James Bond has driven a variety of cars during his long tenure as the world’s most famous secret agent.
Some of the more notable ones include the Lotus Esprit S1, which swam in The Spy Who Loved Me; the gorgeous ice-skating Aston Martin V12 Vanquish in Die Another Day; and the missile-firing BMW Z3 in GoldenEye.
The appearance of the BMW was regarded by many as one of the greatest examples of product placement in movies in recent years. After all, Bond cars feature large in the movies, and 007 has always been associated with Aston Martins.
That particular Z3 may have the armament worthy of a tank, but it was lacking in one area – performance.
While Bond could have blown most of his enemies into smithereens with its weapons, he would not have been able to run away from them when the bullets and missiles run out.
However, if his Z3 had the mods that the yellow one you see here has, that would not have been a problem at all. He could even outrun the powerful French Tiger helicopter prominently featured in the movie (although that was probably not a case of product placement).
Swathed in a new coat of Dakar Yellow, which was also the colour of the E36 BMW M3, this Z3 packs nearly as many horses as the said M3, which had 286bhp.
Engine-wise, the 2.2-litre engine has been blueprinted and juiced up with HIOP cams and headers, Brisk spark plugs, Okada direct-ignition coils, BMC-CDA carbon fibre air intake and a Sebring exhaust muffler that “sings” with every prod of the throttle.
With the engine now better than new, the standard ECU was re-programmed to accommodate these mods with the E-ROM tuning software, while on a rolling dynamometer. This ensured that the maximum possible performance gains are realised. And the dyno run results proved just that – maximum power is 252bhp and maximum torque is 321Nm.
Self-timed runs have seen this roadster zip through the century sprint in around six seconds, and high-speed 240km/h jaunts up the North-South highway are as non-fussed as can be.
Expectedly, the Z3 isn’t the most rigid car in the world. But considering this is an eight-year-old vintage, it still feels relatively tight, with scuttle shake only apparent when driven over badly pockmarked roads.
To beef up its handling further, a set of H&R anti-roll bars and lowering springs were installed. This resulted in a slight deterioration of ride comfort, but the greatly improved road manners during fast cornering made the sacrifice worthwhile.
And speaking of road manners, the original, weedy 16-inch wheels were ditched in favour of a set of forged and extremely light 18-inch Prodrive GC07 units.
These seven-spoke beauties not only reduce rolling weight substantially but their more generous offset means a greater space for larger brake systems – like the Stoptech four pot brake calipers which measure almost four inches thick. The front discs measure some 332mm to handle the abuse.
Despite all the hardcore modifications, the car has one important quality that every worthy secret agent’s vehicle should possess – stealth. Of course, that thin veil quickly goes away when Bond floors the pedal and leave some angry tyre marks.
+ EXTERIOR
BMW Performance carbon fibre emblems
+ ENGINE/ELECTRONICS
Setrab oil cooler
Brisk LGS Silver spark plugs
BMC-CDA carbon fibre air intake system
E-ROM Tuning software programme
Sebring 76mm twin exhaust muffler
HIOP High-Performance cams & headers
Okada Plasma direct-ignition coils
+ GEARBOX/DRIVETRAIN
Cooltec ATF cooler
+ SUSPENSION/HANDLING
H&R anti-roll bars & lowering springs
+ WHEELS/BRAKES
Prodrive 18-Inch Gunmetal GC07 Forged Alloy Wheels
Stoptech BBK Yellow 4-pot callipers & cross-drilled 332mm discs (front), cross-drilled replacement discs (rear)
