 The return of Bond in 1981 saw media reports on the more politically correct Bond and his choice of car — a Saab 900 Turbo ; Gardner later put him in a Bentley Mulsanne Turbo . Gardner also updated Bond 's firearm : under Gardner , Bond is initially issued with the Browning 9mm before changing to a Heckler & Koch VP70 and then a Heckler & Koch P7 . Bond is also revealed to have taken part in the 1982 Falklands War . Gardner updated Fleming 's characters and used contemporary political leaders in his novels ; he also used the high @-@ tech apparatus of Q Branch from the films , although Jeremy Black observed that Bond is more reliant on technology than his own individual abilities . Gardner 's series linked Bond to the Fleming novels rather than the film incarnations and referred to events covered in the Fleming stories . 
