I’ve been a James Bond fan for as long as I can remember. It would probably be more impressive to say I started by watching the original Dr. No in the theater or playing Goldeneye on N64, but it was a rerun of the Timothy Dalton-helmed The Living Daylights on some random cable channel that first hooked me.

At the time I was probably seven or eight, so I didn’t completely grasp the concept of American-Soviet-Afghani relations, and the overall conceit of the film was a little lost on me. As was the now hilarious detail of the audience, in the end, rooting for James Bond to help a member of the Mujahideen (and likely future Taliban leader) escape prison.

I just knew that this totally kickass dude was driving this totally kickass Aston Martin across a frozen lake with a beautiful cellist in the passenger seat. I was hooked and I still am a complete sucker for a James Bond car. Now that I’m a little older and my tastes have evolved, slightly, I’ve come to appreciate that what makes a good Bond car, like a good Bond actor, is a little bit of pathos and a little bit of suffering.

My theory was put to the test at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. this summer at their special exhibition “Bond in Motion,” which features a number of cars from the films. While there were a lot of highlights, there was one car I couldn’t help but keep going back to and I think it illustrates what differentiated the great Bond moments from the merely entertaining ones.

The Briefest Bond/Bond Car History You’ll Ever Read

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If you’re coming to this story to read about James Bond cars I’m going to assume you know a little something about the topic, but in an effort to avoid any gatekeeping I will do my best to hit the main points quickly and share a little bit of extra history you might not know.

James Bond was the creation of Ian Fleming, who served in Britain’s Naval Intelligence Division during WWII and thus had the opportunity to meet a number of impressive spies and warriors, including Gus March-Phillips (in the film The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare you can see a fictionalized version of a young Fleming meeting March-Phillips in preparation for a complicated mission to disrupt Nazi subs) and Conrad O’Brien-ffrench.

After the war, Fleming combined the traits of many of these men with his own proclivities (cars, sex, booze) to create Bond. The character, codenamed 007, is a secret agent lothario with a license to kill and a desire to bed a beautiful woman in every UN member state as fast as possible. He’s a walking libido with a Walther PPK. This is a car site, so let’s focus on the cars. In the novels, Bond always drove a Bentley and worked his way up through various models. And, in fact, in From Russia With Love, a Bentley 3 1/2 Liter Drophead Coupe does indeed briefly appear, though is never driven.

There’s an oblique reference to this in Goldfinger, when Bond asks for his trusty Bentley and Q (aka the quartermaster, aka the gadget guy) explains that the car has “had its day” and that he’s under orders from the top to give 007 an Aston Martin DB5 loaded down with gun barrels behind the turn signals and an ejector seat. Seriously! It is the original and best spy car.

Bond has gone on to pilot a bunch of cars, ranging from the mundane (Ford Mondeo) to the comical (TukTuk), though the association will always be with Aston Martin.

A Room Full Of Bond Cars

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History has been kinder to The Living Daylights and, frankly, these movies have run for so long that you have to account for a little nostalgia when it comes to favorites. No Bond movie, even Moonraker, is that bad, and no Bond car, even the underutilized BMW Z3, is bad either.

The chase above sees Welsh-born actor Timothy Dalton replacing Roger Moore as Bond. There’s nothing wrong with Moore, but his films got to be a little over the top, and the character became almost superhuman. But it’s Bond’s humanness and fallibility that ultimately make him fun to watch.

Connery, I felt, always had the tough guy part of Bond nailed. Moore always got the dry humor of Bond. Dalton does an admirable job of trying to bring Bond somewhere in between. He’s strong, but not menacing, and can make you laugh without ever telling a joke.

I think the chase scene above perfectly captures this. The idea of a car – in this iteration of Bond, an Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante – completely disassembling a Czechoslovakian patrol car with a wheel-mounted laser is ridiculous but fun. The car isn’t impervious to damage, however, and even loses a tire whilst being fired upon with rocket-propelled grenades. Of course, Bond uses the disassembled wheel to cut a hole in the ice to trap another patrol car.

All the while Dalton gets off some classic Bond quips like “I’ve had a few optional extras installed” before firing off his own rockets.

The exhibit in D.C. has a range of cars, though it is a little more focused on cars from Moore’s films and those of Pierce Brosnan. This didn’t bother me too much as I learned that the Bath-o-Sub from Diamonds Are Forever is actually a George Barris creation which, when you look at it, makes perfect sense.

It’s also great to see movie cars up close because you can get a better sense of how they actually make all those amazing stunts happen. For instance, let’s all watch the famous “Frozen Lake Chase” showdown in Die Another Day between the Vanquish and Jaguar XKR.

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The fun of this chase is that, for once, the bad guy has a vehicle that’s almost as kitted out as Bond’s Aston Martin. Although, for some reason, the bad guy chose a convertible to be his official vehicle in an Icelandic ice base. Not a great choice!

Seeing the Jag up close my daughter and I marveled at the giant, GAU-like Gatling gun on the back:

Even better, a closer look at the Vanquish revealed a three-speed transmission and a handbrake necessary to pull off all of those sweet ice-drifts:

You can see more of the car in this Instagram reel. There were a lot of other interesting cars on display, of course, including the AMC Hornet from The Man With The Golden Gun and the Z8 from The World Is Not Enough.

There were two cars that did jump out to me, though, and that got me back to my original premise.

Imperfection Is What Makes A Perfect James Bond

George Lazenby is the weirdo James Bond. For one, he’s Australian, which is a member of the Commonwealth I suppose, but not usually where Bond is drawn from. His one film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, includes SPECTRE and the evil Blofeld. There are Bond Girls and Bond Cars.

There’s also real sadness and human consequence. The main Bond Girl is Diana Rigg’s Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo. On display in the Bond exhibit is her convertible Mercury Cougar ski car, which is a weird but excellent choice. Also, did you know the movie features a song from Burt Bacharach sung by Louis Armstrong?

Spoiler alert: James Bond gets married at the end of the film! But it doesn’t end well, which is all I’ll say. This is an interesting model for Bond and the one that I think Daniel Craig fulfills so well.

If I could only take one Bond film with me to an island it would be Casino Royale. The cast is incredible, including Jeffrey Wright, Dame Judi Dench, Mads Mikkelsen, and Eva Green as a Bond girl with a dark secret who is smart enough to see through 007’s poker face.

The film works on many levels, but I think two factors really reset the Bond franchise in a positive direction. First, Bond experiences pain. Not just the fleeting hindrance of a wound or temporary concussion. He gets his ass kicked. Second, there are few, if any, computer-generated effects in the film. Everything feels more visceral and real.

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Unlike other Bond films, his Aston Martin DBS doesn’t feature much in the way of gadgets other than an emergency kit to save his life and a place for his handgun. Also, unlike some other Bond films, the car gets absolutely wrecked. Somehow, MI6’s budget is big enough to support multiple DBS support cars so James Bond grabs another one to escape (see the film above) a bunch of bad guys in Alfa Romeos.

This is a fantastic chase and, yet again, it’s not Bond’s gadgets but his skill that are ultimately responsible for keeping him alive. Quantum of Solace is a good film, and while it may not be my favorite of the Craig-era, the opening scene is maybe the best modern Bond car chase.

Seeing the totally thrashed car in person was the highlight of the exhibit for me:

Just as James Bond suffering with the death of Vesper Lynd makes me care about Bond, somehow seeing an Aston Martin DBS treated like a losing $1 scratch-off lottery ticket makes me feel more invested in the world of the movie.

But that’s just me! If you love Bond stuff you can see the exhibit at Washington D.C.’s International Spy Museum for about $10 on top of your normal admission if you book in advance. If you love James Bond it’s totally worthwhile, and the rest of the museum is a must-see for a certain kind of nerd.

Full Disclosure: I reached out to the media arm to get photos and they comp’d me two passes to the exhibit.