IFF marks 20th anniversary of work weekends

007 vehicles owned by Ian Fleming Foundation. (Photo by Tony Blackwood)

KANKAKEE, Illinois — The Ian Fleming Foundation marked the 20th anniversary of the group’s “work weekends,” where volunteers refurbish vehicles that have appeared in James Bond movies.

The foundation owns more than 35 such vehicles, about half stored at Kankakee, Illinois, the other half stored in the U.K.

The group normally conducts two work weekends in Illinois a year, one in the spring, one in the fall.

This weekend’s event centered on moving the vehicles stored in Illinois from one airport hangar to a larger one at the same facility.

The vehicles involved included a truck from Licence to Kill, a Jaguar sports car from Die Another Day and the Q boat from The World Is Not Enough.

The foundation was formed in 1992. A description of the group’s activities can be found on its website.

007’s unheralded car

Ford Mondeo prototype from Casino Royale

The HMSS Weblog paid a visit to Momence, Illinois, over the weekend where the Ian Fleming Foundation was doing maintenance on vehicles that have appeared in James Bond movies. One of them isn’t thought of as a Bond car, even though it is.

It’s a Ford Mondeo prototype driven by Daniel Craig early in the 2006 movie Casino Royale, making it the first Bond car of the Craig era. Craig’s Bond in the movie would shortly drive flashier cars, such as an Aston Martin DB5 and a 21st century Aston. But the Mondeo is the first car Craig/Bond is seen in.

The foundation sought the Mondeo from Ford Motor Co. after the Casino Royale came out. The developmental prototype wasn’t built for everyday driving and not intended to go out on city streets. It’s just another example of the magic of the movies to make things seem what they aren’t. The only clue in the movie was the fact the Mondeo never drove in traffic, only by itself.

Ian Fleming Foundation acquires Licence to Kill aircraft

The Ian Fleming Foundation which, among other things, seeks to preserve and display vehicles that appeared in James Bond movies, has acquired a single-engine aircraft used by villain Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi) in 1989’s Licence to Kill.

In the film, it appears that Bond (Timothy Dalton) hooks a cable aroound the Cessna plane and a U.S. helicopter hauls it in. In real life, multiple Cessna planes were used. The foundation has acquired the plane shown after the U.S. helicopter takes control.

You can see the plane in its prime in this clip near the end of a 1:30 clip on YouTube that you can view by CLICKING HERE. The clip was uploaded so it doesn’t permit embedding. But we’re leaving an image from it below because it makes this post look better.

The Architectural Record talks about the IFF “Bond Vehicles” museum

Although it’s not exactly breaking news at this point, the Architectural Record website has got a nice little article, posted today, about the Ian Fleming Foundation’s planned “Bond Vehicles” museum.

Tudor Van Hampton’s piece, Gensler Tapped for James Bond Museum, is a brief précis on the genesis of the museum, and the famed architectural firm’s involvement in the project. It also carries a very interesting slideshow featuring CGI mockups and architectural drawings of the facility.

(Sadly, the slideshow does not feature this picture of HMSS Managing Editor Tom Zielinski taking the Live and Let Die speedboat for an imaginary spin.)

Click for larger -- and funnier -- image.

Of course, we here at HMSS wish the IFF in general — and our good pal (and sometimes contributor) Doug Redenius in particular — all the luck in the world with this ambitious project. Today, Momence; tomorrow… who knows?

You can read all about it RIGHT HERE.

WMAQ in Chicago profiles Ian Fleming Foundation’s Doug Redenius

WMAQ, NBC’s affiiliate in Chicago, has profiled Doug Redenius, vice president of the Ian Fleming Foundation, who supervises that group’s efforts to collect vehicles that appeared in James Bond movies.

To see the story, CLICK RIGHT HERE. The WMAQ story occurred after The Wall Street Journal ran a similar feature in August.

WSJ profiles Ian Fleming Foundation’s Doug Redenius

The Wall Street Journal, in its Personal Journal section, ran a profile of Doug Redenius, the Ian Fleming Foundation vice president who supervises that group’s efforts to acquire and revamp vehicles that have appeared in James Bond movies.

The story by Mark Yost has this passage:

The 54-year old has been a postal worker for more than 30 years and married to the same woman for almost as long. But through luck and determination this humble, middle-class Bond enthusiast from Illinois, who has been a fan of the films and of Agent 007 since the age of 8, has managed to amass the largest collection of James Bond cars in the world. You could call him Q’s archivist.

Unfortunately, for much of the year, this impressive 33-item collection is sitting in a barn in a cornfield here, about 10 miles from St. Ann, Ill., where Mr. Redenius grew up. But he is hoping to change that. He has partnered with the city of Momence, one of many dying river towns in the Midwest. Together, Mr. Redenius and Momence are hoping to raise enough money to build the Museum of Bond Vehicles and Espionage. At the bare minimum, they’ll renovate an abandoned used-car dealership, hoping to draw about 20,000 visitors a year. If they can find a rich benefactor, they’d like to build a $1.5 million, 14,000-square-foot exhibit space, designed by the hip Chicago architecture firm Gensler.

You can read all of Yost’s story BY CLICKING HERE. That link also includes a slideshow of some of the vehicles stored at Momence, Illinois. If you’re looking for a copy of the print edition, the story is in the D section (page D5 of the edition we saw).

Also, from the HMSS archives, you read about Redenius’ personal collection (which is separate from the foundation vehicles) BY CLICKING HERE.