Cafe Racer of the week: Fiona Volpe and her BSA Lightning.

Fiona Volpe is a professional and deadly assassin in SPECTRE's execution branch. But in reality her 650 BSA Lightning was heavily modified for its appearance in the 1965 James Bond movie Thunderball.

Playing Fiona, actress Lucianna Paluzzi was seen on-screen driving the BSA in the movie, But a lot of special work took place on the bike before it took its brief moment on center-stage.

To begin with special-effects supervisor Bert Luxford took the bike to his workshop at Pinewood Studios. It was there that he and his team fitted a curvy Avon Avonaire fairing to be placed around the front of the bike. This was developed to both enhance the vehicles visual appeal, and also to disguise one of its more sinister features…

In the film a missile launcher is shown as an added feature to the 650cc motorcycle. Just like on-screen a real working missile-launch system was fitted. However, the explosion which destroyed the car of villian Count Lippe, was actually detonated remotely in a separate scene by stuntman Bob Simmons.

Sadly the in the movie Fiona rolls the bike into the sea after her gruesome task is complete and it was never to be seen again...."