20 Things You Didn’t Know About On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

10. “I Hope My Big End Will Stand Up To This!”

George Lazenby Bond OHMSS
MGM/UA

On 25th January 1969 in minus 20 degrees, Peter Hunt and second unit director, Anthony Squire started filming the stock car race featuring Tracy’s 1969 Ford Mercury Cougar XR-7 and Irma Bunt’s 1963 Mercedes-Benz 220 S.

A large field had been sourced on a plateau between Lauterbrunnen and Stechelberg, Switzerland, which was flooded with water and allowed to freeze several times over.

Austrian rally driver, Eric Glavitza coordinated the race, in which the Mercedes-Benz pursued the Mercury Cougar through his racing team’s Ford Escorts and Austin Minis. The unpredictable ice threatened to throw the vehicles out of focus onscreen, but Glavitza’s main challenge was getting his own Ford Escort to barrel roll; when this originally failed, he dug a trench and placed a tree stump in it, which flipped the Escort when Glavitza skidded into it.

Squire was impressed by the intense battering that Bunt's Mercedes-Benz took without showing any damage, even after being flipped upside down using a ramp.

The stock car race ultimately took three weeks to film and cost £225,000.

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I started writing for WhatCulture in July 2020. I have always enjoyed reading and writing. I have contributed to several short story competitions and I have occasionally been fortunate enough to have my work published. During the COVID-19 lockdown, I also started reviewing films on my Facebook page. Numerous friends and contacts suggested that I should start my own website for reviewing films, but I wanted something a bit more diverse - and so here I am! My interests focus on film and television mainly, but I also occasionally produce articles that venture into other areas as well. In particular, I am a fan of the under appreciated sequel (of which there are many), but I also like the classics and the mainstream too.