THE University of Nottingham has helped give James Bond the edge in the latest 007 adventure hitting cinema screens tomorrow.

When Daniel Craig reprises the role of Fleming's iconic superspy, in The Quantum of Solace, he will continue the franchise's special relationship with Aston Martin.

Bond will be taking the wheel of their flagship model, the DBS.

A new lightweight super strong material, developed by researchers in the university's Polymer Composites Group, in collaboration with Aston Martin engineers, will be helping him in high speed chases.

Underneath the exterior of the DBS is a highly engineered body structure which contains components made using a process called Directed Carbon Fibre Preforming (DCFP).

During the process, carbon fibres are placed by a robot into a carefully controlled form and epoxy resin is injected around the fibres to create a carbon fibre composite component.

The DCFP process produces a material that is both light and strong and is able to withstand huge impacts in the event of a crash, making it ideal in the use of high performance cars like the DBS.

Professor Nick Warrior, in the university's Faculty of Engineering, said: "The high strength and low weight characteristics of the DCFP have enabled the Aston Martin designers to increase the performance of the DBS reduce its fuel consumption and ultimately minimise 007's carbon footprint — we hope to be able to spin-out DCFP to more affordable vehicles in the near future."

The DCFP process is part of a longstanding research collaboration between the University of Nottingham and Aston Martin.

A unique carbon fibre 3-D braiding process, developed by the research group, was used in the windscreen pillar of the Aston Martin Vanquish, seen in the 20th James Bond film, Die Another Day.

The DCFP technology was also used in the Aston Martin DBSV12 car seen in Daniel Craig's first outing as Bond in Casino Royale.