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Car Chase Movie Sunday: A Trans Am Takes On A Hot Rod Chevy Pickup In 1978’s The Driver


Car Chase Movie Sunday: A Trans Am Takes On A Hot Rod Chevy Pickup In 1978’s The Driver

I guess I have Pontiacs on the brain today but seeing as this is another 1970s movie and it features another 1970s Pontiac in a car chase I guess it is fair to say that Poncho was the only brand out there making semi-exciting stuff through the malaise decade. This nine minute epic chase from the 1978 movie The Driver is fantastic on multiple levels. The Trans-Am in the 1970s spec graphics is cool but the stepside Chevy pickup with the white wagon-style steel wheels and side pipes is pure perfection.

The good guy is driving the Chevy, the bad guys are in the Pontiac. This chase takes place on city streets, warehouses, tunnels, etc. We dig that. Any time a chase heads indoors and into a confined space like a warehouse only good things can happen. By good things we mean the imminent destruction of one or both vehicles involved in the chase scene.

One things that cracked us up about this one was the relative calm that the female passenger exhibits though the thing. The woman seems to have zero emotion although she is being shot at, slid sideways, bashed, and living with her life in terrible danger for most of the scene. Acting is over rated.

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE 1970S CAR CHASE PERFECTION FROM THE FILM THE DRIVER – TRANS AM VERSUS HOT ROD STEP SIDE CHEVY TRUCK!


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10 thoughts on “Car Chase Movie Sunday: A Trans Am Takes On A Hot Rod Chevy Pickup In 1978’s The Driver

  1. Greg Rourke

    You call that a chase? Where was the fruit cart? The two guys carrying a pane of glass? The woman with the baby stroller? And at 1:40…is that pickup a three-on-the-tree, or did he throw it in Park?
    Digging the badass rake on the pickup.

    1. Ed

      at least it had the mandatory pile of very large, yet empty, boxes. But I was disappointed the TA didn’t explode after rolling.

  2. Dana R

    That’s a ’76 Firebird. If the shaker & spoilers are original, then it’s a Trans Am, automatically making the engine a 455! Assuming it’s all original, since the movie was made in ’77.

  3. craig b blue

    I think the T/A was actually a Formula w/a different color T/A hood. And it has to be at least 2 different trucks ’cause one had a 3 speed column shift & at the end he pulled back a floor shifter into 1st gear maybe? This is a way better chase than s*** like fast & furious cause there’s no fake computer stuff used…..

  4. Michael

    Very nice chase never have seen this one but wait to the end and the recommended
    videos and click on the seven ups chase scene with Roy Shieder and a bitchin Ventura
    and Bill Hickman driving the big bonneville . Soundtrack provided by Bullitt yjough

  5. Doc

    You want passenger reaction?
    This is my favorite clip of passenger reaction and it doesn’t involve any acting it’s all genuine.
    It doesn’t get old. Unless swearing in Italian is frown upon all the swearing is in the english subtitles so it’s kinda safe for work
    http://youtu.be/-8gmqZu6z8s

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