As an official sponsor of the new James Bond film called ‘Quantum of Solace’, Ford gets the chance to promote its vehicles in all sorts of ways, on and off the movie set. In 007’s new adventure that opens in UK and French cinemas on October 31st, with the rest of the world following in November 2008, Ford’s new KA mini makes a cameo appearance by the side of Camille played by Olga Kurylenko. In case it slipped your attention, she’s the foxy lady sitting next to the Ka in the picture above. Continued

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Last week Panasonic Toyota Racing brought the Batmobile and Bat-Pod vehicles for a demonstration run alongside the Toyota TF108 F1 car at the Silverstone race track. The Batmobile that will be featured in the new Batman movie “The Dark Knight” is around 3m at its widest point, 4.5m long and 1.5m high, weighing in at 2.5 tons. It is equipped with a 340hp 5.7-litre V8 gasoline engine and it has six wheels - two in the front, outfitted with sprint car race tires, and four monster truck tires at the back. See images after the jump. Continued

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countless celebs go green by either choosing to drive in a hybrid vehicle, electric car or even a scooter. The latest well-known person we’ve heard has made the change to two-wheels might not be a celebrity by the strictest definition of the word, but we’re sure you know his name: Donald Rumsfeld. We’re going to leave any political bits out of this post and just suggest that it’s nice to see well-known people make a fuel-saving purchase. The specific scooter model that Mr. Rumsfeld, former Defense Secretary of the United States, has chosen is the Vespa LX150. The fine-looking Italian is a capable mount and features a 150cc four-stroke engine which powers the metal-bodied machine up to around sixty miles per hour. Riders of scooters such as this one typically report fuel mileage of around seventy miles per gallon, which surely makes the Vespa Rumsfeld’s most efficient ride.

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For the environmental conscience of the style-conscious elite, we have good news and bad news. The good news is that there’s finally a more suitable alternative to the Toyota Prius. The bad news is that it’s arguably no better looking. But like moths to the limelight, the big names have flocked to the new BMW Hydrogen 7. After being adopted by such stars as Cameron Diaz, Will Ferrell, Jay Leno and Placido Domingo, the latest of the rich and famous to receive the keys to the luxo-enviromobile is none other than His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco.

The monarch of the tax-haven Mediterranean principality took delivery of the Hydrogen 7 at the Ever Monaco environmental exposition in Monte Carlo, where Prince Albert proclaimed, “I monitor very carefully, in the automobile sector in particular, the development of new technologies”. Hmm, guess that means the crown prince reads Autoblog – or our sister-site Autoblog Green, which reported this particular piece of news previously – on a fairly regular basis then. Welcome to the site, your highness.

Unfortunately this means that with only 100 examples of the car being offered to the public, that’s one less for the rest of us. Press release after the jump.

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We’ve had too many opportunities to redefine the term “auto erotic” lately. As if the ongoing saga of FIA president Max Mosley’s alarming sexual encounters or the mating habits of exotic automobiles weren’t enough, here come the results of what could very well be the celebrity auto auction of the year: Jenna Jameson’s Lamborghini.

For those who pretend they don’t know who Jenna Jameson is, she’s perhaps the world’s most famous, er…”adult film star”. (We had to look it up on Wikipedia, of course.) While her clothes may be consistently a couple of sizes too small, it’s only fitting that the starlet should drive the most explicit erotic exotic supercar on the market: the Lamborghini Murcielago. It’s hard to believe she didn’t go topless this time — Jameson actually went for the coupe, which she bought in 2002. Since then, Jenna’s yellow Raging Bull has done 11,658 miles. In case there was any doubt that Jameson could handle a stick like a pro, the Lambo is equipped with a six-speed manual (instead of smacking it around with the paddles) and decked out in black leather (naturally) offset by blonde highlights (yellow topstitching). The car was advertised - *ahem*, tongue in cheek - as “extremely clean” and “ready to go”, and as our compatriots over at CarScoop pointed out, there’s a decent chance there’s some tread left on the tires. Complete with dual front airbags (hey-o!), the car sold on Friday for a video-on-demand Buy-It-Now price of $182,900 on eBay Motors.

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We love talking about car-related movies here at Autoblog, so it’s no surprise that we’re actually interested in the silver screen conversion of the ’80s TV show Magnum P.I. in which an ex-Navy seal turned private eye keeps the Hawaiian islands safe from cheesy bad guys while driving an iconic Ferrari 308 GTS with gusto. The lead character in the TV series, Thomas Magnum, was played by Tom Selleck who wore Hawaiian shirts and what our colleagues at Cinematical call “big, porn mustaches” on the show.

The idea for making a Magnum P.I. movie has been around since 2006, but for some reason Hollywood has resisted the temptation until now. A script is now floating around penned by Rawson Thurber of Dodgeball fame (good sign, eh?), and as we speak Matthew McConaughey is rumored to be reading the script. Don’t even think about it Matt, just do it. We bet they’ll let you keep that Hawaiian shirt unbuttoned the entire time to show off your prosthetic chest hair.

Other actors who have been mentioned for the role include Ben Affleck, George Clooney and Vince Vaughn, while the original Magnum, Mr. Selleck, has called the movie “stupid” and vowed to take no part in it. It appears Selleck does not subscribe to the David Hasselhoff Theory of Celebrity Comebacks, in which one never lets an old role die.

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