Agent 007, operative of Britain's MI6, is perhaps one of the biggest car-guy characters in filmdom. Originally created by author Ian Fleming, James Bond has been the subject of no fewer than 22 feature films. From them we've learned that Bond is a simple man to please, needing only a martini, a Walther PPK pistol, a beautiful woman (or better, women — preferably ones not trying to kill him), and a fine automobile befitting his license-to-kill status.

With the art of the chase being a hinge on which most Bond flicks pivot, there are nearly as many starring cars as there are leading ladies. Narrowing down a list of Bond's best cars to nine — beyond, of course, the classic Aston Martin DB5 — invites no end of debate. So we've fixed our crosshairs on cars we think are the coolest, giving extra consideration to Bond's personal rides.

The silver '64 DB5 with the BMT 216A plate became Bond's during the movie Goldfinger. What-a-coincidence kit for 'finger included bulletproof glass, revolving number plates, homing-device tracking via a hidden round screen in the center console with 150-mile range (according to Q), smoke screen, oil slick, rear bulletproof screen, front and rear rams, wheel-mounted tire slasher, radio telephone, front machine guns, and an ejector seat triggered by a red button on the shift knob. When the same car appeared in Thunderball, it also came equipped with high-pressure water cannons in the exhaust pipes and could fit a jet pack in the trunk — if you didn't notice Sean Connery having trouble getting the lid closed.

As the most iconic Bondmobile, the DB5 also had cameos in GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies and the later Casino Royale. Indeed, a DB5 with BMT 214A number plates steals the show from BMW's then brand-new Z3 in GoldenEye. In this first of the Bimmer-era Bond movies, the old Aston dices it up on some winding roads with a Ferrari F355t driven by Famke Janssen. Here, the only gadget ever called upon is a concealed case between the seats that cradles a bottle of Bollinger.

Four examples of the DB5 were built for Goldfinger and Thunderball — a star car used for close-ups; two promo cars, complete with movie-prop gadgetry; and a stunt car for the action sequences that was later used for promotions. The original star car was even historically significant before the movie. It began life as a DB4 and was rebodied as a DB5 by Aston Martin, used as a test mule, and then loaned to the movie-production company where it was laden with weaponry.

The history of these four cars, in particular the star car, plays out almost like a Bond movie in and of itself. The original car was put back to "stock" by a shortsighted Aston employee and sold as a used DB5, but a later owner did his best to return the car to James Bond spec. The car would change hands and, after being insured for some $4.2 million, get stolen from a Boca Raton airport hanger in 1997. A trail of skid marks ended where a cargo plane must have been parked and the DB5 disappeared, never to be seen again — a victim of insurance fraud or spirited away into a private collection by some evil-doer. Its fate remains a mystery.

The stunt car is now in the hands of private collector Jerry Lee. One of the PR cars is on display at the Dutch National Motor Museum in Holland and the other was sold in 2006 by the Smokey Mountain Car Museum, via RM Auctions, to a private collector for $2.1 million. The DB5 from GoldenEye, complete with champagne holder and fax, along with a Goldfinger DB5 clone authorized by the film-production company, are also on display at the Cars of the Stars Museum in the UK.

Breaking with Aston, MI6's Q-branch switched to Lotus in the disco era. The first iteration was most memorable — an Esprit S1 (note: latter S2 version pictured) that turned itself into a submarine. In the movie, Q delivers the right-hand-drive Esprit (white with black leather and red plaid-accented seats) to Roger Moore-as-Bond while on a mission in Sardinia.

The Lotus was also laden with tech courtesy of Q, including oil sprayers from behind the number plate and the aforementioned ability to convert into a submarine. For under-water use, it featured a periscope, surface-to-air missiles shot from the engine bay, depth charges, and torpedoes fired from a panel between the car's retractable headlights.

The Lotus takes part in one of the most extensive chase scenes filmed in the Bond series — first pursued by a motorcycle equipped with a exploding sidecar bomb, then a car full of gun-toting henchman, then a Hughes helicopter, the Lotus eventually drives off a pier and shows off its aquatic capabilities. After downing the chopper from beneath the sea, Bond takes on several underwater assailants before driving back up onto a beach and cruising back to his hotel.

Lotus reportedly lent two Esprits to the production company and several other waterproof examples were used in filming, along with an Esprit-bodied mini-sub. One of the cars was likely sacrificed in the scene where Bond drives into the water. The other was retained by Lotus, then later sold by Coys in 1998 for £32,935 to the Cars of the Stars Museum in Keswick, UK.

Two cars — the submarine prop car and another body used for a close-up transformation shot, were left in the Bahamas, gifted by the production company to Roberts Used Car Lot and Scrap Metal Company. The sub car, stored outside, was painted red, adorned with Christmas lights, and effectively became a lawn ornament and tourist attraction. In 1988, an American purchased both it and the other car stored atop a defunct milk truck on the Roberts' grounds — both for the princely sum of $2000. The two shells were shipped back to America where the sub car was fully restored and is said to be touring Europe, last reported as on display at the Bo'Ness Motor Museum in Edinburgh Scotland alongside a matching Esprit road car.

In many ways, the 12-cylinder Vanquish represented the modern resurgence of the Aston Martin brand, and some of this could have been due to the car's starring role in Die Another Day. In a surprising turn of events, Ford and its then new Premier Automotive Group wrestled the Bond franchise back from BMW, placing Bond in an Aston once again and putting supporting characters in cars like the Jaguar XKR and Ford Thunderbird. For Bond's Aston, PAG and movie producers spec'd the car in the same Tungsten Silver with charcoal leather combo as the original Bond DB5.

Q refers to the car as the "Vanish," as CGI allowed filmmakers to bestow the car with "Adaptive Camouflage" — described as tiny cameras on all sides of the car that projected images of its surroundings, thus rendering the car invisible. Other usual Bond equipment included grille-mounted missiles, spiked tires for traction, and computer-aided target-seeking guns. The Vanquish also had the trademark ejector seat, used in this film by Bond to right the Aston as it slid on its roof across polar ice.

Seven Vanquishes were requisitioned for filming, with three used in close-ups and four others modified for pre-production action sequences. Each of the four stunt cars were fitted with 300-hp Ford Boss 302 V-8s mounted far enough back to accommodate the missiles, and also mated to a four-wheel-drive system out of the Ford Explorer since filming was done primarily on ice. The stunt cars were also fitted with rollcages and concealed flotation in case the cars should break through the ice. One of the Astons was reportedly destroyed during filming and another damaged beyond repair during the roof-slide episode. The remaining two are believed to be owned by Aston Martin, with one displayed at the opening of the Gaydon factory in 2003. A close-up car was sold by Bonham's to the Cars of the Stars Museum in Keswick in 2003 for £210,000. The auction house later sold another in 2006, netting £144,500 — about $275,000.

The Z8 roadster had to be the high point of the three-film Bond/BMW marriage. In the movie, Q describes the BMW has being fitted with titanium armor, a multi-tasking heads-up display, and — of course — six cupholders. On location in Azerbaijan, Bond uses the car's remote-control function to move it closer to his location, then activates the car's unique roundel-based targeting screen to fire rockets launched from the car's side vents. Unfortunately, just when you think the Z8 might get some action, it is bifurcated by a sawblade-equipped helicopter.

Why no real chase scene with the Zed? Maybe it was timing: BMW rushed to get a fully functional pre-production Z8 ready for filming. In the end, it was only able to supply the body panels, which were assembled onto a Cobra V8 chassis and made to look like the real thing. A full-scale model was used for close-ups.

There's no banter with Q when Daniel Craig-as-Bond is given the stunning new Aston Martin DBS in 2006's Royale: The car sits waiting for him outside the fictional casino. Though Royale is the darkest and most realistic Bond flick yet, the DBS is not short on what-a-coincidence kit. A two-tiered motorized glovebox holds Bond's pistol and silencer in an upper drawer and a defibrillator with various poison antidotes in the lower compartment — the latter needed after he downed a poison-laced martini. Imagine that.

As car chases go, Bond's time at the wheel of the DBS is somewhat of a disappointment. When his leading lady, Vesper Lynd, is kidnapped, Bond tears off in the car to the soundtrack of that mellifluous V12. Traveling at speed, the car catches air at one point and then swerves to avoid Vesper who has been tossed in the middle of the road — the biggest let-down for car enthusiasts and one of the most unrealistic elements of the film.

It is said that the production crew used GM's Millbrook Proving Grounds in the UK to film the car's rollover scene. In several tests (sans expensive Aston), a ramp was sufficient to induce the desired roll effect. Unfortunately, the Aston had a tendency to right itself. Even with ramp height raised to nearly two feet, the first take with a DBS saw the car simply go airborne, then level out and land on all four wheels. It took an air cannon mounted behind the driver's seat to send the Aston end-over-end from a 75-mph approach speed. In real life, the car would most definitely have spun, but the ensuing rollover captured on film was much more dramatic and its seven rotations were enough to net it a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Like the DB5, Casino Royale won't be the only film to feature the DBS. The next installment, titled Quantum of Solace, is reported to include the car, possibly in a chase scene to be filmed in Italy next month.

The Timothy Dalton era hasn't left as lasting an impact as Connery or Brosnan installments, but the Aston Martin V8 Vantage with tag number B549 WUU driven by Bond in Daylights deserves its place on this list. The car first appears as a Volante convertible. Q later "winterizes" the thing, converting it to a Vantage coupe in a bit of movieland bassackwardness. When seen later in the film, the charcoal-colored coupe features a Philips radio that'll pick up police band; laser-emitting AM center caps for slicing Bratislavan police cars; a heads-up display for targeting foglight-mounted missiles; bulletproof glass; and an unbelievable ice-cutting alloy wheel. The Vantage also has retractable outrigger skis and a jet engine to propel it off the ice lake where Bond finds himself trapped. Making his way to the Austrian border, Bond abandons the car when it becomes stranded in the snow after a spectacular jump.

The movie car can be found today, again, at the Cars of the Stars Museum in the UK. It is displayed with most of its prop weaponry, including the outrigger skis, foglight missiles, jet engine, and laser-beam cutter.

With Sean Connery's Bond in Japan for most of Twice, Toyota had the perfect stage on which to introduce its swooping 2000GT. The Japanese manufacturer built only two examples of the convertible, both for the film — thanks to Connery's inability to fit in the fixed-roof 2000GT coupe. In the movie, you can clearly see the top of the actor's head above the windshield. Supposedly, a targa version also was tried before turning to the convertible (sans working top).

This is the only car on the list that isn't actually Bond's ride, though it was originally intended to be before the script changed. In the final story, the Toyota roadster belongs to Japanese agent Aki. (In reality, the actress playing Aki didn't know how to drive. Action sequences were shot using stuntmen in wigs and drag.) Like Q-branch cars, the Japanese secret service Toyota comes with special equipment such as a communications array in the space behind the seats. No other defensive weaponry is seen in the movie, though Aki makes short work of a pursuing black Toyota Crown: She calls in a helicopter carrying a giant electromagnet that picks up the sedan and drops it into the bay.

Following the filming, the two convertibles disappeared for a while. One was later located by Toyota in Hawaii, then restored, and now resides at the company's corporate headquarters in Japan. The fate of the other remains unknown. A third, a replica of the two movie cars, was created from a 2000GT coupe shell found in South Africa and painstakingly built up with the same communications equipment as the movie. The replica now resides in — you guessed it — the Cars of the Stars museum in the UK.

Look deeply into the world of James Bond and you'll discover that a Bentley was the original Bond machine. According to the Ian Fleming novels, Bond's first car was a gray 4 1/2 Liter fitted with an Amherst Villiers supercharger. It is described in the text as a battleship-gray convertible coupe with large French Marchal headlamps — bought by Bond in 1933 and stored during World War II.

There's a quick scene where a Bentley 3 1/2 Liter Sport Tourer fitted with a radio phone on the door is spotted in From Russia with Love and Bond pulls up in a '37 Bentley 4 1/4 Liter Gurney Nutting 3-Position Drophead Coupe in Never Say Never. But it's the iconic 4 1/2 Liter Blower Special in black with red leather from 1967's Casino Royale that seems most faithful to the first Bond car in the books. It also gets the most screen time.

The original Royale movie is campy, to say the least. The movie makes the Austin Powers spoof flicks seem restrained, but there's a memorable chase sequence where both a Jaguar E-Type roadster and an explosive-packed, remote-controlled Beford CA Mk2 Milk Truck chase the Bentley. It alone makes this film worth the rental fee. If you fancy drugs, all the better. You'll need them for Casino Royale to make much sense otherwise.

A luxury sedan usually isn't Bond's style, but the 750iL made a strong case for itself, winning over cynical 007 fans due to the quality of both its chase scenes and its Q-branch equipment. BMW's barge was hardly as cool as the Z8, but it played more of a key role in Tomorrow Never Dies than any other Bond Bimmer.

Remington Steele-cum-Bond, Pierce Brosnan, picks up the 7 at an Avis counter in the Hamburg airport. The BMW came equipped with machine guns, a rocket launcher mounted underneath the sunroof panel, tear-gas jets, tire-mauling triangular caltrops that could be dropped from the back of the car, re-inflatable tires, a GPS tracking system, and remote control via Bond's Ericsson mobile phone.

Tomorrow's chase sequence makes use of the car's remote-control system. Bond jumps through the car's back window and drives via phone, evading the bad guys through a multi-level parking garage. In one of the biggest what-a-coincidence Bond car scenarios ever, the 7 also has a saw mounted below the BMW roundel at the front of the car that cuts a steel cable blocking his exit. Yeah, right.

During the movie, and especially during the chase scene, the car's female navigation voice and its German accent play for comic relief. The car pipes in when Bond uses the remote to hurl the speeding grey E38 off the parking garage's roof and right through the front window of the local Avis office.

The film-production crew equipped at least one of the 22 BMW-provided sedans with a front camera and a screen mounted on the back of the driver's seat. There were also steering and throttle controls in the back seat so that the stunt driver could maneuver the car unseen.

The only Bond film to star George Lazenby as 007 is also the one that's most often forgotten. Nevertheless, a high point of the film must certainly be the scenes starring the Aston Martin DBS. No Q equipment is ever seen in the DBS with the exception of a rifle and sight mount in the glovebox.

Early on the movie, a red Mercury Cougar, driven by his soon-to-be wife, Teresa, passes Bond. The chase isn't terribly wild, though the rev-matched soundtrack is pretty sweet. The Cougar eventually stops by a beach, where Bond pulls out the telescopic sight and sees her running into the water — a suicide attempt. Bond races the Aston down onto the beach and runs into the water for the save, somehow intuiting that she wasn't out for a snorkel. At the end of the movie, the two are married and drive off in the DBS, decorated head-to-taillight with flowers.