"Bond had the most selfish car in England. It was a Mark II Continental Bentley that some rich idiot had married to a telegraph pole on the Great West Road. Bond had bought the bits for £1500 and Rolls had straightened the bend in the chassis and fitted new clockwork—the Mark IV engine with 9.5 compression. Then Bond had gone to Mulliners with £3000, which was half his total capital, and they had sawn off the old cramped sports saloon body and had fitted a trim, rather square convertible two-seater affair, power-operated, with only two large armed bucket seats in black leather. The rest of the blunt end was all knife-edged, rather ugly, trunk. The car was painted in rough, not gloss, battleship gray and the upholstery was black morocco. She went like a bird and a bomb and Bond loved her more than all the women at present in his life rolled, if that were feasible, together."
That story sounds just like me, much like James Bond, but with an old ordinary Grand Prix instead that never married a utility pole and didn’t need much restoration and doesn’t have a convertible top and has glossy paint rather than dull…
… I guess it’s really just the Bond part… James Bond that sounds just like me (if you forget about the bird and the bomb and all the women and stuff). CSA
This James Bond story reminded me that years ago on Car Talk, Tom and Ray read some of the winning entries from The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, an annual literature competition.
They would read and would crack up laughing so hard they couldn’t breathe or continue reading. It got me reading the winning entries every year.
What does that mean? Like a bird I can guess, but like a bomb? How would a car be like a bomb? Does “bomb” mean like the way a bomb is typically shaped, long and sleek?
And now I’m thinking about it, what does this sentence mean, the “knife-edged” part?
" The rest of the blunt end was all knife-edged, rather ugly, trunk."
I have to say Bond’s idea of rolling all the women in ones life together seems rather good … lol …
_@GeorgeSanJose_ “What does that mean? Like a bird I can guess, but like a bomb? How would a car be like a bomb? Does “bomb” mean like the way a bomb is typically shaped, long and sleek?”
From what I can ascertain, " [went or go] like a bomb" is a British expression that means: to move very quicklyormove with great speed or success. CSA
