This May Be The Shortest-Lived Hero Car In All Of Cinema

I’m at a loss for a word here; I’m not sure the word exists. I want to know what to call a specific sort of car. A car that is something like a superhero’s signature car – you know, like what the Batmobile is to Batman, or the Lego Batmobile to Lego Batman. I’m talking about special, custom cars that merit a name of their own. But, unlike actual superhero’s cars, the class of car I’m thinking of is in possession and use by people who are not superheroes.

So, it’s sort of like a superhero car in use by a non-superhero, basically. Usually, the owner-operators of these cars are still in the crime-abatement business in some way, usually private detectives or cops or something like that. I think the key criteria is that the car must be at least somewhat customized, and must have a name.

You know what’s a good example of this? The Coyote X, from that strange 1980s action show Hardcastle and McCormick, which I think was about a judge and an ex-car thief teaming up to solve crimes and – and I could be reading subtexts here that weren’t intended – fall in love.

Anyway, the car was a key part of the show, and was actually a Volkswagen Beetle-based kit car (I think it had a VW Type 4/Porsche 914 engine) called a Manta Montage, which was in turn a sort of copy of the McLaren M6GT. Also, it had Chevy Monza taillights. In the lore of the show, it was a custom car that McCormick’s murdered friend designed, or something. Here, just watch it:

So, that’s an example of whatever class of car this is. But the one of this class I want to talk about is notable, because I think it may be the shortest-lived member of this elite class of car. It fits all the criteria: it’s owned/used by a law enforcement official, it’s a car that has been heavily customized, and it has a name: the Silver Hornet!

The Silver Hornet was a highly modified Citroën 2CV used by Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau in the 1978 movie Revenge of the Pink Panther, the fifth or sixth Pink Panther movie. Damn, that’s a lot of movies. Anyway, here’s the first appearance of the Silver Hornet:

The Silver Hornet doesn’t exactly fare all that well here, even though it pulls up in quite an impressive manner, and sounds like it has some sort of turbine or jet engine powering it. Unfortunately, the act of closing the door causes most of the body panels to eject themselves from the frame of the car, and even seems to launch something high enough into the air that it takes a moment for gravity to reclaim it into its greedy grasp.

But the Silver Hornet isn’t done yet! It shows up one more time, and this time falls apart seemingly just out of its own urge to be free of the burden of living, completely falling apart and even catching on fire:

I do like the touch of the wipers going there, free from a windshield or anything.

The customizations to the 2CV included a new hood, lights, grille, massive rear fins with huge taillights and lots of flame stickers stuck all over the car. Two Silver Hornets were built, both designed to self destruct, which was accomplished by lashing body components together with polyurethane foam and fiberglass, according to Shepperton Design Studios, which built the cars.

The Shepperton folks did a great job at making a car that shatters into pieces, and in many ways, it is the ideal Clouseau car: deeply French, affably ridiculous, and a complete disaster. It’s fantastic.

Want another Clouseau clip that results in the destruction of a French car? This one looks like a Renault 16:

Anyway, if anyone knows what to call this class of superheroless superhero car, I’m all ears. Or, I guess, eyes. Let’s say both.