Products tied to James Bond don’t tend to be cheap. There are £120 whiskey tumblers, £700 headphones and £380 cashmere jumpers, all featuring 007 branding.
Then of course there are the cars. And while Aston Martin has offered its fair share of Bond-branded runabouts over the years – crowned by a DB5 with all the gadgets for a cool £3m – we’ve found a much cheaper way to get yourself behind the wheel of a Bondmobile.
It’s called the Mini Moke and, well…it’s an EV buggy with a top speed of 25 mph and a range of about 40 miles. Priced at $29,975 (about £23,500), this isn’t a car to outrun the bad guys while launching rockets, turning invisible and dispatching henchmen with an ejector seat. But it is a legitimate Bond car, having featured in four 007 films.
These include You Only Live Twice (1967), Live And Let Die (1973), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979). So it really does have 007 pedigree, and the world’s most famous spy has driven Mini Mokes almost as often as he’s slipped behind the wheel of an Aston Martin.
The regular Mini Moke – the one without all the 007 badges and beautiful wooden steering wheel – was the 1960s brainchild of Alec Issigonus, who after penning the original Mini wanted to top the same chassis with a more utilitarian body. The result was a sort of budget, miniaturised Land Rover with a simple design and a raised ride height helping it scamper across all sorts of terrain. The plan was for the Moke to act as a military vehicle, but these days you’re more likely to see one buzzing along a California beach or ferrying guests around exclusive hotel resorts.
The Moke name still exists and a company produces electric versions, with loads of colours, interiors and customisation options available. The Bond version celebrates 60 years of James Bond (which actually happened in 2022, but it’s still available today) and features midnight blue paintwork, tan seats and matching ‘Bimini’ fabric roof, a lovely ‘mango tree’ wooden dashboard and a whole bunch of 007 logos.
It’s a thoroughly charming little thing and we can see it being a lot of fun in climates balmier than that of the UK. It would certainly look at home in Jamaica, where Bond creator Ian Flemming tapped away at his typewriter, or perhaps a volcano enthusiast/professional baddie could use it to whizz about their secret lair.
