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Discovered spying on Colonel Moon’s Ice Palace, James Bond retreats to his Aston Martin Vanquish using its adaptive camouflage to make the car all but invisible. A guard on a snowmobile slams into the car at speed, alerting Tang Lin Zao to its presence. Zao takes off in pursuit of the fleeing 007 in his Jaguar XKR convertible. He employs a rear mounted M134 Minigun to cause the Vanquish’s camouflage system to fail. The chase across the ice field becomes a battle of wits and weapons systems, each canceling out the other. They ultimately face off inside Moon’s Ice Palace, at that moment being melted by the Icarus satellite’s heat beam. The Aston Martin’s camouflage now working again, Bond lures Zao to attempt to ram the Vanquish with the Jaguar’s spikes. But the Aston has moved, plunging the XKR and Zao into icy waters.
A Gatling gun mounted centrally behind the seats, missiles firing from the front grilles, rocket launchers in the doors and mortars in the boot. No less than eight XKRs were used for filming, all of which were formerly Jaguar Cars engineering development fleet vehicles that were converted by Jaguar’s own Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) in conjunction with Pinewood Studios’ in-house special effects team
Shot on the ice lakes of Iceland, the complexity of the filming makes this one of the most remarkable car chases of all time. Using spike-studded tires on both cars, the cars were re-fitted with full 4-wheel drive systems to make the chase possible. That entailed replacing the v12 in the Aston with a smaller engine, allowing the props to fit in the engine bay.
A total of eight Jaguars were provided by Jaguar’s engineering department. Four were standard drive cars with cosmetics added like the rear mounted but hidden M134 mini gun, which performs similar to a gatling gun. Chris Corbould’s special effects team with Jaguar’s Special Vehicle Operations department worked together to convert the other four into all-wheel drive system suitable for the rigors of filming on the ice. The Jaguar engine was removed, replaced with a smaller Mustang engine and transmission and a Ford Explorer suspension and drive system.
Zao’s armory include the minigun, mortar bombs fired from the boot, missiles fired from a panel on either side door, rockets hidden behind the front grill, thermal imaging and radar, and front-projecting ramming spikes.
Some cars were destroyed in the filming, but most survived. The IFF proudly maintains one on loan from the Jaguar Heritage Trust. This car remains drivable and is fitted with the rear-mounted machine gun, thankfully, a non-operational resin prop! This Jaguar also fired missiles at the front grill. Compressed air fed through tubes under the car shoot the missiles. This XKR is also fitted with special effect weapon mounts in the boot. The engine compartment and inside the boot are studios stamped Jag 4.
Another thing that makes those cars special is the shade of green they are painted, the color reserved for Jaguar Formula One racing team.
Aiding the Jaguar XKR in pursuit of Bond are Bombadier REV800 MXZ snowmobiles, two of which are also owned by the IFF.
Another of the cars featured in the Queens Platinum Jubilee in 2022.
The IFF has taken care of the Heritage Jaguar since 2008 and has maintained it in working order.
More information is available here.