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The armored Range DB5 Rover.

The Range DB5 Rover is a second generation Range Rover modified on a budget by Richard Hammond and James May to function as a spy car. Due to being built on a tight budget, the Range DB5 Rover has no high-tech armaments and was mostly unsuccessful.

Design[]

  • The left side of the car was heavily armoured, using high grade steel to cover the body and the wheels, and Hammond added sandbags, sandwiched between the car and the steel armour. To protect the windows, Hammond bought several side windows from a scrapyard and glued them together. Hammond could only armour one side of the car, so was bent on one side. The heavy armour reduced the performance, handling and visibility. Hammond took the Range DB5 Rover to a shooting range and asked the personnel to fire 50 cal. bullets from the AS50 rifle. The car fared poorly, especially the glass as it shattered inside, leaving hazardous smoke inside the car, but the car managed to start and drive away.
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The Ejector seat.

  • Similar to James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 and the Budget Bond Car, the Range DB5 Rover featured a passenger ejector seat. The seat was a special seat with stickers saying "DANGER" and the strap to eject was easily visible. James May claimed that no spy would openly reveal his ejector seats, so the villians might just think they are joking. A person was asked to sit in the ejector seat, and when Hammond pulled the trigger, the sit ejected up, but did not manage to penetrate the Range Rover's roof, which resulted the roof being dented and the person becoming squashed and small.
  • The vehicle's armaments included a rear mounted flamethrower, which when activated, comes out of the rear license plate and fires at the enemy behind. The Range DB5 Rover features a rear camera and a monitor on the passenger side, which was controlled by James May. The car had a strap above, which was the trigger of the guided missile, which could be controlled by the passenger side "Remote Bomb Control". The guided missile was a remote controlled Range Rover toy car, with attached missiles. As the bomb neared the target, it could be made to explode. The last weapon was the oil slick, which only released tiny amount of oil, but was effective. But Hammond used the flamethrower and oil slick at the same time, causing a combustion and the car was on fire and exploded.
  • Normal car dashboard with controls for the ejector seat, guided missiles, flamethrower and oil slick.

Testing[]

The Range DB5 Rover's bulletproofing and armoring was tested by Richard Hammond, who enlisted the help of soldiers who fired 50 caliber shots from a AS50 rifle. The car fared poorly, as the glasses were so close to being shattered, and there were a lot of bulletholes in the bodywork.

May and Hammond tested the ejector seat, and successfully ejected from the seating position but failed to make it through the roof, thus shrinking the 'villain'.

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The Range DB5 Rover on fire.

The duo then tested the car's weaponry. The camera, the flamethrower and the guided missile system worked very well and the Range DB5 Rover managed to shake off it's first two pursuers. But while trying the evade a Saab, Hammond carelessly used both the oil slick and the flamethrower, setting the car on fire. Soon the car was bought to a stop and later exploded.

See Also[]

  • Budget Bond Car - Another James Bond car designed by Edd China, featured in Top Gear Series 1.
  • Invisible Car - A van which had Top Gear's invisibility technology, to show Bond critics that invisibility isn't science fiction.
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