James Garner may no longer be with us but his legacy lives on. He was always a gearhead and a racer like Steve McQueen and he performed the majority of the driving stunts and action stuff during his career. Outside of the Baja Ramblers and race cars, the most famous “car” associated to Garner is the second generation Firebirds that he drove during the long run of the Rockford Files on TV.

Playing the role of Jim Rockford, a down and out PI, Garner helped people, chased bad guys, got chased by bad guys, and kept audiences engaged during the six year run of the show. Interestingly, Rockford had a new Pontiac Firebird every year up until 1978 but even in 79 and 80 the character drove a ’78 because Garner didn’t like the front ends of the ’79s and 1980 models.

In this clip, our hero finds himself running from a couple of bad guys in a hot rodded Corvette. The ‘Vette has some Baldwin-Motion hints to it with the paint, stance, and larger than stock tires, but I don’t think that it is anything more than a coincidence. This chase is a good snap shot of the show as it highlights, action, a brief moment of comedy, an iconic “Rockford” move, and the witty tactics of Jim Rockford. Plus it is all wrapped in a cool car chase.

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE JIM ROCKFORD OWN THE BAD GUYS WHO ARE IN A HOT VETTE!