Major car brand ‘plotting return' of discontinued model that starred in iconic James Bond scene 46 years ago
A MAJOR brand could bring back a discontinued model which appeared in an iconic James Bond scene.
Citroen is biding its time over whether to bring back the iconic retro 2CV.
It earned its stripes as a French economy car and is recognised for revitalising post-war France.
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The 2CV was nicknamed Deux Chevaux, translating to "two horses" referring to its tax horsepower rating.
The 2CV featured in the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only in a scene where Bond jumps into the passenger seat of co-star Melina Havelock's yellow car, heading off the twisty mountain roads, while Hector Gonzalez's men give chase in a pair of Peugeot 504 sedans.
Bond eventually takes the wheel and the car enjoys a bone-rattling climax that sees it hurtling through olive trees.
He then crisscrosses the road, before jumping over a pursuing Peugeot and bumping its offside-rear wheel on the sedan's roof.
The scene was filmed in Corfu over 12 days and the car was one of several 2CVs used in the filming.
While four are known to have survived filming, at least two were scrapped when production ended.
'We have a very, very strong heritage, one of the richest in the car industry,' then-Citroen boss Thierry Koskas told Auto Express.
'We have the 2CV, the Traction Avant, the DS: amazing cars known all over the world.
"I absolutely agree that one of the big strengths of European brands is their heritage.
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'On the product side, we are not taking it as a general direction to do retro design.
"But I do not exclude that maybe we study and [have] some exploration, we are open to look at that.
"But at Citroen you will not see all the future cars reminding you of previous models.
'You will have people that value a design that is close to a car they used to love in the past. This is the debate.
'But there have been successes and failures in [automotive] revivals.
"Some fail because [companies] don't position the car properly, they seem retro but aren't really, or customers don't really like the car or recognise their love story.
"So if we were to do it, we would have to be very, very careful and cautious about how we did it.'
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