THE name is Hammond.

Richard Hammond. The Top Gear presenter gets the chance to put James Bond’s beloved DB5 through its paces in a Top Gear special, 50 Years Of Bond Cars.

The Hamster will spend plenty of time plugging new 007 movie Skyfall, but with 50 years of amazing motors contributing to Bond’s success, there is plenty of motor talk, too, such as the Aston Martin with the front ejector seat in Goldfinger, and the submersible Lotus from The Spy Who Loved Me. To date, more than a quarter of the planet’s population has seen Bond going about his spectacular day job, and here Hammond waxes lyrical about the cars with a licence to thrill.

In 1962, Dr No’s budget was so tight, Ian Fleming’s legendary creation had to settle for a humble Sunbeam Alpine (rented for 12 shillings a day).

After being chased by a hearse, the enemy goes over a cliff, then Sean Connery got on with the rest of the movie.

No breathtaking twisty-turny bridge jumps as in Live and Let Die; no balletic chases on ice a la Die Another Day. It was all just a bit dull by 2012 terms.

As the years went by and the Bond films became a licence to print money, carmakers were desperate to have their vehicles featured in the next 007 epic.By the mid-1970s, Lotus big cheese Don McLachlan decided to take a prototype Esprit to the Bond producers at Pinewood studios, but deliberately taped over any part of the car that said Lotus.

He parked the motor outside the Bond offices and went to see a friend. As planned, 007 bosses were drooling by lunchtime, but McLachlan returned a little later, made his way through the crowd and drove off without saying a word.

The gamble worked and the producers snapped it up, but there were problems.

The Lotus gripped so well on location in Sardinia, the stunt driver had trouble making it look dynamic on screen.

No 007 car tribute would be complete without Daniel Craig’s input, and he was thrilled to take an old favourite out for a spin for Skyfall.

He said: “It’s no secret we’ve got the old DB5 in this, and the buttons are all there; they’re in the console, so I get to play with them.”