However at that point it should be noted that already in previous years various tribute DAF Mustang Mach1 were exhibited in the UK and at an impressive Bond Show in Paris in 1996.
The 429 Mach1 featured however in Paul Newitts article triggered the main research and called also Joseph Brancella in presenting his "real" DAF stunt car in one of the next Mustang Monthlys in 1998.
This car was bought by Stars of the Cars later and returned to the US into the Dezer collection. It is today well known as "Alley car" with the VIN 1F05M160938, which we cover up on this subpage.
Let me explain at this point, why I started research on the DAF cars early on and why they are still my preferred breed of Mustangs.
In fact I have a very personal relation to this car, as the Diamond Mach 1 was my fathers dreamcar back in 1971. Actually he bought a red 1971 302 Mach1 through a colleague working there and had it shipped over to Europe. The car was sourced at Landis Ford in North Brunswick. The VIN was in the 1F05F15.. range.
When the movie finally came into the german theatres in late December 1971 my father used to cruise with us kids up front at the local Astrid Nielsen theatre entrance in Duesseldorf putting the pedal to the floor and leaving the spectators with open mouth in the rear mirrors. We enjoyed that very much. Unfortunately my father died one year later and we had to sell the car. We haven't been able to trace it further. Last information was that it was scrapped some time in the early 80ies.
So
actually I was really fortunate that Mike Alameda contacted me in
2000 and allowed me to publish his story on my
website. We have been in touch ever since through the decades and he is open or waiting for someone who prooves him that his car wasn't the real deal and
that another VIN is the right 429 car used in the movie. No one ever did
personally. But we heard that there will be some clarification soon in 2022
based on research done by ISO and Bo Durban.
Mike actually sold his
car at some time in 2018 to Down under together with 2 binders full of Bond
movie material. Actually he had offered the documentation to me, but I
couldn't decide for it in time.
So off it went with the car to the new
owner, who appreciates the car very much.
VIN 1F05R100076
Initially this car was assigned the name Hero car, as Mike - after mails and chats with Lois in early 1998 - got the impression that his car was the true Bond movie car with the 429. Based on the facts that it was sent to the Las Vegas Convention Center and described as a 325-007-G car, which he took as a Bond movie coded order. Later research from Lois revealed that there were -008-G and 009-G cars, the 007 had nothing to do with the Bond movie.
Along his further research he contacted a big number of movie related persons, who were on site in 1971 and confirmed to him, that indeed his car was most probably the Hero car.
Update:
It just turned out later that this specific vinned car was probably rather not used in the movie.
It was for sure a press car on display in Las Vegas with the new 1971 models including the new 1971 Boss 302.
Recent documentation may indicate that Mikes car was shown at that very same event. No final proof yet. Nor any proof against it, though many say so.
Mike reported as of 2000:
"At least 4 of the 302s were put on their roofs by an unskilled stunt driver during the 2-wheel-alley stunt.
The stunt filming took place over some months due to unprofessional work performed the first time, when the original selected stunt team was not available. Finally Carey Loftin (the same stunt director as for BULLITT) decided to get the 2 wheel stunt done.
I talked to Carey Loftin back in '92-' 93 and he drove my Mach for some of the harder stunts but the man who did the alley stunt with another Mach 1 was "Buzz Bundy" who was at the time doing a rolling car stunt show with all Ford cars called "Tournament of Thrills". They already used in 1970 a white Mustang.
After Everett Creach, the stunt driver had rolled several of the 302 Machs on their roofs damaging them beyond repair, they called in Buzz to do the stunt. He is to have credit for this stunt. No one else could do this or set the car up correctly. It became visible when later on another stunt team performed the trick with the other side of the car up, they were simply not able to do it on the same side as Buzz did."
"My Hero car was principally driven by a look a like stunt driver of Sean Connery name of Dick Butler who was directed by Guy Hamilton and Paul Baxley. I spoke to both directors and Butler during my research and they advised that the Mustang they needed to do all of the LV downtown high speed and high torque stuff had to have the biggest engine Ford could put in the Mustang body style at that time.
When I talked to Paul Baxley, the film stunt coordinator/director, he advised me that they needed a Mustang with a much more powerful engine in it to do the back-up, 180 degree hard-brake-spin around which is right in the beginning of the chase scene as the sheriff approaches the Mach 1. Enter the 429CJ.
My car was used for all the downtown driving. The only other two cars used and seen in the film were the alley car I have mentioned earlier and one of the wrecked-roofed 302's. This wrecked 302 Mach was only used to go up and over the car carrier truck in the parking lot chase scene. After that, the 302 was crushed because it was damaged beyond repair. That was it.
During the repeated trials and various camera settings during the period and two different stunt teams performing the stunt in the LA Universal studios and in Las Vegas later, something was overlooked.
In the film scenes used later, the car went into the narrow pedestrian gap between the houses on the right hand wheels (in the studios) and came out the other side (in Las Vegas) driving on the left hand wheels. A mistake from the french stunt team that did the work in Las Vegas. If you watch again this scene, you will notice that a close-up sequence was put between those two takes, where the car actually flips from top to down."
This scene was filmed while Sean Connery and Tiffany were in the studio and the car being fixed in a roller cage as was narrated later.
The Movie
The actual filming started on 5th. of April 1971 and ended on the 14th. of August, the final day of Sean Connerys contract. It first went into the movie theatres actually on December 14th in Munich, Germany, some sites forget this and claim it was on December 17th, 1971. There are only a few pics around from the theatre in Munich and there was very little promotion locally obviously, just some airport photos of proms are available. At that time the 72 Mustang model was already out for some months.
The Ian Fleming Foundation has collected a lot of the typical Bond movie information on their website.
They bought 1F05M100066 at some time and showed the car in the Bond in Motion tour, however it later turned out that this car also has no direct link to the Bond movie. As of 2024 the car was handed over to the Mustang Brothers for a restoration. Claimed to be with documentation that may proof it was the Hero car. Nothing was shown so far, so this claim remains speculation for the audience. Looking forward for more evidence. Also other close VINs were bright red 429s and another car has been found with the same code like 160938 being sent to the Ford TV Studios. In total a larger number of other 1971 Mustangs have been sent to that destination (incl. convertibles), so there remains still some fog about all those "clear proofs". We are closely following this chain of proofs and will let you know.
The Actors
A Bright Red (Code 3) exterior paint
A Body code 05 for the Mach 1 Sportsroof
An Interior code of 5E for the Vermillion variant
Update: Recent research tells us that this car might have been rather sourced from a Las Vegas dealer. Watch out for news on the ISO site in 2022.
The Alley Car - 1971 Mustang Mach 1, 351 M-code and a few that were tilted during stunt team exercices on the parking lot.
The 4 302 equipped F-code bright red Movie Mustangs - at least 4 ,which ended up on their roof at the Alley stunt. Ford later wrecked them due to liability.
Just 1310 bright red/Vermillion Mach 1 were made, so the choice is limited somehow.
Other actors: James Bond - (Sir) Sean Connery
Tiffany Case - Jill St. John
Charles Grey - Stavro Blofeld
Lana Wood - Plenty o' Toole
Jimmy Dean - Willard Whyte
Putter Smith - Mr. Kidd
Bruce Glover - Mr. Wint
The 1971 Mustang Mach 1
Four 302 Mach1 were used to perform the famous stunt, but the driver failed.
The stunt was finally done with a 351 M-code Mach 1 which is 1F05M160938.
One 429 Mach1 at least was used for some of the Las Vegas strip driving. In one of the scenes it is visible with a red colored roll cage.
There are some VINs that are mentioned with the research of Lois Eminger and finally almost 20 years later by Kevin Marti with the Ford files.
The early August 1970 press cars initially made sense, because Bond movie cars were typically selected earlier as well for other movies.
Some that were initially thought to be linked to the movie were indicated as preoviss loan and have specific codes.
The meaning wasn't perfectly interpreted during the time, but further research later on revealed some more details. Actually press loan 71 Mach 1s also went to foreign countries. One bright red Mach 1 is still in Norway.
To this date however no listing of VINs has turned up from the actual filmworks, nor have cars been properly identified by VIN through owners. Yet Kevin Marti did a research on possible information a few years ago and according to narrations has come up with a few more cars that could be the real deal. The word is not yet out, if there was a success to source any of those cars down to an owner with a car. But we hope to have some more insight within a few monthes in 2024.
So let's go back to what we knew from Mike Alamedas research back then.
People that were part of the film staff remembered that 'several' Mustangs were used, most of them 302s, 1 351 and 1 429 powered versions.
Other sources speak of 12 Mustangs plus 8 police cars. In total later on the producers had to compensate the massive damage of movie cars with a big lump sum. Ford insisted on this compensation.