Christmas is coming, and you can guarantee we’ll all spend part of it watching at least one James Bond car chase we’ve seen a dozen times before. But who remembers the chase involving this Mercury Cougar convertible in George Lazenby’s only Bond outing, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service?
The Cougar might not be the most famous Bond car, and as far as we can remember, Bond doesn’t even drive it – he’s in the passenger seat while Diana Rigg’s Tracy Draco causes mayhem at the ice race.
But it’s hugely important for one reason: Bond pops the question for the first and only time in his philandering life in this very car, and now Bonhams is offering it for sale, where it’s expected to fetch between £100-150,000.
The Mercury Cougar was the Ford Mustang’s more upmarket cousin and this is one of three ordered by Eon Productions for use in the 1969 Bond film that also starred Kojak’s Telly Savalas as super-villain, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Being a sporty XR7 model it comes with a massive V8 engine, in this case, the optional 428cu in (7-litre) Cobra Jet producing 335bhp according to the old SAE rating system – more like 280bhp in new money.
The current owner acquired it in June 1990 after the previous owner had advertised it in Exchange & Mart the previous month, incredibly making no mention of the car’s Hollywood connection in his wording.
Since then, the Cougar has undergone a ground-up restoration that involved stripping the car bare, and repainting it in the original Candy Apple Red. The convertible top and interior were re-trimmed, and the monster 7-litre V8 and automatic transmission were treated to rebuilds.
And the build is finished off with the ski rack and a set of vintage Kneissl skis, just like the ones strapped to the Cougar in the film.
Those raised white letter tyres have covered just 20 miles since the restoration so the car is in perfect condition. It’s certainly in better shape than the identical Cougar used for the ice-racing scene, which was reportedly so badly damaged during shooting it was scrapped.
Bonham's appropriately-named Bond Street Sale takes place on December 16.
Keyword: Mrs James Bond’s Mercury Cougar heads for the auction block