Movie Cars: Christine

Welcome to another segment of Movie Cars! Today we are going to be talking about the film, Christine and its 1957 Plymouth Fury! Christine was a 1983 horror film that was based on one of Stephen King’s novels. The movie focused on a car, Christine, who had its own mind. Arnie Cunningham, played by Keith Gordon, buys Christine and is completely obsessed with it, a little too obsessed people might say. So Arnie’s friend decided to wreck the car and this was a bad mistake on their part. Christine restores herself and then goes on a killing rampage taking out Arnie’s friends who “beat her up.” Once Arnie and his girlfriend find out about this horrible murder and who was responsible, they decide to take action and destroy Christine.

I remember watching this film at a very young age and being absolutely terrified. Well I mean it is a pretty scary concept. Besides that, the Plymouth Fury was a very nice vehicle. During the movie, the Fury was not always a Fury; they used other Chrysler models. In fact, more than 20 Plymouths were used in the filming of the movie, including Belvederes, Savoys, and of course the Fury. All of these vehicles were painted the same red and had all the same interior color to match well between shots. 

Another interesting fact about this movie is that Christine was never remote controlled. Being a vehicle that drove by itself most of the movie, you would think there was remote control technology being used. Actually, they used stunt drivers who had a small window to see where they were going. Today only 3 cars used in this film are still out there. 

We here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you enjoyed another segment from Movie Cars! Thanks for reading and have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

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Movie Cars: The Hollywood Knights

The 1980 movie The Hollywood Knights is about members of a drag racing club called Hollywood Knights. They find out their regular hangout spot will be closing and demolished to make room for office buildings. So the gang puts together a celebration to hopefully change the town's plans for the new building. 

The real star of this film is the 1957 Chevy 210 also known as Project X. This vehicle was canary yellow and belonged to Tony Danza’s character, Duke. Project X stood as a test vehicle for many different engine combinations and other hot rod modifications over the years. While starring in this film, the Chevy featured a really cool number 1 pool ball shift knob and what stood out the most was that it had no hood. The small block Chevy engine was the focal point on this hot rod. 

This movie featured so many iconic hot rods like a Ford Galaxie, Le Mans, and a Shelby Cobra. If you have not seen this movie, it looks like one to definitely check out! We here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you have been enjoying the Movie Car blog segment. Stay tuned for more! 

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Movie Cars: Smokey and the Bandit

Smokey and the Bandit is a super popular movie that came out in 1977. It starred Burt Renyolds, as Bandit a truck driver delivering some illegal coors beer from Texas to Georgia in 28 hours. In 1977, Smokey and the Bandit actually took the number two spot after Star Wars. This movie featured one of the most popular movie cars, the Pontiac Trans Am. 

The Pontiac Trans Am in this film was actually a 1976 model with the front end of a 1977. There were 4 cars used to make this film and unfortunately, 3 of them were wrecked during filming. The last surviving car is owned by a car collector in Florida. A fun fact about the car is that the engine sound in the movie wasn’t actually from the Trans Am. It was actually recordings from the Chevrolet Custom we talked about from Two Lane Black-Top and American Graffiti. 

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

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Movie Cars: Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry.

The 1974 film, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, was one of those classic “run from the police” movies. It starred Peter Fonda as Larry. The two main characters robbed a bank to have money to build their dream race car; they wanted to race in NASCAR. 

The vehicle they drove was a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T 440. They actually started out the movie in a 1966 Chevy Impala, but then ditched it for a new set of wheels, the Charger. The vehicle was built to withstand one of the longest chase scenes in film history.

Unfortunately, after the movie was made, the Charger was sold for parts. The person that bought the car did not realize how special it really was until some time after his purchase. However, once he did find out, he tried to bring it back to life, but before he could finish it, the Charger was totaled. 

Not so much of a happy ending for the 1969 Dodge Charger R/T 440, but it did entertain many in the film, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry! We here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you enjoyed another segment from Movie Cars! Thanks for reading and tune in for next week’s blog featuring the infamous Shelby Mustang from Gone in 60 Seconds!

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Movie Cars: White Lightning

 

White Lighting was released in 1973 starring Burt Reynolds. This was before his time with Smokey and the Bandit. Reynolds has a pretty good claim to fame for acting in movies where he gets to drive cool cars and run from the cops. This film was no different from that. Reynold’s character Gator was in prison but released early to help the FBI catch a dirty policeman, one who killed his brother. Gator thought this would be great because he would get vengeance for his brother and get to take down a villain. 

The car Gator drives is a 1971 Ford Galaxie Custom 500. The Ford was excellently driven by Reynolds. Hal Needham, the stunt coordinator and Reynolds’ stunt double, even does a 63 foot jump over the water and lands on a moving barge. This jump does unfortunately damage the undercarriage of the car and that was not intended. When he took the jump the barge captain did not accelerate enough causing Needham to just grab the edge of the barge. He jumped out of the car and then it sank to the bottom of the river. 

Well, we here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you enjoyed another segment of movie cars. Stay tuned for more!!

Information and Photo from here. 

Movie Cars: American Graffiti

The 1973 film, American Graffiti was an extremely popular movie for its movie cars, alongside the many renown actors and actresses. The cars consisted of 1951 Mercury Coupe, 1955 Chevy sedan, 1956 Ford Thunderbird, 1958 Chevy Impala, and 1932 Ford Coupe. The 1955 Chevy was the one we talked about last time from Two Lane Black Top! 

Fortunately, all those famous cars are still around today in pretty great condition. Rick Figari for example, bought the 1932 Ford Coupe pictured above. He was saying in an interview that the movie stood the test of time and became a pop culture phenomenon as young adults not born in that era of the film, would recognize the car on the road. It is really cool when stuff like that happens because the movie lives on with a whole new generation. All the other cars were enjoyed by families around the country.

We here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you enjoyed another segment from Movie Cars. And if you have not seen American Graffiti, we highly recommend it. 

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Movie Cars: Two-Lane Blacktop

 The 1955 Chevy 150 Sedan was the vehicle featured in the 1971 film, Two-Lane Blacktop. This film was about two guys who drive cross country in a race. There were several Chevys custom built by Richard Ruth for the movie. He built three cars, two to have camera brackets installed and the other as the stunt car to get exterior shots of. 

After these cars took the stage, they were pieced out a bit and sat for a while until being used again. One of the Chevys was actually used by one of the studio mechanic’s sons as a daily driver. It was also used by the studio while filming Smokey and the Bandit to record engine sounds that were dubbed in for the sound of the engine of the Trans-Am.

Eventually the three cars were used again in American Graffiti and unfortunately one was burned as the car Harrison Ford rolls over. 

We here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you enjoyed another segment of Movie Cars. Stay tuned for more!!

Info and photo from here