Licence to thrill at Bond exhibition

In Wellington Street, a trilby hat's throw from the Covent Garden Piazza, John Barry's unmistakable James Bond theme tune drifts seductively from the oblong entrance of the London Film Museum. Inside, behind a queue of British, French and Australian families, I'm faced with a split screen of crash-bang- wallop action clips from the 007 movies.

The six incarnations of Ian Fleming's besuited super-spy - from the suave brutality of Sean Connery and the ironic arched eyebrows of Roger Moore, to the icy steel of Daniel Craig (plus the contrasting charms of George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan) - are helming a medley of mechanical contraptions as they chase, or flee from, a cast of evil henchmen and uniformed stooges.

This sets the scene nicely for Bond in Motion. Billed as the largest display of its kind ever held in the British capital, the exhibition showcases dozens of original vehicles that have starred in the 23-film franchise. While the focus is on air, land and sea mobiles, it's the cars that spark the most interest. And not just from your stereotypical petrolhead.

"Wow," purrs a stylishly dressed, middle-aged Middle Eastern woman - a potential Bond glamour girl in her day, I suspect - as she leads her husband and four boys down into the museum's sprawling basement and towards a majestic Rolls-Royce Phantom III.

Painted black and gold, it was custom-built in 1937 for the real-life Lord Fairhaven of Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire before finding itself in the villainous hands of Auric Goldfinger, Bond's legendary foe from the 1964 flick.

Sporting an AU1 registration plate - Au being the symbol for gold on the periodic table - the Rolls is first seen on-screen when 007 plays golf with Goldfinger. After hiding a tracking device in the boot, Bond ventures into the Swiss Alps to pursue the car, driven by Odd Job, Goldfinger's golf-ball-crushing bodyguard.

Throughout the exhibition, clips of the cars, usually racing through stunningly exotic locations, are projected on a loop on to the white walls behind the motors in question. In addition, small display screens offer miscellaneous facts and vehicle specs such as engine size, maximum speed and extras (think missiles, lasers and ejector seats). Avid Bond fans and automotive enthusiasts can learn more by hiring an audio guide, which beams soundtrack songs (such as Shirley Bassey's Goldfinger and Wings' Live and Let Die), alongside commentary from Ben Collins. Formerly The Stig from Top Gear, Collins regales various tidbits, including how he put his driving skills to the test as an official stuntman in Quantum of Solace and Skyfall.

Talking of stunts, two scuffed and battered modern Aston Martins from recent 007 movies are in stark contrast to the exhibition's largely pristine- condition gems.

The submersible, fin-addled white Lotus Espirit S1 from A Spy Who Loved Me, the remote- controlled BMW 750iL from Tomorrow Never Dies and the red Ford Cougar XR-7 from On Her Majesty's Secret Service have me swimming in a sea of childhood nostalgia (whenever a Bond film was on TV, I was glued to it, regardless of whether I had already seen it several times before). Rubbing shoulders with a German dad and his young son, and two young Chinese women - all snapping photos with glee - I admire the quirky yellow Citroen 2CV from For Your Eyes Only.

The weapons-equipped Aston Martin V12 Vanquish from Die Another Day is another attention- stealer. Ditto the slick Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II from A View to a Kill (it was lent to the production crew by its owner, the famous Bond producer Cubby Broccoli, and driven by Patrick Macnee in his role as Roger Moore's doomed sidekick Sir Godfrey Tibbett).

The immaculate Aston Martin DB5, 1964 vintage, is perhaps the most recognisable of all exhibits. It first appeared in Goldfinger and Thunderball then, after a 30-year hiatus, re-emerged for Brosnan's 1995 Bond debut, GoldenEye.

Away from the four-wheeled stars, other exhibits catch the eye, such as the tuktuk that Moore rode through the teeming streets of Udaipur, India, in Octopussy, and the mini-submarine disguised as a crocodile that Moore hid inside to infiltrate Octopussy's lake-palace residence.

Another typically ingenious mode of transport is the cello case Dalton's deadpan Bond used as a toboggan to cross the snowbound Czechoslovakia-Austria border with Maryam d'Abo's Kara Milovy in The Living Daylights. The cello doubled as an oar.

As well as a slew of speedboats, snowmobiles and motorbikes, there are intriguing aircraft, such as Little Nellie, an autogyro crafted by Ken Wallis, a decorated former RAF bomber pilot. In You Only Live Twice, the device was delivered to Connery's Bond by gadget master Q (Desmond Llewelyn), who told 007: "Oh, she's a wonderful girl. Very small, quite fast. Can do anything. Just your type."

Wallis actually piloted the autogyro in the scene where Bond tracks down the volcano lair of his arch-nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld, using rockets and flamethrowers to thwart the helicopters of Blofeld's sinister SPECTRE organisation. Scattered across the exhibition, you'll find props, action-sequence displays and miniature models from the Bond franchise - including, hanging above the reception, a one-third scale replica of an Agusta Westland AW101 helicopter used in Skyfall's explosive final battle scene.

Refreshments can be had in a museum cafe dotted with 007 memorabilia (including Bond jigsaws, board games and a GoldenEye pinball machine). I don't spot anyone sipping martinis, however.

For an extra cost, there's the option of donning a tuxedo jacket and having your photograph taken with the 007 gun barrel background.

In truth, I'm so utterly absorbed by Bond in Motion that I completely lose track of the time. When I glance at my phone and see that I've left myself just half-an- hour to get across the other side of London for a lunch date, I have to dash, almost Bond-like, to the exit via the museum's souvenir-packed gift shop.

Mind you, if you'd like to see Bond in Motion yourself, you'd best get a move on. Diamonds may be forever but this exhibition might not be. It's scheduled to be at London Film Museum until March 2015 at least but after that, its licence to thrill could be revoked. The majority of exhibits, you see, are on loan from the archive of EON Productions - the Bond movie producers - and the Ian Fleming Foundation, which located and restored many of the vehicles.

The future of James Bond, however, is more certain. The 24th 007 movie is set to be released in October next year.

• fact file *

·Bond in Motion is open daily at the London Film Museum at 45 Wellington Street, from 10am-6pm Monday to Sunday, and 10am-7pm on Saturday. Give yourself at least two hours for a visit. Tickets are priced £14.50 ($25.30) for adults, £9.50 for concessions and children aged 5-15. A family ticket for two adults and two children for is £38. The audio guide is an additional £5. londonfilmmuseum.com.

·For more details on visiting London, see visitlondon.com.

Steve McKenna was a guest of the London Film Museum.