Movie Cars: Cars

Disney and Pixar’s 2006 movie Cars brought us so many fun loving characters based on real cars! The Cars franchise consists of 3 films and several shorts. I am a huge Disney and Pixar fan so these movies have been a favorite of mine for some time now. My nephew is the biggest Mater fan I know. 

Cars is about a racer, Lightning McQueen who ends up falling out of his transport vehicle Mack. He finds himself in a small quaint town, Radiator Springs off of the famous Route 66. He accidentally damages the main road in the town and has to repair it before he is allowed to leave. Lightning is in a huge rush to leave this little town because he is going to a race where he has a chance of winning the Piston Cup. While he is in Radiator Springs, he has a very doom and gloom outlook and is not happy being there. The people of this small town begin to grow on him and he realizes how important friendship is. He gains his new best friend Mater there and a whole new family. 

Being that these cars are animated you might not think they are based off of anything in real life. Well, they really are! Some of the cars like Lightning are a mixture of a few different things. To make Lightning, the studio took inspiration from the C1 and C6 Chevy Corvette! Lightning’s girlfriend Sally, is a slightly modified Porsche 911 Carrera. Mater, the fun loving tow truck is based off two different trucks, a 1951 International Harvester and a Chevy Boom Truck. Mack, the transport vehicle and old friend of Lightning is based off a 1985 Mack Super-Liner. I think it is so cool to see how these animated favorites are based on real life cars!

We were at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center, hope you enjoyed another segment from Movie Cars! Thank you for reading and have a great rest of your week.

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Movie Cars: Herbie Fully Loaded

 

The most famous Volkswagen Beetle is the 1963 Herbie The Love Bug! This car has been a favorite of mine since I was young. Growing up I would collect Herbie merchandise and Beetle diecast cars. I even had green Beetle slippers. Naturally I watched the original Herbie The Love Bug movies, but today we are going to be talking about the most recent Herbie film, Herbie Fully Loaded starring Lindsay Lohan.

Herbie Fully Loaded was about a young girl, Lindsay Lohan, who wanted to be a NASCAR driver like her father. As a gift, her father takes her to a junkyard to pick out a car. She has her eyes on one, but Herbie keeps pushing his way towards her and she ends up leaving with a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle. Herbie always has crazy antics up his sleeve and never fails when helping out a friend. 

Over the years, there have been probably more than 50 Beetles used in filming, unfortunately most were destroyed. Multiple on screen Herbies have been sold over the years for some good money. Herbie helped make Volkswagen Beetles not only popular, but the most produced car ever! 

We here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you enjoyed another segment from Movie Cars. Thank you so much for following along!

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Movie Cars: Starsky and Hutch

 

Starsky and Hutch originally was a TV show in the 70s. This extremely popular show inspired the 2004 film starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. If you have seen the show or the movie you know it is about a detective team in California who drive a 1974 Ford Gran Torino. The time that has lapsed from the last episode of the show to the movie was 25 years. The Torino rolled back on set to take the stage once again.

The Starsky and Hutch franchise made the Torino extremely popular. Ford even painted some of their inventory red and white and advertised it as a “Starsky and Hutch type car” to make even more sales. When the Torino was super popular, Ford had limited packages made that were very close to the movie car.

For the film, producers could not find any original Torinos from the TV show. In the film, they actually used 9 Gran Torinos for stunts and other action scenes. They were able to find one of the Ford produced special editions that was kept in great shape. This Torino was used as a template to build on to make the car for the movie!

We here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you enjoyed another segment from Movie Cars! Thank you so much for reading along this year. Stay tuned for more to come in the new year!! 

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Movie Cars: The Fast and The Furious

 

The Fast Furious saga contains a multitude of action packed scenes and super cool cars. Growing up, I always watched these movies and loved seeing all the different cars they used. The most well known and popular of all these cars is definitely Dominic Toretto’s 1970 Dodge Charger. Let’s take it all back to the first of this growing series, The Fast and The Furious. Dom, played by Vin Diesel, and his father built this car. Sadly, his father was killed in a race driving the Charger. After his dad passed, Dom was afraid to touch this car. Eventually Dom was forced into driving the Charger and it became his go to ever since. 

For the movie, there were 3 Chargers built. Two of them were used for stunts while there was one driven by Vin Diesel for all the glam shots and close ups. One of them was utterly destroyed in the final scene and another was restored and privately owned. The one that was used for the close up shots was featured at Universal Studios and is used as a show car. 

We here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you enjoyed another segment from Movie Cars! Have a great Christmas!! 

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Movie Cars: Gone in 60 Seconds

Eleanore, one of the most famous mustangs in movie history, was driven by Nicholas Cage in the 2000 film, Gone in 60 Seconds. Eleanore was a specially made 1967 Shelby GT500 designed by Chip Foose and a team at Cinema Vehicle Services. 

There were 11 made for the film and there are 3 of them still around today. The mustang started as a 1967 fastback and then was enhanced with a body kit that included new fender flares, facia, headlight bezels, and some other lights. Eleanore has sold in auction a few times for some big bucks. 

We here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you enjoyed another movie car segment. Have a great weekend and stay safe out there!! 

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Movie Cars: Tomorrow Never Dies

The James Bond franchise is one that has many movies and famous cars, especially the Aston Martin. This week’s Movie Car segment is not talking about the Aston Martin, but a BMW 750iL. This vehicle was featured in the 1997 film, Tomorrow Never Dies, starring Pierce Brosnan. This BMW was used in one of the coolest car chases in the James Bond franchise. It was loaded up with gadgets, rockets, and other cool Bond tools. 

The chase scene was 2 minutes long in the film and took 3 weeks to shoot. There were 17 BMW 750iL’s used in the film and 4 of them were modified to be able to be driven by a hidden driver to simulate the car being remote controlled. 

We here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you enjoyed another segment of Movie Cars! I have a ton more to talk about so I hope you all have liked reading them so far. Have a great weekend! 

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Movie Cars: Back to the Future

 

Welcome back to another Movie Cars segment! This week we are talking about the infamous DeLorean from the 1985 hit movie, Back to the Future! The first movie is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year! This movie has been a favorite in my household, it's actually my brothers all time favorite movie! If you have not seen this movie, you really have to check it out. 

Back to the Future is about young Marty McFly, played by Michael J Fox, who gets sent back to the 50s thanks to his friend Doc Brown’s, played by Christopher Lloyd’s invention. The time traveling takes place in a 1982 DeLorean powered by the Flux Capacitor. Marty meets young versions of his parents while visiting the 50s and can possibly change life as he knows it by doing so. His job is to make sure that his parents fall in love to ensure him and his siblings exist back in the 80s. 

Now the DeLorean is a super cool looking vehicle. This vehicle was created by John DeLorean, a head of General Motors. He loved to design vehicles and wanted to make his own name for himself, so he left GM and started his own company, DeLorean Motor Company, aka DMC. 

The DeLorean (DMC-12) was the car of the future. When trying to come up with the design for this unique vehicle, Mr. DeLorean went to an Italian car designer, Giorgetto Giugiaro who used his concept of a Porsche to bring the DMC-12 to life. Having those super cool wing doors and the engine in the back, Mr. DeLorean thought his vehicle would be extremely popular. However, upon release, it did not take off too well. Over some time, Mr. DeLeorean was arrested due to a mix up with the FBI and had to close the doors of his factory. At this point only 9,000 DCM-12s were produced. 

Fortunately, creators of Back to the Future chose the DeLorean over a time machine refrigerator and that sparked a new life for the DMC-12. The film used 3 slightly modified DMC-12s in the movie. The main one used, is now a display vehicle.

We here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you enjoyed another segment from Movie Cars. Thanks for reading and have a great rest of your week!! 

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