toward our operating budget.

"Our long-term goal is to establish a free-standing museum that raises funds that we can then donate toward a literary scholarship or a film student."

Beyond the cache in a Kankakee warehouse, eight others are in a museum in Britain. Redenius offered a look at some of his favorites:

1969 Mercury Cougar: "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"

"This car is from George Lazenby's only Bond movie," says Redenius. "We just bought this car from a private owner in Sweden. In the realm of Cougar fans, this car is the Holy Grail. It's a rare 428 Cobra jet convertible, and it was a very prominent car in the Bond movie. It started out in the beginning as Diana Rigg's car when you see her driving to the beach." Rigg played the Contessa Tracy Di Vincenzo, the only "Bond girl" to become Mrs. James Bond.

Jaguar XKR: "Die Another Day"

"It's been converted to four-wheel-drive," said Redenius. "This is one of four cars from the film that performed a separate function. When you see the villain chasing Pierce Brosnan in the Aston Martin, it was done in this car. There was an awful lot of spinning and sliding, so that's what the handbrake that was added is for, to lock up all four [wheels]." Additionally, the car had to work at 40 degrees below zero as much of the filming was done on an Arctic glacier, so it has special equipment to keep the workings from icing up.

Mustang Mach I 429 Cobra jet: "Diamonds Are Forever"

The red Mustang driven by Sean Connery in Las Vegas is a work in progress. But what do you expect from a car that had to squeeze between two buildings basically on its side? "We found this car in terrible condition in Plano, Texas, and it's our plan to restore it from the frame up," says Redenius, adding that most of their vehicles are donated though they did pay $75,000 for the Cougar. "It's likely going to run about $40,000 to rebuild it. Ideally, we would like to take this process to one of the car rebuilding shows on TV. We could help them restore it from the ground up and could provide film clips and blueprints of the original car."

Q boat: "The World Is Not Enough"

"The movie producers want you to think it's the same vehicle throughout the movie, and that's the way films are made," says Redenius. "In 'The World Is Not Enough' there were actually multiples of the Q boat. There's a scene from the movie where Pierce is in the Q boat and he grabs the dive levers and dives underwater. The boat that we have here [the one Redenius took out on the Kankakee River] is the one that did the spiral jump, and we didn't have the dive levers on this boat. But we rebuilt it to exact specifications because we take it to boat shows. We're not adding anything that would change the integrity of what it was used for in the movie."

Lockheed Martin VC- 140B Jet Star: "Goldfinger"

One of four models used in the 1964 film, it is painted differently on each side to depict two planes—flown by Pussy Galore. The Ian Fleming Foundation purchased the model from a private collector. "It's 44 years old, and historically, this is a really cool piece," says Redenius.

Bath-o-sub: "Diamonds Are Forever"

"This is the sub that Blofeld, the villain, actually gets into," says Redenius. "There were two versions of the sub built for the movie. The first was filled with concrete and used to batter the control room during a battle sequence. This one didn't have to function, but it had a canopy that opened. We recently found out that [renowned car customizer] George Barris designed this, and that just catapulted the value of this thing right through the roof."

Glastron chase boat: "Live and Let Die"

"This is the boat Roger Moore used to jump over the police car in the chase scene in Louisiana," says Redenius. The jump of 120 feet was assisted by a 135 h.p. Evinrude outboard motor.

Neptune submarine:"For Your Eyes Only"

"It's an actual wet submersible that you see in much of the film," said Redenius. "It was operated by stunt men using scuba gear. This was the vehicle that was actually the impetus for starting the foundation after we purchased it from its owner in New York."