km : Cultural and Events News

It's amazing when you stumble upon something very, very cool that's just within a stone's throw of you. Imagine the surprise, then, on the kilometer staff's faces when we discovered that the keeper of the largest collection of Bond film cars in the world was only 50 miles from our office. You'll have to forgive us for not knowing, though, considering the cars have spent most of their lives sitting in metal barns in a cornfield in nearby Momence; hardly a fitting location for such icons, if you ask us.


But that is no more, thanks to the Ian Fleming Foundation, the city of Momence, and design powerhouse Gensler. The trio has created a museum for the cars to be stored in, and, to borrow words from Richard Hammond, just look at it! It perfectly resembles all that 007 is, and provides an extremely fitting setting for the vehicles Bond exuded pure awesomeness in, on, or with.


The museum, which hopes to bring in 20,000 visitors each year, hopes to be a catalyst for Momence, a once-bustling city of 3000 which could use a bit of revitalization. The citizens of Momence will have to wait until 2012 for the museum to open, though, which is fitting since that year will be the 50th anniversary of the first Bond film, Dr. No.

Tweet