13.11.08

James Bond's world record boat jump and chase



Originally, the boat went about 15 feet. So the movie guys enlisted Tulane Univ students to help. They designed a better ramp, and the one-take jump scene over the bayou, filmed with assistance of that specially-constructed ramp, unintentionally set a Guinness World Record at the time with 110 feet cleared. Unfortunately, the waves created by the impact caused the following boat to flip over. The Bond boat, a Glastron-Carlson CVX, was made to look like it had a stock Evinrude 115-hp OUTBOARD motor. It was not. The V-6 was reportedly tweaked to produce quite a bit more horsepower, and the boat transom was strengthened and all of them were lightened. Glastron Boats (of Minnesota!) made 26 special boats for the film, and 17 were destroyed. Some of the remaining boats are out there, somewhere. At least two are in Europe - one at a James Bond museum. And yes, there are several ways to know if they were one of the rare 007 boats. And no I'm not telling. Did the USA boats survive the hurricanes?
For more Bond classic fun, I suggest going to the Boat Chase part 2, where another boat - a big block jet -joins the chase and Bond suddenly is driving a Glastron with an INBOARD MOTOR as he slides the boat across a lawn - where a wedding is occurring! BTW - I used to work for a guy who was IN THAT WEDDING scene. It was his Tulane Univ frat and sister sorority doing much of the staging. He said it took hours and hours. Dozens of takes, and the boat rarely made it all the way into the water. It was hot, sticky and nowhere near as cool as it turned out.

2 comments:

Questions About Faith, Etc. said...

How did you get Sheriff Benware to be in that video? HA

Anonymous said...

I want to know about the rock.