Childhood Dream

Were you a fan of Range Rover (and Bond) in the ’80s? Then you’ll probably recognise this

PICTURE the scene: the world’s most famous secret agent is on his latest mission. Disguised as Colonel Luis Toro using little more than a dodgy moustache, a reversible suit and those famous eyebrows, Roger Moore has infiltrated what appears to be a Latin American airbase in order to plant a bomb. Unfortunately, having just planted said bomb, his cover is blown and he comes face to face with the real Colonel Toro. He is bundled into a military truck to face his fate. Enter our sultry hero Bianca (played by Tina Hudson), at the wheel of a rather special Range Rover: a fully open-top convertible with side-facing rear bench seats and large front bull bar, that connoisseurs will identify as a Rapport Huntsman. As Bianca pulls alongside the truck, Bond’s captors are presumably distracted by the immaculate teddy bear trim and the non-standard finisher on the windscreen, and, as their eyes are elsewhere, Bond pulls the ripcords on their parachutes with the inevitable result. 007 jumps on board the Range Rover (thank goodness for the open-top!) and makes his escape.

It’s not over yet however, as – bizarrely – the airbase seems to be hosting some kind of military equestrian event, and as part of the cover, the Range Rover is towing a horsebox with a horse’s tail hanging over the back. As the vehicle is moving,

Bond gets into the horsebox and unhooks the trailer (that handy open-top again), and as the trailer comes to a stop, Bianca drives off into the distance with a toot and a wave. Cue to a close-up on the horse’s rear end that electronically lifts up to reveal the Bede BD5 micro-jet that Bond uses to make his escape in a sequence of close scrapes and explosions. You couldn’t make it up…

When you watch that opening sequence from 37 years ago, it’s hard to imagine any other vehicle fitting the bill. The filming of this classic Bond pre-title sequence took place at a disused airbase in Oxfordshire in the early 1980s, with additional footage filmed at RAF Northolt in Middlesex. Despite looking like Latin America, the whole sequence was shot no further south from Pinewood than Oxfordshire.

With such a local shoot, it’s fair to assume that the opentop Range Rover/rapport Huntsman was supplied to the film production company by Rapport itself for a bit of publicity. Rapport was a reasonably well-established conversion company with a showroom in Mayfair at the time, and it sold a fair number of Range Rover conversions back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Russet Brown vehicle in the film was probably a demonstrator or maybe even a customer vehicle that was lent to the film crew before going to its owner. It’s amazing that it’s survived to be featured on these pages well nearly 40 years later… or, er, has it?

In fact, no-one knows where the Range Rover in the film ended up (unless someone reading this knows otherwise of course), but what I can tell you is that it is definitely not the two-door open-top Range Rover that you see here – even though you might think otherwise. The vehicle on these pages is a faithful recreation, made using stills from the film as a guide and – amazingly – a 1:43rd scale model made by the Italian model makers Edicola. It’s identical to the vehicle in the film apart from slightly less angled seat frames, the seat material itself and the lack of a front bull bar. The seat material was changed to more weatherproof canvas to suit the British climate, whilst fitting a bull bar was deemed a little too 1980s for this day and age.

The replica vehicle is the brainchild of Chris Bishop of Bishop’s Heritage, who – like most other car-mad kids in 1983 – had the small Corgi model of the Rapport Huntsman that was made to support the film. That Corgi model survived into adulthood and sat on his desk, until 30 years on Chris decided to scratch an itch and turn childhood dream into reality. After all, it’s said that the difference between men and boys is the size of their toys.

Starting with a low-mileage, period-correct 1982 left-hand drive VIN AA two-door Range Rover that Chris had sourced from France, the vehicle was brought back to Bishop’s Peterborough workshops and – as would have happened with the original Rapport Huntsman conversion – was unceremoniously taken apart. Whereas Rapport would have used a factory fresh two-door Range Rover, the only option nowadays is a previously-owned example that – after 37 years – inevitably had a small bit of rust here and there. The rust was cut out, repaired and replaced, and then the team got the tin snips out to start work on the roof.

The Rapport Huntsman is quite a straightforward conversion, as it is more or less a two-door Range Rover with its roof removed. Of course, the cuts on top of the windscreen and the upper body have to be made good, and here, Bishop’s Heritage made a bespoke metal cover for the upper body and a soft-touch vinyl topper for the windscreen – both manufactured to look similar to the original conversion by using the film footage as a guide.

The rear bench seats, likewise, were constructed using the

The name’s Bishop. Chris Bishop

The perfect proportions of the original Range Rover are retained, even if the roof is missing!

The rear bench seats, metal body surround and soft-touch windscreen topper were bespoke items fabricated by the team at Bishop’s Heritage

To counter the lack of roof and offer some kind of weather resistance, the front seats are trimmed in same fabric as the rear: Ripstock canvas

The original Range Rover on which this conversion was based was a lowmileage example from France, complete with rev counter and PYE cassette/radio

Door cards were retrimmed – note the lack of a manual door lock for security reasons

Period-correct side mirrors denote this as a VIN AA vehicle

Rear lamp guards are a nice period detail

Although this Range Rover is a recreation, it is hard to tell the vehicle apart from the original Russet Brown Rapport Huntsman featured in Octopussy