Although Aston Martin remains James Bond's car of choice, the new Mondeo is the first car to appear in the film as Bond uses it to drive to a hotel after arriving in the Bahamas on the trail of a terrorist cell. We're delighted to be part of this exciting new 'Bond' project," said Stephen Odell, Ford of Europe VP for Marketing Sales/Service. Fitted with a sports bodykit and finished in 'Tonic Blue', the new Mondeo vehicle was constructed by hand at Ford of Europe's Design Studio in Cologne, Germany, January, 2006. The car was then shipped under secrecy to the filming location in the Bahamas. The new Mondeo was essentially still on the drawing board when we were asked to supply the vehicle for filming in February 2006," said Martin Smith, Ford of Europe's Executive Director for Design. As volume production for the car doesn't start until the second quarter of 2007, we had to create a driveable model based around a design studio property. A team of craftsmen in Ford's Merkenich Design Studio near Cologne, worked night and day for several weeks to complete the car and make it driveable." This team normally builds the clay and fiberglass models of all of our future products, so they are used to demanding timeframes and making full-scale models look like real vehicles," Smith added.Despite the speed with which it was constructed, and the non-standard materials that were used to build it, the Design team was determined to make the car look suitable for the role. "We wanted the property to be fully representative of a top-of-the-range new Mondeo," Smith added. "The end result is so convincing that you would never know its origins, and we even added a unique body kit to the vehicle to emphasise its sporty and dynamic design.
