This custom roofless Range Rover was inspired by Bond

A faithful conversion that Q would be proud of

Most fans of the genre agree that Octopussy was a pretty poor entry in the Bond franchise.

From a 55-year-old Roger Moore disguised as a clown to a rickshaw doing wheelies, it was about as tongue-in-cheek as Ian Fleming’s famous spy got on screen.

It did, though, harbour several treats for car fans, including a one-off roofless Range Rover used to great effect by Bond and his sultry sidekick Bianca.

No one knows what became of the movie car, but it inspired Chris Bishop to build this custom version – and it’s just as quirky as its on-screen equivalent.

Topless mayhem

The Octopussy Range Rover first appears in the pre-credit sequence, piloted by Bond and pulling a horsebox. Predictably, the spy is promptly accosted by baddies. 

With Bianca at the helm, he leaps onto the open rear deck, causes a suitable amount of mayhem then escapes in a Bede BD5 micro jet (hidden in the back of a fake horse in the trailer).

In someone's secret service

Alas, despite its on-screen prominence, the topless Rangie totally dropped off the radar. It’s never been shown at any of the Bond exhibitions and nobody even knows for sure which chop shop did the conversion.

There’s general agreement, though, that it was a Rapport Huntsman – your basic eight-seater, de-roofed Range Rover built to satisfy the whims of a mainly Middle Eastern market.

Range Rover royale

Rapport was among the leading Range Rover modifiers of the late-’70s and early-’80s, filling a vacuum for specialist and luxury versions of the world-beating 4x4. 

Extras ranged from spoof Rolls-Royce grilles to a third axle that would make it a six-wheeler. Why? Because it could.

Built to order

In comparison, the Huntsman was almost tasteful in its austerity – but the machine pictured isn’t one. 

No, it’s even more unique: Chris Bishop – of Bishops 4x4 in Peterborough – built it specially for client and friend Chris Sturgess.

Two doors only

For the conversion, Bishop sourced a left-hand-drive, two-door Range Rover with fairly low mileage built for the French market. 

That meant it came as a four-speed manual, without overdrive and carrying a carburettor-fed 3.5-litre V8 engine – and was therefore pretty close mechanically to the original Octopussy machine.

From rusty to loved

“It was cosmetically challenged,” Bishop recalls, “with the usual rusty floors and no history, but it was solid and complete with a lovely quiet gearbox.” 

“Other than stills from the film,” he continues, “we didn’t have a lot to go on. In fact, as much as anything we referred to the Corgi model for working out how it was going to look.”

Bull with no bars

It differs from the original in that it lacks a bull bar on the front – Sturgess didn’t think they were politically correct these days, given their propensity to harm pedestrians – and has more pleasingly shaped rear bench seat frames, with no sharp, ugly corners to crack your elbows on.

The wind is not enough

Like the film car, it’s had its window frames removed, but Sturgess requested that it retain the quarterlights so there could be glass in the doors. 

“On the rare occasions that you might want to travel with the windows up,” says Bishop, “the quarterlight frames are enough to stop the glass wobbling around.”

Don't let the sky fall

Bishop intends to make a tonneau cover for it; without it, the roofless Rangie is in no way weatherproof – although the Ripstop tent canvas coverings are more appropriate than the ‘teddy bear’ trim on the front seats of the Octopussy car. 

In its heyday, Rapport offered the Huntsman with a canvas top or, if you didn’t need to carry six people on benches, you could have ordered a Starlight convertible with a conventional back seat and a powered roof.

Firmer frame

Bishop believes that the rear seat frames, as fitted to this Huntsman recreation, replace a lot of the rigidity inevitability lost when the big one-piece side-window structures were removed.

Live and let drive

What’s it like to drive? On asphalt it’s smooth, torquey and relaxed, with an exceptionally good ride and surprisingly little wind buffeting, even at 70mph. 

Off-road the Range Rover fords streams and claws its way up banks in just the same way as the closed versions, like it was born to.

Drive another day

Admittedly, opportunities to use the open-top Octopussy recreation would be few and far between in the UK – so it’s probably best suited to an individual with, say, their own private Caribbean island.

You know, the kind of villainous sort given to petting fluffy white cats while plotting heinous schemes.

You only build twice

More Bond villain than Bond, then, and with a £95,000 price tag – or thereabouts – you’d need to be a pretty big fan to buy one. 

Then again, where there’s Bond, there’s a market: Chris Bishop has already taken an order to build another one.