Huge exhibition celebrating 50 years of James Bond comes to Beaulieu

James Bond fans are in for a treat at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu this year. From 17th January, right through to December 2012, a collection of no fewer than 50 Bond vehicles will be on display to the public.

The exhibition – titled 'Bond in Motion' – is claimed to be the largest of its kind staged anywhere in the world, and celebrates the 50th year of James Bond films.

Among the vehicles on show will be several that have never been seen in public before, including the Ford Mustang Mach 1 from Diamonds Are Forever, the villainous Zukovsky’s Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II from <The World Is Not Enough and the 1962 Rolls-Royce pushed into a lake by May Day and Zorin (with Bond still inside), in A View to a Kill.  

It’s not all cars, though. Among the exhibits are the ‘Burial-At-Sea Bed’ from You Only Live Twice, the Union Jack parachute used by baddie Gustav Graves when he landed on The Mall and the surfboard with concealed weapons and ammunition from Die Another Day. Also on display will be the original ‘Pig’ from The Living Daylights, used to smuggle Koskov through the Siberian pipeline.

While you’re at the Beaulieu museum (which is itself celebrating an anniversary this year – its 40th), you can also enjoy the 250-odd vehicles telling the story of cars on the roads of Britain from the dawn of motoring to the present day. Beaulieu’s own exhibits also include historic racing cars, modern rally cars and the latest F1 machines, not to mention World Land Speed Record-breakers.

The museum is open every day except Christmas Day, from 10am. Call 01590 612345 or see www.beaulieu.co.uk for more details.

Photograph: Bond throws his Mustang Mach 1 onto two wheels to drive down an alley, in Diamonds Are Forever (1971).