Elite Beyond Recognition: Carte Blanche Luxury Bentley Edition

You don’t need it, and damn sure can’t afford it. While you gaze upon the showcase here, you can hear your checkbook crying wherever it is — that’s for sure. We don’t care. We’re just waving flashy stuff around that we can’t afford either.  Welcome to your tour of the unnecessary and elite.

Quite frankly, we weren’t sure where to put this one. It’s elite as all hell but it’s not any sort of gadget. It is, however, cool as hell, so we felt it should be shared anyway. So what is this mystery item?

It’s a special edition of the next James Bond book, titled Carte Blanche. It was designed by Bentley’s top engineers and limited to only 500 copies.

While most people think of James Bond as an Aston Martin driver, he actually drives Bentleys in the original novels. Ian Fleming, who created James Bond, was apparently a big fan of Bentley and loved to drive them in real life.

As per the official website for the special edition of the book: “James Bond drove several different Bentleys throughout the fourteen original novels by Ian Fleming, the first of which was the 1933 4 and a half litre Bentley convertible (Casino Royale, Live and Let Die). Later in Thunderball he acquired a wreck of Mark II Continental Bentley, restored it and customised it, and called it “The Locomotive.” Bond’s appreciation of the finer things in life was a reflection of his creator’s own tastes, especially when it came to magnificent automobiles.”

Bond’s appreciation of the finer things in life was a reflection of his creator’s own tastes, especially when it came to magnificent automobiles.

In the new novel, the tradition continues: Bond drives a Bentley Continental GT, which is what the case that comes with the book is designed to look like.

The most impressive part? Each book has a hole cut into it the size of a 9mm round. In that hole is an actual, polished 9mm round with the book’s serial number stamped on the end of it.

The book is now available for preorder and goes on sale on May 26th for $1,600.