Make no mistake, we absolutely love Back to the Future‘s DeLorean time machine, KITT from Knight Rider, The Munsters‘ Koach and Dragula, and all the Batmobiles minus the Joel Schumacher ones. But for this round of cool-cars from the screens both small and silver, we want to hear about your favorites that aren’t the all-time greats. Not the usual suspects, as beloved as they may be. Give us your deep pulls. You know, stuff like this:
From the top, that’s the AMC Hornet James Bond corkscrew-jumps in To Live and Let Die, the Porsche 911 from Death Race (2008), Jim Rockford’s Firebird (performer of TV’s finest J-turns), and the hot-rod Fiat 500 from Lupin III–the directorial debut of Hayao Miyazaki. He’s done a few things.
So watcha got? Whether your picks are over the top (like the Damnation Alley Landmaster included in the top shot), super obscure (like the Italdesign Aztec from Frankenstein Unbound, also in the top shot) or just regular cars that are well-cast, we want to hear about ’em. And throw in some stinkers too, why not. There’s no rules.
See you in the comments!
John Baker’s cool GMC step side from “CHiPs”
How about his (right-hand drive!) Mini from the earlier seasons!
The Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor from the equally terrible and awesome 1986 movie, The Wraith.
Had a drag coefficient of 0.20 and could exceed 30 mpg in spite of having 400 horsepower on tap. In the 1980s. That would be an impressive combination of specs even today.
Saw that one on VHS in Driver’s Ed class in High School in the 90’s sandwiched between viewings of Red Asphalt!
I’ve never actually seen it but the Dodge Michigan from City Hunter, mostly because that car has been the subject of a several year long personal rabbit hole of mine.
Apparently sometime in the 80s, Chrysler tried to sell the Aries in Japan as the Dodge Michigan. I’ve been scouring the internet for years both in English and in Japanese to find any photographic proof that anyone in Japan had actually bought one but still haven’t found anything yet. The closest I’ve managed to find is a photo of an AE86 parked in front of a used car lot, likely sometime in the early to mid 90s and there’s an Aries in the background but there’s also no proof that it’s actually a Michigan and not a private import Aries.
I have a Japanese book of U.S. cars from the early 90s that has a few pages on the Michigan but they’re just the press car. Recently, I’ve managed to get my hands on an actual brochure for one, the first brochure I’ve ever seen actually come up for sale and another magazine that I believe contains a review of the Michigan but those are still in the mail and should be here sometime next week. I’m not trying to brag but I figure that with these three items, I probably have the largest collection of Dodge Michigan related artifacts on earth. Maybe someday I’ll find some sort of proof that someone did indeed actually buy one of these and I can lay this mystery to rest once and for all.
I really love your tenacious commitment to this obscure car I just found out about now. I wish you luck in your quest, please let us know how it turns out!
Similarly: I have a Proton America launch press kit, this was Malcolm Bricklin’s idea to bring a four-door into the States to supplement the Yugo. Anyway, the story was that they actually got the Saga federalized, and five U.S.-spec versions were made. Since learning of this, I’ve always wondered what happened to those five cars, and how amazing it would be to find one today.
Small correction: James Bond corkscrew-jumps the Hornet in The Man with the Golden Gun, not Live and Let Die.
Still not as cool as the flying Ford Pinto (the AVE MIzar) also in that movie, though.
The flying car was an AMC Matador, so you’re batting .500, which is still enough to get you into the hall of fame. 😉
The flying car in the movie was a RC model but the AVE Mizar really flew!
(Kind of…)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors_killed_by_their_own_invention
Um, Luxobarge is correct: it’s actually AMC Hornet X…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzCIbhLUUA0&t=53s
https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_1806-AMC-Hornet-1974.html
The red car that does the jump is a Hornet, the brown car that flies is a Matador. 😉
This corkscrew stunt was the first one ever to have the weight, distance, speed, angle, and like to be measured and calculated entirely by the computer prior to the real world attempt. On the first attempt, the stunt proceed so perfectly. That was in the early 1970s with the massive mainframe and tape/punched paper storage…
https://jalopnik.com/the-james-bond-corkscrew-jump-was-the-first-computer-mo-1711459704
Supernatural has one I’m fond of, and it’s not the obvious one. I like their dad’s pickup. It was an 80s GMC stepside, and I have a fondness for stepsides. I learned to drive stick in a Chevy stepside, and it was only a few years older than the one in Supernatural.
Also, I’d love to install hidden storage into a vehicle like they show in that one. Seems pretty useful, even if you don’t need monster-hunting weapons.
Gotta say the Impala being a four-door hardtop was an offbeat choice. Certainly not designed with toyeticness in mind, the merch and licensing team no doubt would’ve preferred a hardtop coupe they could shop around to model companies that tooled one up back in 1967 or barring that a Biscayne post sedan that could be licensed out with the knowledge that the licensees could reuse the tooling as a police car.
The Impala was great, and I love that it’s a sedan. It makes for easy filming (easier to use the backseat without awkward climbing in) and makes sense for them to use it. I think it was wise to pick it, because it doesn’t blend in with movie rides, but you are right that the temptation had to be there. It was a good risk to take.
For me it has always been the 1994 Jeep Cherokee Sport that belonged to Jack Carter from the Sci-Fi television show, Eureka.
https://eureka.fandom.com/wiki/Jack_Carter%27s_Jeep
Also a fan of Deputy Jo Lupo’s WRX. Though the less said about an entire episode being built around that product placement, the better. It came off as a watered-down Steven King episode with a smart car becoming obsessed about its former driver. https://eureka.fandom.com/wiki/If_You_Build_It…
The SPV (Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle) from Captain Scarlet. Drivers sat facing backwards, steering by video camera. And twin ejector seats! Safety first.
The Mannix Toronado roadster and the Dart GTS that replaced it.
1931 Model A from Road to Perdition used for robbing banks.
“So what does the clutch do?”
“It clutches”
I’ll say the manual cars of éX-Driver, an anime I only learned of because of an article on the formerly-orange site. But special place for Lisa’s Subaru Impreza WRC that’s wrecked in the first episode. https://c4.wallpaperflare.com/wallpaper/865/633/106/anime-ex-driver-wallpaper-preview.jpg
You can’t forget the Fall Guys 82 GMC K2500
https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_329806-GMC-K-2500-1982.html
My pick for the lesser-known movie car is ‘The Loaner’ from The Mask. They used both a 1950 Studebaker Commander and a 1951 Champion in different scenes.
I remember staring at that car when I first saw the movie at age 5 or 6 and thinking it looked so much cooler than the boring 90s cars around it!
Another one is the sick custom Holden Ute in the 1980 Aussie film ‘The Chain Reaction’. There’s quite a few cool 70s customs in that movie, and one of Hugh Keays-Byrne’s best performances (he was Toecutter in Mad Max and Immortan Joe in Fury Road).
But my favourite has to be the Valiant Charger in The Man From Hong Kong, because it stars in one of the best chase scenes ever, and the story around the car after the film is interesting.
As the story goes, Chrysler Australia loaned the car to the film, not knowing it was going to get beaten up in a chase scene. The film makers then had it fully repaired and given back to Chrysler.
Apparently the new owner then saw his Charger, with the same number plate on-screen some months later and then went back to the dealer to demand a new car!
Given what you’ve told us about 4 door cars down under, it makes me like the Falcon sedan squad cars that Max and the other MFP cops drive early on in Mad Max even more, as perhaps even more quintessentially Australian than the famous 2-door Interceptor?
Absolutely, coupes were never big sellers here.
If you put together the Big Three Coupes of the 70s (Falcon, Monaro, Charger), the combined sales is under 60,000 from 1971 to 78.
The HQ Holden series (’71 to ’74) alone sold nearly 500,000 cars in its run (485,650 is the commonly reported number) of which under 14,000 were Monaro Coupes.
I have a few more in-depth articles to write, after that I might attempt something deeper on the how and why we largely shunned coupes over sedans here and didn’t make a coupe from ’78 until the 2000s.
The movie was bad, but Meat Loaf’s red ’94 F-350 in Black Dog was pretty cool.
The ’94(?) GMC Sierra 1500 Sportside in Walker, Texas Ranger (before the Ram) I liked as well.
And Marty’s Toyota is the reason I have a black pickup today.
Henry Standing Bear’s ’58 GMC in Longmire is awesome
https://www.imcdb.org/v520346.html
I’d nominate half the cars from Road House, but I’ll specifically call out Patrick Swayze’s 560 SEC and his beater Buick Riviera.
Literally watched that movie for the first time last night.
Those of you who know me and know Reels & Wheels Podcast know exactly what I’m about to do…
THE TRUCKS IN SORCERER.
These beaten/revived beasts literally play the part of the angel of death in the movie’s intense third act. Go watch it and thank me later.
Great movie. If a movie could be a dictionary illustration, it would do nicely for “existentialism.”
I didn’t see that movie until I was an adult (thanks to a decades-long licensing dispute that blocked the movie from video distribution), but as a kid in 1977 I sat down in a theater to watch Star Wars on opening weekend, and they showed the teaser trailer for Sorcerer. It just showed the trucks going over the suspension bridge, set to the music of Holst’s “Mars”. Friends, those trucks creeped me the hell out! They were so ominous-looking! (The music didn’t help, it was my first time hearing that as well.)
I was intrigued by that trailer for almost 20 years. When I finally saw the movie, it became one of my all-time favorites. (And by then I had already seen the original The Wages of Fear.)
The Oldsmobile that Kevin Arnolds bought from his Grandfather for $1. What a great episode.
I’m going with the armoured Renault LeCar in the A-Team !
I’m gonna be so snobbish to say the Fiat 500 in Ettore Scola’s masterpiece “C’eravamo tanto amati”. Great cameo.
Oooo!! How about the 6000 SUX from Robocop?
“Something with reclining leather seats, that goes really fast, and gets really s****y gas mileage!”
A splendid choice if there ever was one.
“Hey, if you let the Mayor go, we’ll even throw-in a Blaupunkt!”
Jim Rockford (and “Pole Position”) basically taught me to drive, but I don’t consider his Firebird a deep cut. His dad’s pewter-and-red GMC Sierra Classic squarebody, though …
Also, his lawyer Beth’s Porsche 914. “Don’t … (zooms away) … redline it, Jim.”
And b/c I just recently caught this one in reruns, Rockford’s later (disbarred) attorney Coop’s Vincent Black Shadow, in a dark-for-the-series episode about biker gangs.
The Ambiguously Gay Duo car
Pretty sure that was a clownshoe BMW Z3 M!
Phil the Shill’s Lamborghini Jalpa from Miami Vice.
Matt Frewer’s Lamorghini LM002 from Miami Vice.
Hell, pretty much any villian-of-the-week’s car from Miami Vice.
Daisy’s Jeep from The Dukes of Hazzard. I also liked her Plymouth she had before that. Side note: I actually met Catherine Bach in Nashville, TN at The Dukes of Hazzard 40th Anniversary Cast Reunion in January 2019.
Shoutout to Boss Hogg’s triple-white Eldorado convertible.
I should also mention the Lola T70 in THX1138.
Damn I want one.
But only if it keeps the amazing sound effects. Like as THX waits for/then fires up the turbine engine after cooldown, just before the robot police arrive on their futuristic ebikes.
That Lola belonged to James Garner.