When James Bond and Ernie Cureo are getting together for a talk in the latter’s cab, they realize that they have company.
Ernie Cureo’s voice broke sharply in on his thoughts. “We got ourselves a tail, Mister,” he said out of the corner of his mouth. “Two of ’em. Fore an’ aft. Don’t look back. See that black Chevy sedan in front? With the two guys. They got two driving mirrors and they been watching us and keeping step for quite a whiles. Back of us there’s a little red sex-ship. Old sports model Jag with a rumble seat. Two more guys. With golf clubs in the back.
A black Chevy sedan is pretty generic, but I was interested in this Jaguar that was also tailing them. A Jaguar with a rumble seat? As the account continues, we get a few more details about the car.
They were riding easily along at forty with the low-slung Jaguar right on their tail and the black sedan a block ahead of them.
It’s low-slung, for one.
“Nice little car you once had,” said Bond. The shattered windshield had been lowered flat and a piece of chrome from the radiator stuck up like a pennant between the two wingless front tyres. “Where are we going in the remains?”
And the windshield can be lowered.
A website devoted to Jaguars helped me narrow it down.
The early coupe had helmet style front fenders (wings) with no running boards, rather cramped rear seats, a leather covered roof with non-functional landau bars (pram irons) on the sides thus no side windows for the rear seat passengers, and an optional rumble seat (dickey seat).
As you can see, this 1934 S.S.I was low-slung, with a windshield that could be flattened and if you see the latches on the rear, had a rumble seat that could be opened – as far as I can tell this was the only S.S.I model that had such a feature. (Car shown may not have a rumble seat – a seat that folds up from the trunk area – but it looks enough like it could have one, which might be a detail that fooled Fleming. I tend to doubt that, though, he usually got his car stuff right.) Landau bars are those decorative curved bars where the rear passenger windows would be.
While this may not be the exact car that was chasing Bond and Cureo, it’s going to be pretty close, and should give an idea of what the
The company was originally known as Swallow Sidecar Company, became SS Cars Ltd in 1934, and Jaguar Cars Ltd in 1945.
This is a 1932 model Just a gorgeous car. Ian Fleming certainly had an eye for automobiles!
