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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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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