This isn't actually a review of the new Bond flick Casino Royale, as such. I'm going to come at this from a strange perspective (as the title might suggest), so if you're looking for a 'proper' review , then pop over and see Dan's review of the film.

My review is not going to be of the movie, but rather it will be of - in my opinion - the real stars of the movie: the cars. For me, regardless of who's playing Bond, the automobiles are always the true stars.

Before you dismiss this as a bad idea, think about it: has there ever been a bad Bond car?

Let's go through the list, but here I will add a warning: it gets nerdy from here on in, so either be a fan of the cars, Bond, or ideally both, before continuing.

Bond's car in the Fleming books was not, as most people think, an Aston Martin. No, it was a 1930 Bentley Convertible, complete with a 4.5-litre supercharged engine. It was actually mentioned in the Casino Royale book as Bond's hobby. Fleming, however, got his dates wrong, as it's stated that he bought the car almost new in 1933, then in Live and Let Die states it was a 1933 model; however the 4.5-litre SC ceased production in 1930. Fleming later corrected his error in the Moonraker book.

When the movies were released, however, the car was given a starring role rather than just the sideline role the books had given it.

Possibly the most famous Bond car is the Aston Martin DB5. This appeared primarily in Goldfinger, Thunderball, Goldeneye, and now in Casino Royale.

The car was also the one to introduce us to the Q branch of MI6. It was the car to receive the standard bulletproof panels and revolving number plates and the famous ejector seat.

The Aston Martin DB Mark III was used by Ian Fleming in the Goldfinger book. However the DB Mark III was not used in the movie, and was replaced with the DB5 above.

The reason for this was one of sponsorship. The DB5 was the car that Aston Martin had for sale in the early '60s, where the DB Mark III had gone out of production in 1959 to be replaced by the DB4/5.

You Only Live Twice did not feature many cars; instead the star of the motor show was the Gyrocopter called 'Little Nellie'. There was, however, a very special car featured in the movie, even if most people didn't notice it. Toyota actually built two 'one off' 2000GT Convertibles. These where the only convertible versions of the 2000GT ever built — one is on display in the Toyota headquarters in Japan.