James Bond may be irretrievably linked to Aston Martins, the DB5 in particular, but he's driven quite a number of other vehicles during his 50-year movie career.
Unloved orphans like the AMC Matador may not have been high points of the Bond oeuvre.
But the sleek, sexy Japanese sports car he drove in 1967 in You Only Live Twice turns out to be rarer than a number of Aston Martin models.
Bond actually drove a convertible version--an adaptation of the production Toyota 2000GT two-door coupe--that was never offered to the public.
Now a 1967 Toyota 2000GT, immaculately restored, has gone under the hammer at RM Auctions for a remarkable $1.15 million.
Not bad for a mid-Sixties Toyota, eh?
The 2000GT was always intended to be a halo car for the brand, perhaps roughly similar to today's Nissan GT-R performance coupe.
In its day, it was compared to the iconic Jaguar E-Type, but unlike that car, just 351 were built--and only 59 of those with left-hand drive.
The car sold at auction had been part of the Don Davis Collection, and was an original U.S.-market export car.
It had been extensively restored, including stripping the body to bare metal and repainting it in the original Bendix Yellow.
