Actor Pierce Brosnan with the Aston Martin Vanquish V12 that he drove in Die Another Day

London, Sept. 17: James Bond’s Aston Martin has seen him through countless scrapes and become as closely identified with him as his “shaken, not stirred” dry Martinis.

But in his latest incarnation, the agent licensed to kill will trade it in for something less racy.

In the new Bond novel, Devil May Care, 007 will conduct his missions in a Bentley. While Bond has been associated with Aston Martin since driving the DB5 model — complete with retractable tyre slashers — in the film of Ian Fleming’s novel Goldfinger, Sebastian Faulks, the author of the new book, said he would take the agent back to his motoring roots. “Despite many of the films portraying him with an Aston Martin, Bond’s first choice of car was a Bentley, so that is what he will be driving in my book,” he said. “He also spends quite a lot of time abroad on his adventure, so in want of a hire car, which wouldn’t really befit James, he will also have a driver at his disposal.”

Faulks, the author of Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, said Bond’s car in the novel, which is set in 1967, would be “battleship grey” — the same colour as his Bentley convertible in Casino Royale, Fleming’s first Bond novel. Bond’s return to Bentley will be a blow to Aston Martin, which last week topped a poll of Britain’s “coolest” brands. Inspired by the success of the recent film adaptation of Casino Royale, in which 007, played by Daniel Craig, drives an Aston Martin DB9, the cars have soared in popularity.

James Rosenstein, Bentley's global director of external affairs, saidBond’s car could be the 1967 T-series Bentley.