Duran Duran Appreciation Day: Top five car-related moments

Here's the top five potentially car-related links to the British synthpop superstars whose music stands the test of time far better than their 80s fashion choices did. It’s impossible to resits. A reflex, perhaps.

Comments are on, so even if you’re not a Duranie… please tell me now, is there something I should know?

Bon, Simon Le Bon. A cheesy 1985 film clip fronted Duran Duran’s famous song A View to a Kill, the sound track to the 14th Bond instalment featuring Roger Moore.  The most notable car scene from the British spy films now synonymous with exotic cars, is when dinner-suit clad Bond commandeers a Renault 11 taxi in pursuit of a parachuting Grace Jones. The Renault’s roof is sliced off by a boom gate, shortly before the rear end of the car is complete ripped off. Very Bond.

In 2015 Simon Le Bon completed Le Tour Auto in a 1950 Jaguar XK120. The European tour consists of around 220 vehicles that travel (up to 4000km) across France taking part in track-based timed events along the way. In this, its 24th running, the route took drivers through from Paris to Biarritz.

The band’s 10th studio album Pop Trash was released in 2000 (their first without John Taylor). It was not a huge success. The album cover however, was. It featured a rhinestone-encrusted car that belongs to Las Vegas showman Liberace.  One of many cars-turned-art pieces, Liberace boasts a lavish garage of cars every bit as flamboyant as the entertainer himself.  The Pop Trash cover featured Liberace’s Swarovsky-crystal covered Duesenberg Roadster. It matched one of his pianos.

A single from the 1982 Rio album, The Chauffer song struck a chord not only with hard core Duranies, but music lovers the world over. The lyrics were born from a poem written by Simon Le Bon pre Duran Duran days. And the film clip… it’s black and white, moody and sensuous, depicting a woman’s journey to a raunchy rendezvous in an Austin Princess Limousine that is sadly upstaged by corsets, garter belts and artful boob displays.

Simon Le Bon has been spotted in a variety of cars over the years; a Citroen DS, a classic MINI Cooper, but perhaps the most spectacular was his 1989 Aston Martin V8 Zagato Volante, just one of 37 examples ever made. Its angular body and squared off grille is a far cry from the Aston Martins of today. The drop top 5.3-litre V8 has changed hands many times since Le Bon and last went under the hammer in 2011, fetching just over $152,000.

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