MERCURY RISING

This movie-star Mercury Cougar was driven by Mrs-Bond-to-be before reappearing on the Essex muscle-car scene, and has now been fully revived

- WORDS MATTHEW FIELD PHOTOGRAPHY JACK HARRISON

James Bond’s debonair but deadly Aston Martin DB5 launched the most successful product-placement partnership in movie history. Bond co-producer Harry Saltzman had also secured a deal with Ford to showcase its brand-new Mustang alongside the Aston in Goldfinger, in a cat-and-mouse chase through the Alps. The Mustang had only been unveiled a few weeks earlier, in April 1964, and the white convertible seen on film was one of the first in Europe. According to production designer Sir Ken Adam, Ford was far more generous than Aston Martin, and the relationship would continue well into the ’70s.

For 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Saltzman and producing partner Albert R ‘Cubby’ Broccoli were looking for a car to feature alongside the Aston DBS Vantage of their new James Bond, George Lazenby. They decided upon a ’69 Mercury Cougar Convertible XR-7. The movie opens with 007 chasing the Cougar along Portugal's Estoril coast. Bond rescues the Mercury’s driver, Countess Teresa di Vicenzo - aka Tracy (ex-The Avengers Diana Rigg) - from drowning, and he saves her again at the gaming tables of the Hotel Palacio.

Later during the film, Bond makes a daring escape on skis from Piz Gloria, Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s mountain-top fortress, to the village of Lauterbrunnen below. He is rescued by Tracy and they flee the village, pursued by SPECTRE agents. A hair-raising chase begins with both the Cougar and tailing Mercedes-Benz 220S negotiating the perilously icy roads. To lose the Benz, Tracy bursts into a stock-car race on ice and expertly handles the Cougar, bumping and ramming the competing vehicles - mostly Escort Mk1s. Ford board director Walter Hayes, who led the Blue Oval’s motorsport division, agreed to supply the Bond crew with 20 brand-new cars. Tracy outmanoeuvres the Mercedes, and they seek refuge from a blizzard in a barn, where Bond proposes to Tracy.