…I gotcha now…
Tiffany’s Ford Mustang Mach 1 Boss 429 Cobra – Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
In Diamonds Are Forever, 007 uses a Mustang Mach 1 to great effect to escape local law enforcement in a chase through the neon-lit streets of Las Vegas as well as sidewalks, and parking lots. The culmination of the chase sees James Bond drive into a narrow alley, only to flip the car onto two wheels and gracefully navigate the slender gap. The 351/429 Mach 1 Cobra was the perfect American muscle car for his first car chase on U.S. soil.
Tiffany Case first uses the Mustang to bring Bond to McCarren Airport in Las Vegas so he can follow a cache of smuggled diamonds further up the pipeline. After escaping from the W W Techtronics facility in the Nevada desert Bond is rescued by Tiffany waiting with the Mustang. 007 takes the wheel of the Mach 1, returns to Vegas, where the pair are pursued by Clark County Sheriff’s deputies and Vegas patrol officers who believe him to be a saboteur. Bond and the Mach 1out-fox the locals, and the resulting chaos lays waste to multiple patrol cars and scatters bystanders when 007 takes to the sidewalks of downtown Vegas. When cornered in a parking lot, Bond employs a car trailer to launch the Mach 1 over parked vehicles to escape. Bond’s luck seems to run out when he turns into a “dead end” alleyway, a passage too narrow for an automobile—cue the film’s famous two-wheeled stunt.
Inspiration for the ‘sidewall skiing’ stunt began when director Guy Hamilton saw the European stunt team—the Hell Drivers—balancing a car on two wheels on a BBC programme. Union rules restricted the producers using international stunt performers in America, so, instead, U.S. stunt drivers were used on certain shoots in Las Vegas and at Universal Studios. Ultimately, Hamilton was able to get one of the Hell Drivers to shoot the end of the stunt in Las Vegas. The records, memories, and theories abound as to the shot of the Mustang exiting the alley in Vegas on two wheels and why certain shots were used instead of others. Whatever the truth is, the exit shot Hamilton chose to use meant the Mustang entered the alley drivers-side-up and exited drivers-side-down.
Hamilton thought of a quick visual solution by shooting a tilting shot of Sean Connery and Jill St. John rocking from one side to the other to mask the continuity error. While few viewers noticed the incongruity upon the film’s release, it has since become one of the most famous bloopers in a James Bond film.
Unlike the Mercury Cougars purchased for OHMSS, the production did not order the Mustangs on spec. Instead, Ford supplied the producers with existing stock. The Ford Mustang Mach 1 was a mass-produced vehicle and without VIN numbers or even a confirmed number of participating cars, the hunt for the Diamonds Are Forever Mustang Mach 1s is a challenge. Guy Hamilton contends they had 3 cars but other eyewitnesses recall as many as 8. All had bright red exteriors, Vermillion red interiors, sport deck rear seats, tinted glass and with dual exhausts which meant they had either a 351C 4V or 429 engines.
The Mustang owned by the Ian Fleming Foundation (1F05J100066) had been left to decay throughout the 1980s and was purchased by a collector as a donor car in 1999. After obtaining a Marti Report which indicated its build date, the owner considered it had a possible connection to Diamonds Are Forever and decided not to break it for parts. He subsequently sold it to the Ian Fleming Foundation, who were confident they could prove its lineage to the film. But with such poor records, it may never be possible to confirm exactly what role it played.
Having acquired the car in 2003, the Foundation is seeking funds for a thorough restoration. Donations can be made HERE.