Movie Cars: Knight Rider

In 1982 a new show aired featuring David Hasselhoff and a talking Trans Am, sounds pretty cool right? Well that show was none other than Knight Rider. Yes, I know that Knight Rider is a TV show and not a movie but, KITT is definitely a super famous car to talk about. 

KITT stands for Knight Industries Two Thousand and in the show he is a Trans Am controlled by an AI (artificial intelligence) who has a ton of bells and whistles. The show’s staff designed what they would want KITT to look like and one of the major changes was the nose of the car. The Trans Am also went through some changes on the interior to make it as futuristic as they could back in the 80s. 

Throughout the show's 4 seasons, around 20 KITTs were made. Some were used for stunts and others for general use. After the show ended a bunch of the cars were destroyed because of an agreement with GM. Today only 5 remain and they are mostly seen at comic conventions. 

Thank you for reading along on another segment of Movie Cars. We here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you have a fantastic rest of your week! 

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Earth Day 2021: What do we do at Jerry Noonan's Auto Center to benefit the environment?

 

Happy Earth Day! This year is the 51st anniversary of this great holiday and it is definitely one to celebrate. Today and everyday, our planet Earth is important. It gives us life and so many other beautiful things like beaches, mountains, deserts, the rain forest, and more. We as the human race have a responsibility to take care of this planet and at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center, we try to do our part. 

Besides basic recycling practice of bottles, glass and paper, we also recycle oil and vehicle parts. One of the cooler things we do here and is eco friendly, is the use of Envirobase High Performance Paint. This paint is from PPG and we use it in our paint booth. Their waterborne paint is beneficial to the environment because it:

• Reduces the production of volatile organic compounds or VOC
• Improves air quality 
• Safer for the health of our employees

The Envirobase High Performance is not only eco friendly but effective as it gives you a quality finished product. Being that the product does not have as much VOCs it provides a better work environment for our employees. The harsh odors that come with solvent paints are practically gone which is a huge plus for our painter and other auto body technicians. 

All of us here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you do something, even as small as turning off the water when you brush your teeth, to help protect our beautiful home, planet Earth. We also hope you learned something about our environmental procedures here at the shop and have a fantastic rest of your week!! 

Movie Cars: Austin Powers International Man of Mystery

 

Growing up, the Austin Powers movies were a huge part of my life. I watched them all at a very young age and obviously did not get a lot of the humor, but I loved them. My family even has cardboard standees of Austin, Dr. Evil, and Mini Me in our house. Being that I am such a huge fan, I obviously have to write about the famous Shaguar from the first movie, Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery.  

The Shaguar is a 1970 Jaguar E- Type with a pretty unique paint job. It also featured a custom red convertible top. For the movie, there were two cars made, one that was in the film and one used for promotional stuff. The one in the film was right hand drive. The Shaguar that was used for promotion was sold years back on ebay and bounced around from owner to owner. 

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

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Movie Cars: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

 

In 1986, a ton of classic films came out, but one of my favorites is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Of course since this blog is about movie cars we are going to be talking about the very sad moment when this car above was destroyed. Well, that actually never happened because the cars used in the film were replicas! Three of these replica Ferrari GTs were used in the movie and only one of them got wrecked. They actually used a car called a GT Spyder California.

The scene where the Ferrari plummets down to the ground was actually just a fiberglass shell that was made specially for that part. Later, this shell was restored and sold in auction for a pretty penny. The real Ferrari GT is an extremely rare car so it is good to hear that one wasn’t actually used.

We here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you enjoyed another segment from Movie Cars! Hope you can sleep at night now knowing that no super rare car was destroyed in this movie.  Thanks for reading along!!

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Movie Cars: Ghostbusters

 

In 1984, a movie came out that revolved around 4 guys and their ability to save New York City by catching ghosts, of course that movie is Ghostbusters. This movie is a classic and I always have to watch it when it’s on TV. Not only does it have an amazing cast and some cool special effects, but it also has one of the most famous movie cars, the Ectomobile aka ECTO-1. 

The ECTO-1 is a1959 Cadillac with a Miller-Meteor ambulance/hearse conversion. Miller-Meteor was a car manufacturing company and only made about 400 vehicles. These vehicles were a whopping 20 feet long! That’s definitely something that is hard to maneuver. 

Throughout the years the ECTO-1 evolved. In the second film, it was given some more gadgets and gizmos and was actually a different car all together. The ECTO-1A as it is called, is a 1959 Cadillac. The ECTO-1A spent some time in Universal Studios in Florida and was a little banged up. After its time there it was taken back to Sony and just sat there alongside the ECTO-1. 

The ECTO-1 from the film was refurbished in the early 2000s, but the ECTO-1A didn’t have the same fate as its refurbishment was stopped. The refurb for the ECTO-1 was a difficult one. A lot of the elements were beyond repair and needed to be fabricated. The vehicle also had a bunch of rust and body rot from water, fixing this took about 9 months. All in all, it was a successful refurb for the ECTO-1 and it is on display at a museum in Los Angeles. 

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

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Movie Cars: Ford v Ferrari

In 2019, we were given the movie Ford v Ferrari, a fantastic film starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it. The movie is about Carroll Shelby and racer Ken Miles trying to build a car for Ford to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France 1966. 

The cars used in the film were all built by the Shelby Legendary Cars in California. 30 were made for the film but not all of them were functioning vehicles. Some were just rollers used for a set piece and some were full on race cars. The car that won the race was the GT40, a replica built for the purpose of the movie. Bale actually took lessons at a racing school to be better equipped to play Miles. 

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

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Movie Cars: Mad Max Fury Road

If you like movies about post apocalyptic wastelands, then Mad Max Fury Road is a movie for you. This movie was honestly a super cool one and I enjoyed watching it. What definitely stands out in this movie are the super crazy cars and vehicles that are used. The production designer and art director of the film, Colin Gibson, was in charge of all the super cool vehicles. He wanted cars that had style and something he would think that would have been salvaged in this wasteland, unlike a simple Honda Civic, etc. Gibson and a bunch of teams of mechanics created 150 crazy apocalyptic vehicles, that is an insane amount of heavily armored cars. What is even cooler is all the stunts in the movie were real so unfortunately a lot of the beasts were destroyed.

Let’s get into some detail on some of the cars.

1. Mad Max’s Interceptor

Played by Tom Hardy, Max drove a 1974 XB Ford Falcon Coupe which was also used in the first films with Mel Gibson. 

2.Furosia and her War Rig

Played by Charlize Theron, Furosia drove a huge truck. A Czechoslovakian Tatra and a Chevy Fleetmaster combined together to be a 6 wheel drive 18 wheeler. The rig also carried a huge fuel tank. 

3.Doof Warrior’s Doof WagonThis is my favorite vehicle from the movie. It’s a huge vehicle which housed a massive amount of subwoofers and featured a stage with lighting for the Doof Warrior. There was a cord suspended in the front for him to hang on and play his electric guitar that flames would come out of. The Doof Wagon is pictured above. 

Thank you again for reading another segment of movie cars. We here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center hope you have a great weekend!! 

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