In addition, the pink hue was color-keyed to match a bikini Halle Berry’s character wears the first time she splashes on-screen, rising out of the Cuban surf. What they ended up selecting was a coral color, drawing inspiration from a similar Sunset Coral paint offered on the 1956 Thunderbird. To create the look, Ford bypassed the palette of the five stock exterior colors (white, red, turquoise, black) in favor of something truly unique. (Photo by Matt Avery) Pretty (Product Placement) in Pinkįor this latest car, it all started with the color. (Photo by Matt Avery) The turned aluminum panel and ‘007’ logo were unique to the special edition. A cream-colored 1964 Ford Thunderbird Convertible was used in the 1964 ‘ Goldfinger‘ while a brown 1971 Thunderbird Landau can be seen in ‘ Diamonds Are Forever’. This wasn’t the first time a T-bird had shown up in one of the Bond films.

While the car’s retro styling created tons of buzz, Ford threw in some extra luck to drive excitement by creating a special version that would be available for purchase. Ford had just relaunched their iconic luxury two-seat cruiser, the Thunderbird. The female character lead, Jinx, played by Halle Berry, needed something far more sophisticated, elegant and ideally available in showrooms, too. He’d be squaring off against Zao (played by Rick Yune), who would pilot a green, rocket-firing Jaguar XKR. At the time, Aston Martin and Jaguar were subsidiaries of the blue oval brand, giving them quite an arsenal of high-end cars to choose from.īond, played by Pierce Brosnan, would get a silver Aston Martin Vanquish V12. The brand had landed a massive product placement opportunity and now, for this 20th installment, Ford secured the coveted spot as the spy-car supplier. After saving the world from the seat of a BMW for the last three films, in ‘Die Another Day’ he’d be getting car keys from an unlikely source: Ford.

In the fall of 2002, James Bond thrilled fans by returning to his British roots – at least in his choice of on-screen wheels.

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