Movie and TV Cars (Part 2)

Continuing from part one, here's my continued look at some of the coolest and most iconic cars found on film. Come with me as I look at more of the cinematic vehicles which have captured the hearts of people over the years.

Ghostbusters

You’d hardly call the 1959 Cadillac/hearse combination, generally referred to as Ecto-1, a classic car. Indeed, the vehicle itself broke down on Brooklyn Bridge during the filming of the sequel, landing the filmmakers with a fine from the NYPD. It is, however, up there with the most recognisable vehicles in cinema history and it being a bit odd, a bit old and broken, and looking like it’ll fall to pieces at any second is what helps make it cool. It’s an underdog and everyone loves an underdog.

Christine

If we’re talking of old and broken cars then the battered 1958 Plymouth Fury from Christine deserves a place in this list. It might start of as a beaten-up piece of junk, but it comes to life (literally) when shown some TLC from Arnie Cunningham. The book’s author, Stephen King, stated that he specifically picked the Fury as the story’s antagonist as it was a little less known than other popular models of the era. The problem for John Carpenter, when he came to make the film in 1983, was that only five thousand examples of the car were ever made… and that they were all beige. No red car ever came off the production line. After 25 years on the roads they were getting rare and costly. This meant that careful usage of disguised Belvederes and Savoys was needed in order to complete some shots.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

The Ferrari responsible for some of the worry in this film is a 1961 250 GT California Spyder. Two replicas were made for the film and the one remaining example was auctioned off in 2008 for $407,000. That's a lot of money, especially when the replica is housing a Ford 5.0 litre V8 instead of the powerplant from an real Ferrari. One of the few remaining actual Ferraris was sold for a mouth-watering $17.1m at auction in 2016. No wonder Cameron looks so glum in the film when he learns about the extra mileage thrown on it by the parking valets...

Bad Boys

I made reference to this car in part one. The Porsche 911 Turbo (964 generation) which Will Smith’s character drives, was expensive at the time. Try and buy one now and you’d better have extremely deep pockets, even if you can find an owner willing to part ways with it. The expensive and extravagant choice of transport is explained away in the film by Smith’s character being a trust fund kid. I’m not sure that any real petrol head would use a car like that on a day-to-day basis though (and especially not for police work); it makes Alonso’s choice of car in Training Day look sensible. Anyway, it all works out in the end because I’m not sure they’d have caught the villain and his AC Cobra had they been driving a police-issue Ford Taurus.

The Cannonball Run

There are so many cars to choose from in this film, but the one which always captured my attention as a young boy was the awesome looking Lamborghini Countach (and I’m positive that my attention was in no way maintained by the car’s lovely occupants). Sadly, the car is not in the film as much as it should be (as the Italian V12 is undeniably cooler than Burt Reynolds’ ambulance or Sammy Davis Jr’s Ferrari 308 GTS). It does, however, lead the police on a merry chase and, when that fails, the drivers deploy their backup tactics in order to avoid speeding tickets…

Bullitt

I’m an unashamed Mustang fan, and the 1968 Mustang 390 GT which Steve McQueen drives in Bullitt is a beauty. The 6.4 litre V8 housed in the Ford would have provided the bite needed if McQueen was to really reel in the bad guy, who was piloting a more powerful Dodge Charger. The chase sequence between the two is heralded as one of the best in cinema history and the Mustang remains such an icon that, more than 50 years after the film’s release, you can buy a modern Bullitt replica, limited edition, Mustang from Ford.

Smokey and the Bandit

Another Burt Reynolds film and this time I’ve chosen his car to feature. The black Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, adorned with golden bird on the bonnet, is iconic and instantly recognisable. The car itself was a ’66 model with the newer ’67 model’s front end. Not only was the movie a success but it also helped boost Pontiacs sales of the car, with sales leaping from 68,745 in 1977 to 93,341 in 1978. Burt Reynolds was promised a free car by a Pontiac executive if the film was a success. It was: only Star Wars beat it at the 1977 Box Office, but the Pontiac exec retired and Reynolds had to wait a long time for his car. When he eventually received his 1978 model he decided that 220hp wasn’t enough and had it tuned to 600hp!

The Italian Job

Choosing the diminutive Mini as a robbery getaway car seems a flawed decision until the escape route’s narrow dimensions are considered. Then, it becomes a stroke of genius. When I was younger, my girlfriend at the time owned a Mini and, in its own way, it was brilliant. Compact and light, with an extremely low centre of gravity, meant it flew around corners and stuck to the road with a tenacious grip which it had no right exhibiting.

Batman

No movie car list could really be complete without the Batmobile, could it? I guess the only question should be, which one? There have been iterations, from the distinctive open-topped model seen in the TV show, through to the outrageous design in Tim Burton’s films with its huge wings and a giant flame-throwing engine. I’m going to go with the one from Chris Nolan’s trilogy of films (the one which is effectively a modified tank): the Tumbler. This 2.5 ton behemoth undoubtedly needs some muscle to get it moving and that’s proved by way of a 5.7L V8 producing 400-500hp. Equipped with machine guns, a rocket launcher, explosive mines, stealth mode, a jet engine and a Batpod escape mini-vehicle it would certainly rank as the most formidable car in the list. At 15 feet long and 9 feet wide, it’d be a bitch to park at the supermarket though.

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