A unique collection of screen vehicles could soon be winning more tourists for Scotland. James Bond’s gadget-loaded sports cars and legendary cars like the Batmobile, the A-Team’s van and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, could soon be housed alongside the former Royal yacht Britannia in Edinburgh in a waterfront museum.

Millionaire businessman Peter Nelson, has collected his unique array of vehicles from Hollywood movies and television series over the past two decades, but his collection has outgrown its current home at the Cars of the Stars museum in the Lake District. As Northern Exposure reported some time ago, Nelson was considering a number of sites to house part of his collection in Scotland.

Nelson has now approached Forth Ports with a proposal to open a new multi-million pound museum in Leith, in which the company is said to be "very interested".

Terry Smith, Forth Ports property director, said: "Ocean Terminal opens in October and this is the kind of attraction that might go down very well."

Mr Nelson had looked around 10 sites in Scotland - including two in Edinburgh, two in Glasgow, one in Aberdeen, and one near Dundee - before deciding to capitalise on the success of up-and-coming Leith.

Bonded Warehouse

He will exhibit vehicles in Scotland that he is currently unable to put out on show at the museum in Keswick. These would include his extensive collection of gadget-filled vehicles from the long-running series of James Bond films. The 1971 Mach 1 Ford Mustang driven by Sean Connery in Diamonds Are Forever, the Aston Martin used by Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye and Roger Moore’s submersible Lotus Esprit Turbo, bristling with weapons, from The Spy Who Loved Me are all likely to be on show in the Scottish museum.

Mr Nelson said that he was open to suggestions on the museum’s structure. He said: "It could be new-build or an existing property. Perhaps the area could house another attraction to keep generating visitors, in addition to Britannia."

The businessman said it would cost him about £500,000 to set up the project. He said he was also making enquiries about land availability with the Duke of Buccleuch, Scotland’s largest private landowner.

Noddy’s Gamini

Other famous vehicles in the collection are the Mad Max Interceptor, Herbie the Volkswagen Beetle, Kitt, the car from Knightrider, Fab 1 from Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds, Batmobiles driven by the masked hero from Gotham City, and Noddy’s car - a Fiat Gamini.

Mr Nelson added: "I will rotate the exhibitions between the Lake District and Scotland by moving them in a cavalcade convoy, probably led by the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car.

"I got the idea because the Latvian government has just hired five of the cars to lead a procession marking the 800th anniversary of the founding of the state.

"They insisted on having Mr Bean’s Mini because the comedy series is so popular there. So if the cars can travel to Latvia they can easily move between Scotland and Keswick."

Mr Nelson began his car collection in the 1980s when he was stopped in his MGTC by a film crew who wanted to hire the vehicle for the TV series The Spoils of War.