Information about James Bond movies is everywhere on the internet. But one car that even the hardest of Bond fans seem to have missed is the Mini Moke based buggy that can be seen (briefly) in Moonraker (1979). As far as I know it was the Mini derivative to feature in a James Bond movie, with the car being used in the secret headquarters of Bond villain Sir Hugo Drax. The scene is set in Brazil but it was actually filmed at the Pinewood Studios in London.
Based on a British-built Mini Moke, the car was made specifically for the movie and designed by Ken Adam, who’d also designed the famous gadgets on Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 and his submarine Lotus Esprit, as well as several spacey film settings for Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The body was supposedly made in plywood and used a huge Perspex windscreen. The whereabouts of the car are unknown but at least the design sketches survive.
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The Mini Moke based vehicle as featured in Moonraker with Roger Moore
Picture: Internet Movie Car Database imcdb.com
This is a sketch for the vehicle by film production designer Ken Adams
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Adams had been responsible for a number of 'made-for-movie' vehicles also
Picture Jeroen Booij archive