---
title: 'This Jaguar XKR Is a Crazy James Bond Movie Hero Car'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=M8-9BVbBfI8'
video_id: 'M8-9BVbBfI8'
date: 2026-07-30
duration_sec: 1591
---

# This Jaguar XKR Is a Crazy James Bond Movie Hero Car

> Source: [This Jaguar XKR Is a Crazy James Bond Movie Hero Car](https://youtube.com/watch?v=M8-9BVbBfI8)

## Summary

The video features a 2002 Jaguar XKR used in the James Bond film Die Another Day, driven by villain Zao. Doug DeMuro reviews its quirks and features, revealing that the car is heavily modified for filming, including a Ford Explorer chassis and a Ford Windsor V8, and then takes it for a drive.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to the Movie Car** [00:05] — This 2002 Jaguar XKR was used in Die Another Day as the villain's car. It has unique modifications for the film.
- **Thanks to Petersen Museum** [02:02] — The car is loaned by the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles, which has a collection of movie cars.
- **Not a Standard XKR** [03:14] — The car does not have the Jaguar V8 or chassis; it's built on a Ford Explorer chassis for four-wheel drive on ice.
- **Multiple Screen-Used Cars** [05:08] — Eight Jaguar XKRs were built for the movie, each for different purposes (close-ups, action shots).
- **Exterior Color and Weapons** [07:41] — The car is painted bright green (Jaguar race car color) and features a rear machine gun and front radiator guns, which are fixed in place on this car.
- **Lower Body Kit and Paint Quality** [10:07] — The car has a custom charcoal gray lower body kit, and the paint is peeling because it was applied only for filming.
- **Stripped Interior** [13:04] — The interior has open floorboards, exposed wires, and tubes. The gear selector is replaced with an aftermarket shifter, and many features like windows and climate control don't work.
- **Modified Controls** [15:21] — The ignition is replaced, and there are switches for fuel pump and fire extinguisher. Pedals are offset for two-footed driving.
- **Upper Interior Preserved** [18:50] — The upper dashboard, wood trim, and steering wheel are kept stock to look good in camera shots.
- **Driving Experience** [20:40] — The car is extremely loud, hot (no firewall), and lacks seatbelt and rearview mirror. The ride feels decent but the noise and heat make it uncomfortable.

### Conclusion

The Jaguar XKR from Die Another Day is a fascinating example of a movie car—heavily modified for a specific purpose, with little regard for street usability. Despite its rough condition, it remains an iconic piece of cinema history.

## Transcript

This is a 2002 Jaguar XKR, but as you can probably tell, it's no ordinary XKR. This was used in a James Bond movie, Die Another Day, driven by a villain who is chasing after James Bond while he was trying to escape an ice palace in an
invisible Aston Martin. This car is ridiculous, and today I'm going to review it and show you all of its quirks and features.
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box. Now, all right. Time for the quirks and features of the James Bond Jaguar XKR. But before I get started, a huge note of thanks to the Petersen Museum here in Los Angeles for letting me borrow this car. The Petersen Museum has
an amazing collection of amazing cars with rotating exhibits that showcase other amazing cars. They got a lot of movie cars like this one, and it's a great place to go if you're a car enthusiast visiting Los Angeles. You
want to see some cool cars, check out the Petersen Museum. Thanks again for lending me this one. And now on to the Die Another Day Jag quirks and features. Starting with the basics. So, the Jaguar XKR was the high-performance version of
XKR was the high-performance version of the Jaguar XK8, which was a luxury grand touring coupe or convertible that came out in the '90s. The XKR was the sporty out in the '90s. The XKR was the sporty version, and while the standard XK8 used
a V8 with about 300 horsepower, the high-performance XKR was supercharged. high-performance XKR was supercharged. And its Jaguar V8 made 370 horses initially, and then up to 390 horses in later cars like this one. And that
muscular supercharged Jaguar V8 sat on this glorious, comfortable, well-engineered Jaguar chassis. None of which this car has. The V8, the chassis,
not in this one. Allow me to explain. So, like I mentioned, this car was from the James Bond movie Die Another Day, which came out in 2002. And historically, James Bond had primarily driven Aston Martins. There were a few
exceptions over the years, but by '02, Bond was back in an Aston. And in this movie, he was driving an Aston Martin Vanquish, which was newly coming out at this time. But it was a little more complicated than that because Aston
complicated than that because Aston Martin in this era was owned by Ford. And Ford figured, "Hey, if we're going to get Aston Martin product placement in James Bond, we might as well do the same for our other brands." And so, this
movie was not just the Aston Martin Vanquish, but it was full of other Ford branded vehicles. And at the time, that also included Jaguar, which was a Ford brand under the big Ford umbrella. And this car in the movie was driven by the
villain Zao, who was presumably plotting to take over the world. I remember as a to take over the world. I remember as a kid, 14 years old, watching this movie in theaters and seeing this car and thinking it was so cool, bright green
XKR, big wheels. It seemed neat. I haven't seen the movie since then, but I've always remembered this car. And it wasn't the last Ford in this movie. Another main character drove the new Ford Thunderbird, which at the time was
just coming out, brand new, making a big splash, the new retro Thunderbird. And to capitalize on that car's appearance in the movie, Ford released a 007 edition that you could buy from dealers in this very distinctive, kind of
bizarre, salmon pink color that matched the color in the Thunderbird used in the movie. That was your Ford product placement. So, let's talk quirks and features. Apparently, there were eight different Jaguar XKR models that were
used in Die Another Day. This is pretty common with movie cars. Even though one vehicle is shown on screen, you think it's just one car, there are different cars for different purposes. Some for wider angle shots, some for tight city
driving. They have different cars for different scenes because they can kind of do different things. More on that in a little bit. Now, like I mentioned, the scene this car starred in was a car chase on the ice as James Bond fled
villain Zao from an ice palace located in Iceland. And so, as a result of that, several of the screen-used XKRs didn't ride on Jaguar chassis, but
instead on a Ford Explorer chassis so they could use four-wheel drive. And this is one of those cars. This is not a this is one of those cars. This is not a Jaguar XKR. Looks like one, but it's
sitting on a Ford Explorer chassis. And if you look closely, you can kind of see the rear offset is a little bit wrong. It's a little too wide back there. Doesn't quite seem right, probably because it's not actually a Jaguar XKR
because it's not actually a Jaguar XKR underneath. And interestingly, that also included the powertrain. The Jaguar supercharged V8, silky smooth and wonderful, was replaced in this car with a Ford Windsor V8. An old 302,
apparently. Presumably, that hooked up better with the Ford chassis and running gear that was used in the car, and it was probably easier to modify or upgrade or change for the purposes of the movie filming rather than the Jaguar V8 with
all its electronic controls and computers. They just figured throw in a 302 and we'll upgrade it as we see fit. Totally insane. You never would guess looking at this car, but there's very
little Jaguar left aside from cosmetics. And that becomes extremely clear the moment you start it up, I can promise you a Jaguar XKR normally does not sound
you a Jaguar XKR normally does not sound like this.
this car's many exterior quirks, starting with Actually, let's start with the color. A very distinctive shade of bright green. This color was apparently used on Jaguar's race cars at the time. I don't think it was ever offered on the
I don't think it was ever offered on the XKR, but in the movie, Zao got this special colored car. Obviously, beside the bright green, you're probably most likely to notice the rear-mounted machine gun, which is fixed in place in
this car. And in addition to the machine gun, there's also guns that come out of the front radiator, as you can see. Little bullets ready to be shot at James Bond, trying to pursue him away from the ice palace. Now, interestingly, in some
of the eight screen-used XKRs, these things were retractable, and they were shown on screen retracting. The machine gun coming out of the car, the front guns in the radiator opening up them. There was even like a side-mounted
missile that would pop out. But, this isn't one of the retractable weapons cars. Those were modified specifically for short, close, detail shots, showing those things pop out on screen. And then, the camera would switch to a car
like this, where the stuff is popped out and fixed, so they don't have to have one car that does all of that stuff. They can just use multiple cars for different purposes, which makes filming life maybe more expensive, but certainly
easier when you're shooting. As a result of that, my guess is that this was the car that was shown during the high-speed action shots. Once the guns had already popped out, the cars were driving, racing, chasing each other on the ice. I
think this was the car that was going fast, which also explains why they would switch it to a Ford Explorer four-wheel drive chassis and a Windsor V8. They needed it to drive on the ice and drive fast. And speaking of the ice in back,
you will notice a license plate from Iceland, which, although it's fake, is relatively correct for the time and the location because the ice palace in Die Another Day was located in Iceland. And I always found it funny that Zao, the
villain, was plotting to take over the world, but he did manage to correctly register his car in Iceland and get license plates and the correct Another very noticeable thing on the
outside of this car is the lower body kit. You can see, although most of the car is green, there's this lower section that's sort of a charcoal gray, which that's sort of a charcoal gray, which was never included on any Jaguar XK8 or
wondered why they did that. It looks cool, but it makes the car just a little bit less correct like the one you could go buy from the dealership. Man, like I gray, and you can see as you walk around, the paint's really not doing so
well. Around the rear bumper, it's coming off, and it's flaking in other places. And that's also true of the green exterior paint. You can see a lot of different spots where it's chipping or flaking or just not holding up all
that well, despite the fact that this car has spent most of its life inside at museums like the Peterson. And again, this is how movie cars work. It was very important to have the lower section painted charcoal gray and the car the
correct green for those few days or weeks of shooting when the movie was weeks of shooting when the movie was being made. didn't care about longevity. It didn't matter to them if the paint held up years or even months later, just
so long as it looked good right during the time when they were shooting. So, there's not extra prep and clear coat. Car is essentially a movie prop painted to look good on screen, and after that, more or less discarded. It just didn't
need to matter anymore. And so, paint imperfections pretty common of movie cars as they age since they're not painted like cars. Now then, there are more examples of that stuff on the outside as you look around. The machine
gun popped out of the center is literally just sort of cut out and they literally just cut holes in all of the trim and other panels around the machine really look great, but if you're not doing close-up detail shots, you'll
never notice. The machine gun itself is obviously not a real gun. It's just a bunch of metal pieces kind of put together to look like something that would resemble a gun. And it's the same thing in front with those radiator
shooters. They're also obviously fake and again, the paint is sort of fading and peeling because it car has already done its duty. Also interesting notable on the outside, you can see these roll hoops, these sort of silver painted
pieces behind the seats. Those weren't there on the factory Jaguar XK which in fact was a four-seater. This whole rear seat area has been reconfigured to add the roll hoops and also the machine gun. I guess they put those in to make it
look cooler. Now as for drivability, this car is now sitting on Versteeg tires which as you can see are designed by Giugiaro, famous Italian design house over the years. Apparently they're designing tires now. Make it black and
circular. But that definitely adds an element of drivability to the car now which we'll take advantage of later. Now then, next up we move inside the James then, next up we move inside the James Bond XKR which is very clearly a strip
down, we don't care how it looks movie car and that becomes obvious the moment you open the door and look at the floorboards which have no carpeting and in fact have holes open to the ground
below. You can just stick your finger right through and touch the road. >> Not really a high quality luxury experience like the regular XKR would have been. From there, you look just sort of slightly up and you'll notice
some tubes, some metal tubes, which presumably form some sort of frame or crash structure for this car in order to keep it all in one place or to make sure it was safe on screen. But you also see exposed wires running from the front to
the back. They've done a careful job hiding those lower in the car. I'll have a theory about why in a second, but you can see all that exposed open stuff. This is not a high quality luxury car anymore. It is very much a filming and
movie car, very obvious when you look down there. But probably the most obvious place where it's been messed with for filming use is the gear with for filming use is the gear selector. Gone is Jaguar's luxurious
wood topped J-gate, which effortlessly slides into gear, replaced as you can see by this thing, which obviously does not match the car or the interior and was of course selected because it matches up Windsor V8 under the hood and
it can be used fairly easily, this engine transmission combo. But again, engine transmission combo. But again, doesn't really look very Jaguar XKR, now does it? And next to the modified shift lever situation, you can see a couple of
labels that were stuck on presumably during filming and have remained ever since and explain the usage of the center diff lock, which is this handle here. They say when you want to be driving on tarmac, on regular pavement,
you push it up so the diff can be open. When you're driving on ice, like they were in the movie, you pull it back so the diff can be closed and the car can slide around and drive more easily on the loose surface. And those labels are
pretty cool to see and obviously clear proof that this really was a screen used car, used on the ice in the chases. Pretty neat. But the movie car changes go beyond what you see in the bottom and your center console. There's a lot more
to it than that. How about the fact that the ignition switch is gone? In fact, the Jaguar keys entirely are gone since the Jaguar engine's not there, the ignition replaced instead by these
fairly basic keys that hook up to an ignition switch that's been added here in the center console. And next to the ignition switch, you have a switch for the fuel pump and then a series of other switches and unlabeled buttons, one of
which is for a fire extinguisher system in case the car catches fire during filming. You press that, I guess the stunt driver would, to make sure the car wouldn't completely burn to the ground. You don't have that in a regular XKR. In
fact, in this panel in a regular XKR, you have boring things like your heated seat buttons and your hazard lights, which are obviously no longer necessary in the movie car, replaced instead by these functional items used in filming.
Another interesting change is that the pedals in the pedal box are way offset to the point where the brake pedal is almost all the way at the left part of the foot well area where a clutch pedal would be in a manual transmission car.
I'm not sure why the offset was changed. I wonder if it's to make it easier to do two-footed driving and thus power sliding, which in that movie scene there was a lot of in this car, but regardless, it's been changed. Another
big distinction from the regular Jaguar XKR. And speaking of more major changes, I mentioned the fire extinguisher system, and if you look behind the seats, you can see sort of hidden in there the fire extinguisher, which
presumably is hooked up to that button and would spray out. Maybe there are even a couple of nozzles hidden in the car that would help to extinguish any when you look at that fire extinguisher, you look back behind it and you can see
it's all open back here. No interior trim, no perfectly carpeted trunk. Again, none of this stuff had to be nice and so it just plain isn't, which again is how movie cars are. And another fantastic example of that is that
nothing in this car works like it should. The power windows, for example, do not work. That may just be the reality of a 20-plus-year-old Jaguar, but the climate control does not work, doesn't turn on. Same deal with the
radio. It was never hooked up to this powertrain all the accessories. The center infotainment screen doesn't turn on, doesn't power up. It's not there to actually do anything. They've removed the interior rearview mirror, presumably
to get better camera angle shots of Zhao, the villain, driving the car, so there's no obstruction with the mirror when you see him, but that's gone, too. Even the headlights don't work. They, too, were never hooked up to run with
this powertrain and power system, which makes sense because, again, the scene they were filming this car in was during the day. They didn't really need the the day. They didn't really need the headlights to work and so they don't in
this car. They didn't have to hook it up. Surprisingly, even the seatbelt does not function. There is a driver-side seatbelt sort of mashed behind the seat, maybe intentionally to get it out of the way, but the belt buckle was long ago
removed to make way for wires and tubes part of the frame and the electrical system that is working, and so you can't buckle yourself when you're driving. Again, not really part of movie making. Now, with that said, there is one
interesting thing I've noticed about this car that they did make sure still looks good. And that is basically everything from the middle half of the interior on up. Below the middle half, you have the open floorboards, the
wires, the tubes, the transmission selector, but above the middle half, you still have the regular Jaguar dashboard, the beautiful wood trim, the steering wheel, all in the correct place where
you'd expect it, which suggests to me that they figured that during the course of shooting with this car, they were probably going to get some upper and so they didn't want to mess with that stuff. And so, despite how not
careful they were about how the lower half of the interior looks, the upper half was done really well. The gauges have been fully replaced since the Jag gauges won't talk to the Ford V8. They've put completely new gauges in,
but perfectly placed inside the regular Jaguar gauge pod, which probably had to stay looking like that. More interestingly, there's an extra set of gauges hidden behind the climate control vents, and you can see here you have the
temperature, the fuel gauge, and then a couple of presumably warning lights to But, rather than just pop those gauges in place, they hid them there because again, they probably thought they'd be showing these vents and so they needed
to look correct from the car. After all, the movie was trying to promote it, so it had to look nice, and those gauges are an interesting hidden, subtle component. Now, I especially really do like that detail because they really
clearly went to some great lengths to make the upper half look nice, even though the lower half of the interior, they didn't care. It wasn't going to be on camera, so it didn't matter, and it's all about function. But anyway, very
interesting. Those are the quirks and features of your Jaguar XKR from James Bond. Now, I'm going to do the craziest thing and actually try to drive this machine gun equipped car out on the roads here in Los Angeles around the
Petersen Museum. Let's get behind the wheel and do it. All right, driving the Jag. Uh, wow. This is incredibly loud. I don't know how well you can hear me,
but I hope you can. I can barely hear myself. Uh, there's no mirror, there's no seatbelt, the windows don't go up. This is kind of just what I'm doing here. So, uh,
it's ridiculous to drive. There's no firewall, so it gets insanely There's no firewall, so it gets insanely hot in the driver's seat. Obviously, there's no exhaust, catalytic converter, muffler. You don't have to worry about
that stuff on screen, you know, you put music over it, no one knows it was this loud or this rough of an experience. Man, it is so loud. honestly. Oh.
of terrified to be driving it. I have a DMV day pass and a dealer plate, but I am still driving around in a car with a gun on the back. Oh. Not only is it loud, it's just so harsh.
Honestly, the drive though feels nice. Like the harshness comes from the noise, the heat. The car still does actually feel pretty good, even though it's not actually a Jag underneath, it's surprisingly
comfortable. Now, it doesn't like stopping, so I'm a little bit anxious about this traffic light that I've somehow guided myself into with a car behind. I can't do much to change things. It's so loud, it's so
absurd. This car was never meant to be driven like at normal speeds around on the street. It was for a very specific purpose, screen used high-speed driving, sliding on the ice, and that was kind of intended to be the entire extent of this
car's driving experience. So, this is like a totally crazy way to be using like a totally crazy way to be using this old Windsor V8 with with no muffler and and firewall or heat shield or anything like that.
prop. Oh, it's so hot. It's so hot in here. This one is probably the roughest. Mostly because it was really intended to
be a high-speed car. And so they they've engineered it for that purpose. Oh, man, I just feel terrible. This is how motorcyclists feel with this kind of noise. You just wake everybody up. Boy, this car is just really not It
looks cool on camera. But it was not intended to be driven at all. And it does not feel all that cool with this big old Ford V8. And the heat and the noise. I can't really do a great review of this
car cuz it's so challenging to drive in sort of normal circumstances. But it does give you an idea of what screen-used cars are like. Like they are just not anything close to actual cars. And like I mentioned, it's
definitely more of a prop than a car. With that said, it was pretty cool experience for a few minutes. It's kind of a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing to do it for just a little bit.
cool. I love this car. I've always loved this car. One of my Up there in my top Uh but now that I've driven it, it definitely puts a completely different framework in my mind of what this car is actually like.
actually like. Oh, so loud. So hot. My knees and legs are so hot. It drives fairly normal otherwise. The steering is pretty good, you know, normal steering. The ride quality is pretty normal. It feels fine.
But man, is it loud and hot and the fuel smell because they they're not concerned about exhaust or emissions. It's just not part of what they're thinking about. What a crazy experience in a truly crazy car. And so, that's the Jaguar XKR from
Die Another Day, a James Bond movie legend. I have always thought this car was cool and I'm thrilled I got to spend the day with it, review it, and show you all of its quirks and features thanks to the Petersen Museum. And now it's time
the Petersen Museum. And now it's time to give this crazy XKR a Doug score. 100, which puts the Die Another Day XKR here against some similar cars. Of
course, it's not really competitive with any of these except for maybe the Honda because the Jag has been so heavily modified away from its original purpose of being a car. You'll notice it gets a one for features because nothing works
immensely hot in the driver seat and immensely loud everywhere, including miles away. But, this car gets a nine for cool factor and it deserves it. I'm still smiling when I think about driving it.