No Baddies in Sight

No Baddies

in Sight By Tom Malcolm Images: Classic & Sports Car, Tom Malcolm

My wife and I were on holiday in North Yorkshire when a familiar ping had me reaching for my phone to read an incoming email. The message was from Club chairman Martyn Goodwin, asking if any member owning a blue Z3 would be willing to help out Classic & Sports Car magazine. They were planning a photo shoot for a feature on iconic James Bond cars and needed to borrow a Z3 to complete the trio of BMW cars that featured in the film GoldenEye. The Bondistas among you will recall that Pierce Brosnan was in the lead role in that particular film. But Martyn’s message went on to explain that not just any blue Z3 would do. To be faithful to the car in the film, it would have to be the same Atlanta Blue colour, have the beige leather interior and feature the four-cylinder 1.9-litre engine under the bonnet. “That’s my car Martyn’s describing” I told my wife. Within a few minutes a response was on its way saying that I was willing to make my car available.

I didn’t have long to wait for a response. Next morning, bright and early, Martyn called me thanking me for replying so promptly. He saw from the photos I had sent him that my car, built in January 1997 and with only 56,000 miles on the clock, was a sparkling example of the Z3 and wouldn’t disappoint the magazine editor. “I’ll forward your details to the magazine and you’ll hear from them shortly” Martyn explained.

Next thing I knew I was being contacted by Ben Barry, a hugely-

experienced automotive freelance writer who explained that he had been commissioned to write the feature and checked the date for the shoot was okay with me. It was. In return for making my car available, I would be reimbursed for my fuel and Dartford Crossing costs. Plus, I would have the thrill of seeing it in the pages of the magazine.

Now I have to declare at this point that I had a fair idea of how the day would work. Before retiring I worked in the public relations department of Ford Motor Company for over 25 years and also Vauxhall and Opel. During that time I had been involved in many a photoshoot, both on behalf of my employers and also accompanying our cars on shoots being conducted by magazines and TV shows. To the uninitiated they seem extremely glamorous, but to those who worked on them regularly they were hard work. Leaving aside the challenges of organising the event – location, photographers, cars, support team, special rigs, etc. Inevitably there were never enough hours in the day to complete everything that needed to be shot and this pressure took the stress up to another level. But strangely, all the drama faded away whenever we saw the end result of our efforts. On this occasion however I had it easy. All I had to do was turn up and have someone photograph my car. What was there to stress about?

How about making sure the car ran perfectly? Needless to say, it was and has never let me down in four years of ownership. It would be spotlessly clean

when it left my garage but would it be good enough to photograph when I arrived at the shoot location, especially if it rained? And, God forbid, would it be unscathed after running the gauntlet of the M25 dodgem course? Aah, the stress!

Wind forwards a couple of weeks and I’m pulling up alongside the security lodge at the entrance to the Dunsfold aerodrome just outside Guildford. If that name sounds familiar, it is probably because you recognise it as the home of BBC’s Top Gear programme for a number of years. The C&SC editorial team had booked it for the day’s photo fest, the privacy it afforded being invaluable to a successful outcome.

The period leading up to the shoot day had been wet and overcast, exactly what the C&SC folks would not want. They needn’t have worried. The fates had been kind and the weather was warm and dry for the duration of our stay at Dunsfold. My car had survived its excursion along the M25, a wrong slot in Guildford and the country lanes leading up to the aerodrome. As always, it ran just beautifully.

The very helpful security guard directed me to the part of the aerodrome being used by C&SC, which just happened to be the main runway. What a sensation that was driving down a runway, especially one which had become so familiar thanks to the antics of the Top Gear team. Making the situation even more surreal was the sight of several huge aircraft parked up, for good, on a former taxiway but completely accessible to us and our cars.

This was when I met writer Ben for the first time, not far from where a second C&SC team was working with an official Aston Martin DB5 recreation of the James Bond car. Not cheap at over £3 million should you wish for one. All gadgets included, apparently. I didn’t ask for the Aston Martin department’s phone number. But the car did look and sound glorious.

Ben introduced me to the magazine’s chief photographer, John Bradshaw, who would be working with our cars today. For John and I it was a chance to say hello again, as we had met on many motor industry occasions during my working years. Back then he was a respected snapper for Autocar and What Car? magazines. Ben explained that the James Bond feature the magazine was working on would be a 27-page whopper. And they had just four weeks from today to turn it all around before that issue was due in the shops. Sadly, not all of the 27 pages were to be devoted to either my car or BMW. In addition to the Aston Martin DB5, a couple of Lotus Esprits had also been working hard in front of the cameras that day at Dunsfold.

But I was delighted to learn that for the BMW element of the James Bond coverage my car would be joining an absolutely stunning E38 750iL belonging to serial BMW collectors, father and son, Tav Sing and Gurdave Rehsi. This car, complete with every option you could possibly imagine, had only been in their ownership for a few weeks. It’s difficult to find enough superlatives to describe their 750iL.

I suppose the best compliment – and

I heard this from a few people that day, myself included – is “I would love one like that”. Mind you, I wouldn’t be too keen on the £160 needed to fill the fuel tank with super unleaded. Last but very much not least was BMW UK’s very own Z8 wearing its distinctive 25 BMW number plate. Such a regal looking car, resplendent in its silver coachwork with beautiful black and red leather interior. How refreshing of BMW to loan the car out for a job like this. Not all manufacturers who have heritage vehicle fleets are willing to do the same.

If you’ve never been on a photo shoot like this you would be amazed – exhausted even – by the amount of preparation and care which goes into each shot. By my own reckoning, for every photograph which appeared in the magazine, John must have taken at least 20-30 which didn’t make the cut. His skills didn’t only relate to his prowess behind the lens. As expected, my own car had gathered some dust, dirt and dead insect marks on my journey around the M25. I had gone prepared with a stash of cleaning materials tucked away in the boot. But before I could reach them John had already gathered up his own cleaning cloths and had the Z3 spotless once more.

After some individual work with each car, carefully photographing the exteriors and interiors, John had the three cars line up together in arrowhead formation for what were called tracking shots. This is where he photographs the cars as they drive around the circuit from another moving vehicle. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But when you are virtually door handle to door handle, even at 20mph, it really is quite nerve-wracking. It’s not good form to bump into someone else’s car, particularly one as original, gorgeous and loved as Tav and Gurdave’s 7 Series or £250,000-worth of BMW Z8.

The other possible challenge to overcome was avoiding driving over the photographer should he fall out of the tracking car during our laps. To take the photographs, John was lying face

down inside the load compartment of a Ford Mondeo estate being driven by his editor Alistair Clements. Somehow John managed to holler instructions to us drivers, hold the camera, frame the shot, focus, and click the shutter button… all without falling out of the Mondeo! I am pleased. No, relieved to say no photographers were harmed in the taking of these photos.

Then Ben took each of the three cars in turn to gain his own driving impressions while John took more photographs as they were driven around the aerodrome. I had handed Ben my keys and seen him drive off in the Z3 before it dawned on me that the only other person to have driven my car during my ownership was my wife. And here I was passing it over to a complete stranger. When he came back, Ben was very complimentary about my roadster which pleased me no end. The culmination of the day was when John took a static group photograph of our BMW star cars and, I have to say, it is my favourite one. By a combination of careful positioning, a fine eye for detail and clever use of filters, C&SC’s chief photographer created what is my favourite photograph of the day. A stunner.

After some four hours of fascinating action, the magazine had all the BMW photographs it needed and it was time for me and the Z3 to hit the road and head home.

Four weeks later the Greatest Bond Cars issue of Classic & Sports Car was on the newsstands and I cannot begin to explain the excitement I felt when I turned the pages of the copies I purchased. One to read and one to keep with the car’s history file. And there they were: my Z3, Tav and Gurdave’s 750iL and the Z8 in all their glory in the pages of the magazine. They looked terrific and Ben had done an equally thrilling job with the words. Social media messages from me to family and friends up and down the country resulted in even more copies of the magazine being sold.

My day at Dunsfold had been a fascinating experience, blessed with good weather and an opportunity to really appreciate once again the amount of hard work and skill that goes into producing a magazine feature. The C&SC team members were really grateful to us owners for helping them out and, to show their appreciation for the help given by our club, you will find a web link to their BMW feature alongside my story here in Straight Six. Enjoy it. You never know, next time it could be your car being featured.

You can find the full feature, along with extra images, in the October 2021 issue of Classic & Sports Car magazine, or view the article online at www. classicandsportscar.com/features/bondsbmws-z3-z8-and-750il-track