Movie Cars

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Watching the car shows on a laid back do-nothing weekend, the same commercial keeps coming around quite often. There's Burt Reynolds, what's left of him at least, plugging a raffle for a 1977 Bandit Trans Am to benefit charities, supposedly.

And I wonder, I can't help but wonder, how MANY Trans Ams did that movie sell? I can remember, they were everywhere, and guys who had them actually thought they were the Bandit. Whatta boon for a particular model of car, I'll bet they were selling over sticker price but I don't know, just a guess.

And RE the Trans Am, I was amazed to see the 2000 convertible one Bruce and Joan had at GHI the other day, all the way down here from Ontario. I'd never seen one before. I honestly didn't know that car ever existed.

And then Back to the Future, the Delorean. I'm too lazy to do the research, but wasn't that car already out of production when that movie came out? Wasn't that choice of a car for a star supposed to be sort of a campy joke? Here's a car that's basically a turd and an overall market failure, but here it is resurrected again....wasn't it that sort of thing?

[SuperBuickGuy]

Was the only year Firebirds outsold Camaros - something like 118,000 of them sold.... if you take how many they sold before the movie - 50k, you can presume that the movie sold 60,000 cars.
http://www.texastransams.com/article...on_numbers.htm

seriously, click on the link. Those years when the Smokey series happened did a substantially lift to Firebird sales.

nothing could save DeLorean

[pdub]

seriously, click on the link. Those years when the Smokey series happened did a substantially lift to Firebird sales.

Wow, DID click on the link. Man, I haven't been right in months, but there it is. Now I can go back to work on Monday and be wrong every time again. EDIT: Every frickin breathing thinking minute of it.

Thanks SBG, that's cool stuff!

[DanStokes]

The DeLorean was killed, more or less, by a terrible engine. Don't know why John Z picked that lemon. Of course, the car had other issues as well but if it had been fast and reliable it might have sold a few more cars.

As far as why it was picked for the movie (as I heard it) - it looked futuristic and the movie folks could just throw some props at it so it looked plausible so they went with it rather than building a body from scratch like a Batmobile.

Dan

[tardis454]

Marty: "Wait a minute. Wait a minute Doc, are you telling me you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?"

Doc: "The way I see it, if you're going to build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?
Besides, the stainless steel construction made the flux disperal... Watch Out!!"

[RustyRodder]

Delorean was chosen because it looked futuristic, would have been entirely out of place in 1955, and they wanted the UFO joke. Ford offered something like a million dollars to make it a mustang instead- Bob Gale told them "Doc Brown wouldn't drive a F***** mustang"

Fun fact- there are so many spare Delorean parts, you can still buy them brand new.

[ratpatrol66]

Here are a few still pics from the movie. Take note of the wheels...











Screw it here is a link to the thread from Ames PY site...

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=805532

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"Doc Brown wouldn't drive a F***** mustang"

Wait a minute, what the hell is wrong with a F***** Mustang?!?!

Never mind, I already know. Never mind. Carry on.

[Dan Barlow]

It wouldn't make it overbthe river jump . The t/a only weighed in at around 3400 . 😁

[Thumpin455]

Sure the crapmaro sold more until 77, but look at them now. Nobody wants any of them between 72 and 81. Only the delusional and ignorant like 3rd gens ;) 79 was the best year for the Firebird, its still the easiest year by far to find. I have five of them. The 77 Mustang and Camaro were utter crap, slow as hell, ugly as sin, but there was the TA, a beast of a car that only needed some headers and a cam to make it haul very well, and a suspension that could embarrass similar vintage Vettes. I know, used to do it in my 10th Anniversary.

[67 Malibu]

There's Burt Reynolds, what's left of him at least, plugging a raffle for a 1977 Bandit Trans Am to benefit charities, supposedly.

Back when SNL was still worth watching, Norm McDonald did a great Burt Reynolds impersonation when they did their Jeopardy send up. A few years later they had him on "My Name is Earl" playing a PITA town rich kid bully essentially doing his BR impression. And later they brought the real BR in playing the rich kids dad. It was really very cleverly done. But ol' Burt was already looking a bit rough then & that was probably about 2009. This is one of the SNL's. http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-li.../3506029?snl=1 Couldn't find the "Earl" with BR.