Thanks to the great writers and researchers over at Hemmings Auto Blog for Part Two of the “Save these Cars – Hollywood, California.” A lot of information on what seemed to be some long lost but keenly remembers TV and movie cars. Great photos, too. Head over to Hemmings Auto Blog for the rest of the series.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which turned up here last week, was on a vast list of cars that developed after we posted updates on finding the Better off Dead Camaro, Risky Business Porsche and other iconic movie cars. Since then, we’ve both found some more and had suggestions for literally dozens of others that should be preserved for posterity (if your definition of posterity includes pointing and laughing), but we’ll start with one from the original list: The ‘61 Ferrari California Spyder (250 GT) from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
ferris_bueller,s day off
As we’ve mentioned before, it was a replica, built by our good friend Mark Goyette. Mark says there were three used in the film:
The Hero car. Built by Mark and leased to Paramount for the filming. It’s the one that jumps over the camera, and is used in almost every shot. At the end of filming, Paramount returned it to Mark, with the exhaust crushed and cracks in the body. “There was quite a bit of superficial damage, but it held up amazingly well,” he said. He rebuilt it, and sold it to a young couple in California. The husband later ran it off the road, and Mark rebuilt the front end for him. That owner sold it in the mid-90s, and it turned up again around 2000, but hasn’t emerged since.
Sold to Paramount as a kit for them to assemble as their stunt car, they did such a poor job that it was basically unusable, aside from going backwards out the window of Cameron’s house. Rebuilt, it ended up at Planet Hollywood in Minneapolis, but dropped off the map along with Planet Hollywood Minneapolis.
Another kit, supposed to be built as a shell for the out the window scene, it was never completed at all, and disappeared after the film was completed. Mark thinks he once heard it was eventually completed and sold off, but it could also still be in a back lot at Paramount.
Before we get to the rest of the list, commenters did come up with a few answers:
The 1974 Dodge Monaco Bluesmobile from Blues Brothers. There were a whole mess of them, most destroyed during filming, and replicas have been built almost since then. We can’t come up with anything definitive on the ‘74 Monaco that Jake and Elwood drove, but some of the Mount Prospect chase cars have survived. Allpar reports that of 13 used, eight were destroyed, and three of the remainder are accounted for, on in private hands, one at Disney’s “House of Blues,” and one at Universal’s Famous Fast Cars.
The Landmaster from Damnation Alley is still at home at Dean Jeffries Automotive, near Universal Studios, and has been restored. Dean shows it from time to time.
Rick’s Power Wagon from Simon & Simon has been spotted at a Universal Studios back lot.
The ‘Cuda from Mannix is around; Dan saw it at Mopar Nats a couple of years ago. We also recently featured the Mannix ‘68 Dart in Muscle Machines.
The National Lampoon Family Truckster has been auctioned several times in the last two years. There are a ton of replicas, as well.
But for every car we found, about 15 more turned up. I want to find:
Several Jeeps appeared in Airwolf. Stringfellow Hawke had a blue CJ-7 Renegade that appeared briefly, but there was a Stars-and-Stripes CJ-7 with “Santini Air” script in more episodes. Same Jeep?
Air Wolf 302
I’ve wondered about the Ford F350 Jet Car from Buckaroo Banzai for a while, and have turned up some information on it. It was designed and built by production designer Michael Riva, art director Stephen Dane and Thrust Racing owners Jerry Segal and George Haddebeck; Segal was also the stunt driver. Segal swapped in a Grand National–that’s NASCAR, not Buick–front end, a nitrous-boosted Ford big block and jet thrusters. According to the BB Press Kit, “The jet engine is massive,” says Dane. “It puts out smoke and flame that goes back twenty or thirty feet. That’s what it’s primarily set up for, but it does develop 3,000-4,000 lbs. of thrust which, in real life, gets the thing going up to around 200 mph.” ‘Sure doesn’t sound like something that’d be scrapped. Another back lot denizen?
JetCar
The Porsche 356 and later ‘84 Corvette that Bruce Boxleitner drove in Scarecrow & Mrs. King.
Dan wondered about:
The yellow Chevette from The Wedding Singer.
The Cherokee from The Goonies. (1984?–ed.)
The Rambler (Rebel Cross Country) from Mystery Men (on the Ben Stiller theme, a Bronco roadster was blown up in the Zoolander gas fight scene. It must have been a model, so where’s the one they drove around?–ed).
The 1974 Nova from Pulp Fiction. (Interestingly, a ‘74 Nova is specified in the script, and the Tarantino Archives mentions he uses a Nova in Reservoir Dogs and Death Proof, too. Vincent has a ‘60 Malibu. Related: The Oldsmobile as an analogue for despair in John Singleton’s “Four Brothers”–ed)
The Taxi from The Fifth Element. (2178 “Globe Fish” Checker Marathon. ‘Just possible it wasn’t a real flying car, Dan, but there’s a model if you want one.)
1972 Matadors from Adam-12. (It sounds like they only had one single Hero car for the whole series, and there’s a report it was later used on Columbo. None are known to survive–ed.)
And from our comments, regular commenter Jeff Reeves wants to see:
AJ’s targa-top Camaro (there were two–a ‘68 RS and custom Z28) or Mrs. Simon’s Mercedes from Simon & Simon. (There was also a ‘57 Bel Air at some point.–ed)
(Scarecrow and) Mrs. King’s LTD station wagon or later Cutlass Ciera wagon (Wasn’t it an Olds?–ed).
Cody Allen’s customized GMC S-15 Jimmy from Riptide. (Also a 1960 Corvette. The Jimmy was built by Unique, who have quite built countless cars and own 450, see appendix–ed.)
An original A-team Chevy Van. (ibid.)
MacGyver’s Jeep.
Wylie is looking for some real softballs. Happy to help!
Colombo’s Peugeot 403 (Supposedly accounted for–ed).
Roger Moore’s Volvo P1800 from The Saint (We’ve seen it–ed).
Roger Moore's Saint Car
James Garner’s gold Firebird from Rockford Files (see Nelson’s Garage, below–ed).
The ‘77 Special Edition Trans Am from the original Smokey and the Bandit (One remains, owned by Year One–ed, and there are innumerable replicas of varying provenance), and the 18-wheeler that Snowman drove.
straight6 wonders about
Melba Toast’s ‘70 Chevelle, Bannon’s primered Duster,and the rest of the dazed’n’confused car cast.
The 1976 Lancia Scorpion (Giselle) that Herbie the Love Bug fell in love with in Monte Carlo. (Restored, now in Texas–ed).
Giselle
Kathy Bates’ Wagoneer from Misery. “It had those cool slotted rims.” (There was a Blazer, a Bronco and a Cherokee, but no Wagoneer–ed).
Stjohn asks about:
“The Car” from the movie of the same name, 1977. A 1971 Lincoln Mk III, customized by George Barris. (A car matching this description was consigned to RM’s Hershey auction, but doesn’t seem to have appeared at the sale–ed).
automan
The Countach from Automan. (Me too–ed)
The Ultimate Police Car, from an episode of BJ and the Bear. A Plymouth Fury, late 70s.
The Black Moon from Black Moon Rising. (Never mind the disturbing sex scene with Linda Hamilton and Tommy Lee Jones.)
1973 Plymouth Satellite four-door that Frank Drebin would hit trash cans with in Police Squad.
Going deep into the obscure file, Randy H would like to see:
The mobile command truck (s) from Universal Soldier.
Saluting the Adam-12 post, vehicles from Emergency!
emacs wants to know where everything is:
Repolibu
The 1964 Malibu from Repo Man. (probably junked, but Jalopnik has everything you ever wanted to know about casting the cars.–ed).
The car (1975 Mercury Marquis Brougham) from Uncle Buck.
The ‘vette from Corvette Summer (a recurring question).
The ‘vette from Sting Ray (Nick Mancuso).
The Schlepcar from Wonderbug.
The convertible classic from Porky’s.
Ridgemont
The Firebird Trans AM from Fast Times (”first he’s gonna kill us, then he’s gonna …”). (Camaro Z28–ed).
The 1965 Lincoln Continental from The Matrix.
Cobra
Stallone’s Cobra car. (1950 Mercury street rod, auctioned by Mecum this summer. Also see Stallone’s former CSX3127, in private hands–ed).
Maxwell Smart’s Alfa Romeo.
Reggie Hammond’s Porsche Targa and Nick Nolte’s GTO convertible from 48 Hours.
Mad Max’s Interceptor.
All Batmobiles, and didn’t Green Lantern have a cool ride?
Fred MacMurry’s car from Absent Minded Professor.
Brad says:
I saw no mention of Christine (58 Fury), the car from the Stephen “the hack” King’s movie of the same name.
What about Greased Lightning from Grease?
Where is the hood from the Corvette Summer Corvette?
And the rest:
Magnum-Mondial
Magnum P.I. cars–Ferrari 308s and 328s–came up a lot. Jason W said, “I did some interior restoration work on one of the Magnum P.I. 328s when I worked at FAF in Atlanta in 1988,” but doesn’t know where it is. We heard that Larry “Rick” Manetti owns one, and Magnum Mania reports that as well. However, there may be confusion, as he did own a black ‘84 Mondial. According to Mania,
All of the original Magnum P.I. Ferraris were auctioned off when the series ended in 1988. Larry Manetti bought one of the early GTSs. He reportedly still owns it. One of the cars, a ‘78 308 GTS, is on display at the Cars of the Stars Motor Museum in Keswich, Cumbria, England. Also, an ‘84 308 QV is on display at Universal Studios Hollywood, as part of the Famous Fast Cars attraction.
I recall one of the 308s turning up on eBay about five years ago, and Nelson’s Garage in Deadwood claims to have one, along with the Rockford Files Firebird and others.
The Mercedes 560SL from Heart to Heart. Srsly?
Kojak’s Buick. (1973 Regal?–ed).
Kojak
Wayne’s AMC Pacer from the Wayne’s World. (Sold by Volo in 2004, not sure where it ended up. There are some prop cars around as well.–ed).
“Being a Toyota Landcruiser fan, I’ve always wondered about that red and white Fj55 in The Lost Boys.”
California speedster and Vette coupe from King of the Mountain.
Dan Tanna’s 1957 T-Bird 1957 in Vega$. (Reportedly painted blue for Richard Gere’s Breathless–ed).
What about the Torino from Starsky and Hutch?
1983 Porsche 944s from Sixteen Candles. Film lore says there were two. One auto and one stick. (There was also a Rolls Corniche that figured prominently. The Porsce was on the original list.–ed)
It’s a big list, people. Lets find some cars.
Many images found at Internet Movie Cars Database.
Appendix: Cars built by Unique:
Feature films
48hrs
A Few Good Men
Always
Apollo 13
Arachnophobia
Back To the Future
Batman
Bill and Ted #2
Black Rain
Black Sheep
Blank Man
Bugsy
Cannon Ball Run
Dick Tracy
Diggs Town
Doors
Elvis and Me
Family of Spies
Fools Rush In
The Hollywood Knights
Homer and Eddie
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom
Judgment Night
Last Action Hero
Late for Dinner
Little Rascals
Loose Cannon
Men at Work
Misery
Mobsters
Neon City
Nutty Professor
Ocean’s 11
Poetic Justice
Point Break
Rain Man
Show Down In Little Tokyo
Smokey and the Bandit
Stop or My Mom Will Shoot
Tango and Cash
The Big Picture
The Boost
The Human Target
Toys
Two Jakes
Undercover Blues
Unlawful Entry
Vampire in Brooklyn
Vegas Vacation
Wild at Heart
Wraith
TV
Alf
Amazing Story
Baretta
BJ and the Bear
Bring’em Back Alive
Charlie’s Angels
China Beach
Chips
Crime Story
Fall Guy
Hard Ball
Hardcastle and McCormick
Hart to Hart
Hunter
Knight Rider
Nash Bridges
Remington Steel
Riptide
Simon and Simon
The A Team
The Flash
The Waltons
The Wonder Years
Vegas
Viper
Wonder Woman
