Pierce Brosnan is arguably one of the best James Bonds ever to be played on the screen. And his history with BMW cars in movies is quite extensive. There have been three Bond BMWs, driven by Brosnan. In Goldeneye, Brosnan’s first Bond film, he briefly drives a BMW Z3. In the following movie, Tomorrow Never Dies, Bond drives a BMW 750iL. However, the most exciting BMW he’s driven, in our opinion, was the BMW Z8 featured in The World is Not Enough.
But it turns out, Brosnan drove at least one BMW in his personal life as well. According to Motor1, quoting a Redditor, in the mid-1990s, Brosnan found himself on the receiving end of a substantial gift from BMW, following the success of Goldeneye. He called his BMW 850Ci a “little present.”
A fascinating anecdote emerged during an episode of The Late Night with Conan O’Brien on February 7, 1997, where Brosnan shared a tale of being caught speeding in Idaho on the first day of shooting for Dante’s Peak. Despite hitting 120 mph, he received only a warning. The police officers, intrigued by Goldeneye’s bungee jump at the Verzasca Dam in Switzerland, sought details in exchange for leniency. So why was Brosnan speeding? According to the video snippet on Letterman, Brosnan said that the car was so exceptionally smooth that he hadn’t realized how fast he was going.
Being a BMW 850Ci, it has a 5.0 liter naturally aspirated V12, making 296 hp and 332 lb-ft. Considering some BMW four-cylinders make more than that now, the E31 seems a bit slow. But that silky V12 is far more enjoyable to use than most current BMW engines.
