Sir Roger's star cars

This week brought the sad news of actor Sir Roger Moore's death at the age of 89.

Probably best remembered as James Bond in Eon Productions' films of the 1970s and early 80s, he also played the roles of Simon Templar in The Saint and Lord Brett Sinclair in The Persuaders. Between his Templar and Bond gigs, Sir Roger appeared in a little remembered film titled The Man Who Haunted Himself.

Whether as Bond up on the big screen, or Templar and Sinclair on television, Moore quickly became associated with the sports and performance cars that essentially starred with him.

We've looked through Moore’s body of work to list five automotive icons forever linked to the quintessential British actor. They're not necessarily the cars remembered for the best stunts – for instance the AMC Hornet which jumped the bridge in The Man with the Golden Gun – they're just cars with panache and great looks to match the man himself.

Lamborghini Islero S (The Man Who Haunted Himself)
Overshadowed by the Miura, the Islero is nonetheless a bona fide V12-powered Lamborghini. It was the successor to Lambo’s 400GT model and boasted significant improvements in a number of areas. In the film, the Islero turns up as the ride for Moore's evil/amoral doppelganger, released to walk the earth after the film's principal character is brought back to life following a clinical death on the operating table. The film is sort of Sliding Doors meets Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Moore’s ‘good’ character drives a thoroughly boring six-cylinder Rover P5…let us not speak of that again.

Lotus Esprit (The Spy Who Loved Me)
Perhaps most memorable of all the Moore cars is the 'amphibious' Lotus. Certainly the Esprit was not the sort of car audiences associated with Bond, who usually drove around in Bentley Continentals (in the books) or Aston Martins (when played by Moore's predecessor, Sean Connery). Yet the Lotus sports car was undeniably an element that helped lift this movie above the earlier Moore films in the Bond genre. The thrilling car chase sequence, filmed in Italy in Costa Smeralda and Sassari, Sardinia, was capped by the Esprit's unforeseeable dive off the end of a pier, carrying Moore and Barbara Bach – in character – to safety.

Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV6 (Octopussy)
Apart from being a stylish piece of kit in its time, the V6-engined Alfetta GTV was also definitely handy for inducing power oversteer. In Octopussy, the Alfa’s ideal weight distribution, and ability to get power down in a hurry, literally brought the world back from the brink of nuclear Armageddon. Moore-as-Bond steals the car from a woman who refuses to step out of a phone booth so he can call the authorities to alert them of a nuclear warhead timed to explode at an American airbase. Such was life in the days before mobile phones...

Aston Martin DBS (The Persuaders)
This was the TV series with a musical score by John Barry, the man who also composed music for Eon's Bond films. In the series, Moore plays Lord Brett Sinclair, coerced by a judge to pair up with Tony Curtis' character, Danny Wilde, who drives a V6-engined Ferrari Dino. Moore drives an Aston Martin DBS fitted with wheels from the V8 version. In the series, part of Lord Sinclair’s back story is some experience as a racing driver. That may explain how he could outrun Wild's Dino in the heavy, six-cylinder Aston. But we love the car all the same...