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!
Anime: Gunsmith Cats’ Mustang. Amazing level of detail. Including the correct indents in the interior.
Big Screen: Blade’s Charger
Small Screen: Archer’s spy cars. ‘Press that red button…” Along with Krieger’s Van.
I was about to mention The Bean Bandit’s car, Buff. It’s bulletproof, literally, and capable of over 200 mph.
Any car in the “Man in the High Castle” series, with particular props to the UAZ Jeeps and the LCF GMC semi driven by Joe.
I’ll go there…the SuperCycle.
B/c there were at least two times when Ponch and Jon’s Kawasaki street bikes just couldn’t get the job done, so damn orders from the Sergeant about it being just too dangerous for public roads, they needed something something capable of ’70s-tastic jumps in order to stop the cattle rustlers or monkey diamond thieves or whatever.
And no, Ponch was never allowed to ride it, only Jon.
A-room-a-zoom-zoom!
The electrified Citroen DS and Avanti from Gattaca.
Anything John Wick drives.
Remington Steele’s Boattail Auburn replica.
The Alvis TE 21 in the BBC’s Kingdom.
The Delta 88 that is in Sam Raimi films https://www.classiccarstodayonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/The-Gift-d1.jpg
The Tango & Cash van with the machine gun mounted on the side has been etched onto my brain since childhood.
Hell yeah, just watched again
So not into this vehicle discussion at all. But Helen Hunt? I would drive that all day.
YMMV.
I didn’t notice anyone mention the ‘Cuda from Phantasm.
Since others have already mentioned the awesome Landmaster from Damnation Alley, I’ll submit the Ark II, from the series of the same name.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EUj2R32xzxY/TrDForsniCI/AAAAAAAAEu0/JZVHNrLvlos/s400/ARK_01.jpg
Wow, A Terry Lester show that was on for like 4 seconds. Obscure reference!
Wasn’t this vehicle also the Rams on the original Battlestar Galactica?
Not sure, but I do know the Ram vehicle did pop up again in Buck Rogers as a Earth defense directorate transport.
Oh Princess Ardala, you and your schemes to subjugate the earth and/or marry Buck.
I’ll take the Roamer from the Ark II (Brubaker Box!!!). Does the jetpack count as a car?
I wrote that show a fan letter and got a photo of the Ark II and the Roamer back from the production office.
The Mustang II in Starman with Jeff Bridges gets no love, but it’s damn near a supporting player in that movie.
“…like the Damnation Alley Landmaster included in the top shot…”
This is amazing; I always had a memory of this vehicle with the goofy three tires, but had no idea what show or movie it was in. The only thing I knew was that I’d seen it in a trailer or commercial for something when I was a kid long ago. Thanks for this!
It also made an appearance in “Get A Life” as the Paperboy 2000. That’s been living rent free in my brain for nearly 3 decades.
The stair car from Arrested Development.
Watch out for bridges and hop-ons. You’re gonna get hop-ons.
Oh, yes. The best was the prison break.
As I’ve been watching some of Ficarra’s stories on VinWiki about the movie car business, it gives me a whole new appreciation for the stair car in AD. Someone had to track down and cast that vehicle for the show – I love the entire crazy idea of it and how they just kept that joke going for so long.
Not only that, there were three of them in the original Fox run alone! The first was built on a 1978-9 Ford, the second on an early/mid ’80s one and the third a ’67-72 mocked up with a ’78-79 grille.
I noticed that on a recent rewatch! I’d be curious to learn the story behind the vehicles used for filming.
Probe 16
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Probe_16
The M-505 Adams Brothers Probe 16 is a car, designed by former Marcos cars designers Dennis … Probe 16 (AB/4) for use in filming in his 1971 film, A Clockwork Orange.
Engine: 1798 cc B-Series pushrod Straight-4
Production: 1969
Designer: Dennis Adams, Peter Adams
Height: 34 in (86 cm)
Real horrorshow. For years, I thought it was a Ferrari/Dino.
Agreed, clinically disturbed, and required viewing when i was in high school for some B.S. reason. But that car!!, what is that car!!
When I saw part of the movie, I seriously thought it was a Lola T70, the same car showcased in THX1138. But I never saw the complete car. Now I know, and boy is she a looker.
Oh hell yes!
You’re talking about the “Durango 95”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ltwX603Ft4
That is its stage name.
The battle van (and Corvette limo) in Mystery Men.
The Audi A4 in the beginning of Spirited Away.
Cruella DeVille’s car in 101 Dalmations.
And I actually really liked the SHO Taurus in The Santa Clause.
Those Mystery Men vehicles are great pulls. That Vette was painted in Pace Car livery, wasn’t it?
the Green VW Bug in Bullitt
I like your style
Great call. My favorite part of the latest Ford Bullitt Mustang ad (the one with Steve McQueen’s granddaughter) is the blink and you’ll miss it referential Beetle that slides into the penultimate parking spot in the garage.
Every car in the movie Go. There’s a Datsun Honeybee decked out in Xmas lights, a yellow Miata, a Ferrari F355 spider, a chase scene between a boat-tail Riviera and a Dodge Ramcharger (both get wrecked, sadly) and a squarebody Caprice cop car. Perfect car casting in that movie.
And I’d like to acknowledge a great bit in Alexander Payne’s film Election where Matthew Broderick’s character is driving back from a lunchtime quickie with a woman he’s having an affair with, and it appears he’s in an Alfa Spider with the top down, sunglasses, driving gloves, the whole bit, and then he parks and they cut to an exterior shot and it’s just him in the same blue Ford Festiva he’s been driving all along.
Oh, almost forgot: that white Honda Civic that appears in damn near every Quentin Tarantino movie.
My favorite deep deep Tarantino cut is Bill’s DeTomaso Mangusta in Kill Bill.
All the cars in Kill Bill are fantastic. Jackie Brown, too. He’s really good at choosing vehicles to suit characters.
Over here in the UK the Ford Cortina in period police drama Ashes to Ashes (set in the 70s), and The Quattro in its sequel Life on Mars (set in the early mid 80s) were particularly good. They were essentially key supporting actors. I remember the general attention to detail with cars in the background being pretty good too.
“You mean you were driving a military vehicle then sir?”
“To the Quattro!”
Swap the titles around. Life on Mars is the 70s, Ashes to Ashes is the 80s.
Time for my first use of the renowned edit function. Bear with me.
While I’m failing to successfully edit my first post, I will also give an honourable mention to the interesting bright yellow Saab 900 convertible with hand controls in the French police show Cain
The yellow Fiat Cinquecento from The Inbetweeners. It is the ultimate automotive representation of teenage boys going through post-puberty adolescence: discombobulated appearance (due to the mismatched door panels), uncool, unloved, and awkward in every sense of the word.
The nicest thing said about it in the entire show? “It’s the color of my Nan’s piss.” Ouch.
Any of youse guys seen The Gumball Rally? That Ferrari and that Cobra are pretty sweet.
The GM Ultralite cop cars from Demolition Man. In spite of only having 111 horsepower, performance holds up well by today’s standards. 0-60 mph in 7.5 seconds, a top speed of 135 mph, AND they could still get somewhere around 90 mpg. In 1989! Drag coefficient was 0.19, and they weighed around 1,400 lbs.
The 442 in that movie was pretty sweet, too.
True ‘dat.
If someone made a car with the Ultralite’s low mass and superb aero efficiency, but had that 442 shoehorned into it, it would probably get better fuel economy than most new cars sold today, but would have a nice big block V8 with which to haul ass with! It would probably drive like a 90s-era TVR, and it would be wonderful.
46 Superflo Chevy Lumina from Days of Thunder.
Planet Express ship from Futurama.
Nash Bridges’ Cuda.
Halo Warthog.
There’s a Warthog in the HALO games? Always looked more like a puma to me.
What if you took James Bond’s Aston Martin but made it incredibly pedestrian from the outside, even so far as to make it the service vehicle for Best Buy, but kept all the gadgets? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Nerd Herder. It walked so the GR Yaris could run.
Also all my love to the 1967 Impala from Supernatural, aka Baby, and the 1973 Dodge Charger from Burn Notice.
Oh and I just remembered the Saab 900 Turbo from Drive My Car.
The Dakar-spec Pajero we see Jackie Chan pilot in “Who Am I?” (1998). Him and Mitsubishi were inseparable. Such a cool livery too
Mr. Igoe has quite the nice BMW E24 in Innerspace.