20 Things You Didn’t Know About For Your Eyes Only (1981)
3. “I Love A Drive In The Country, Don’t You?”
After Bond’s Lotus Esprit Turbo self-destructs as a precaution against would-be thieves, Double-0 Seven is forced to rely upon Melina Havelock’s yellow Citroën 2CV as an escape vehicle. This was designed as a visual statement of how Bond would be relying more upon his wits than on Q’s gadgets in the film.
Four Citroën 2CVs were modified for the film with flat-four engines so that they would perform more powerfully during the subsequent chase with Hector Gonzales’s men, whilst one was given a revolving roof plate to aid in filming the scenes where it rolls upside down.
Driving stunts coordinator, Rémy Julienne and his team worked on the film, starting a long-running relationship with the Bond series that lasted through all of the subsequent films up to and including GoldenEye (1995).
Even though his Double-0 Seven had driven various Lotus Esprits, Roger Moore named the Citroën 2CV as his favourite of all the cars that he had driven during his time as James Bond.