…if you see a mad professor in a minibus just smile…
While investigating Willard Whyte’s W. W. Techtronics Plant in the Nevada desert, Bond is forced to make an escape in a Moon Buggy it’s no surprise that the pursuing patrol cars are quickly destroyed by the rugged landscape.
Enter security guards on 3-wheel all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) to join the pursuit. One of the Honda US90s makes a leap and lands badly. Having abandoned the Moon Buggy, 007 commandeers the ATV and continues his escape, while the hapless Moon Buggy autopilots away as a decoy. While 007 looks far from comfortable on the ATV, he successfully escapes and is rescued by Tiffany Case and her Mustang Mach 1.
When Honda delivered the US90s (as they were named in 1971) to the production office in Las Vegas, the stunt team could not believe their eyes. At the time there was nothing like it on the market, and to many, these seemed like comic motorized tricycles. After a scornful initiation, the stuntmen devised a makeshift track at the gypsum plant location, to test them. They quickly mastered the US90s, although they were painfully easy to flip over When a rider was tasked with jumping a wide gully, the safety team lined up cardboard boxes to cushion the landing. The Honda US90 jumped 40 feet past them! Thankfully, no one was hurt.
The product placement worked a dream, with cinema exhibitors and Honda marketeers.
At least one of the screen-used Hondas was brought back to the UK for studio work. This US90 was acquired by the Ian Fleming Foundation in 2008 from a toy dealer who had nabbed it at auction The Foundation had been aware of it for many years following an article in the James Bond Collector’s Club magazine that reported the Honda belonged to a club member who had procured it from a production technician.
Not mechanically functioning, and in some disrepair, Foundation volunteers set about professionally repainting it to the correct shade of green and replaced the tires back to the same style seen in the film - which are rare and difficult to locate. The bike’s provenance can be identified by damage to the front fender, which can be screen matched.
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