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Question Of The Day: What Is The Best Movie Chase Featuring Late-Model Cars?


Question Of The Day: What Is The Best Movie Chase Featuring Late-Model Cars?

How many second-generation Dodge Chargers will be sacrificed on the altar that is Hollywood? For that matter, how many 1970s Chrysler Corporation products, pre-1971 Ford Mustangs, 1969 Chevrolet Camaros, or any other stereotypical musclecar is going to bite the dust? You’d swear that the factories cranked out these cars by the tens of millions, the way movies go through them, but that isn’t the case and the average gearhead knows this…and usually lets everyone around them know this as they lose their mind when another classic car meets an inevitable, gory end. Ask any of the frothing hoards that took to the Internet what they thought about Quentin Tarantino’s “Deathproof” flick. The car action is good, but that’s one Nova, one Charger and one Challenger R/T, dead, dead, and damn near dead.

Muscle cars are, ballparked, about fifty years old at this point. Yet, for the most part, Hollywood is stuck between 1971 and whatever is brand new and freaking expensive, for the most part. Which does the automotive world no good, because there’s a whole ton of machines that get zero love. Except for a few, that slip past. Take Men In Black…how many of you looked at a 1980s Ford LTD in a new light after seeing Agent Kay’s clean black staff car? Movie magic aside, how many of you suddenly want to jam a hot 351 in one of these now?

Or, let’s look at more up-to-date chase scene: a 2010-ish Ford Mustang GT against a Chrysler 300C in the movie Drive. Two late-model cars, plenty of horsepower between them, tire smoke, some sideways stuff, and the Chrysler ends up mounted on a pile of road construction equipment. Are they bad choices for movie cars? No, and neither were the obvious product placement Cadillac CTSs used in Bad Boyz II and The Matrix: Reloaded. And you can go back further in movie catalogs to see legit late-model vehicles getting used and abused, like the BMW and Peugeot in Ronin, or the poor Dodge Diplomat that gets beat to death in Short Time. Notice: late model, realistic choice vehicles.

So, here’s a good Question Of The Day for you: What is the best car chase scene you can think of that uses real-world, typical street cars that you enjoyed from, say, the last thirty years? We are putting the year cap on this question because otherwise cars such as the Pontiac LeMans in The French Connection would qualify. We’re looking forward to seeing what you guys can put up here!


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11 thoughts on “Question Of The Day: What Is The Best Movie Chase Featuring Late-Model Cars?

  1. Matt Cramer

    I’d give the prize to Ronin – particularly for doing the “wrong way on the highway” sequence with zero CGI.

    Honorable mention for best use of CGI in a chase scene goes to the Initial D anime series.

    And I want to build a clone of the Men in Black Crown Vic with a Coyote motor. Use the button on the shifter to activate nitrous. Fasten your seat belt.

  2. Taz Patterson

    John Wick had Keanu dispatching baddies in a late model Charger and the sound and cinematography was pretty great. Also Die Hard with a Vengeance really had me wanting a NYC Cab Caprice for jumping it through Central Park.

  3. keezling

    Why, any fast and furious movie of course! LOL. The Italian Job was interesting. The real Hollywood magic is keeping the Mustangs from immediately crashing as soon as they move right? The “formula” for any Hollywood movie seems to involve any combination of the following: 1) car chases 2) space aliens & 3) hooters. Hopefully all three!

  4. Henrik

    I for one feel sick when i see a Nice classic Being pounds to death because some sick Hollywood ass needs to make yet another fast and stupid movie. Why cant they use late model shitboxes to make Their movies. Most of them are worthless to watch anyway. If any of actors in a car movie, actually cared at all for cars and was true petrolheads, they would never use a Nice classic in a Way that would trash it.
    Even a show like mythbusters on Discovery feel the need to smash and destroy a few classics just to make a tv show. It makes me puke to watch. Kill a few prius or other worthless econoboxes why dont you.

  5. 69rrboy

    Well the good news is, unlike the first couple when they actually used legit old cars, the past few Slow and the Ludicrous movies haven’t really damaged any REAL Chargers or Daytonas.

    All they are anymore is a bunch of sheet metal bent in a way to look kinda like the real thing then wrap it around a nascrap type chassis with an LS motor in it.

    They can smash as many of those things as they want to while they’re chasing some door stop Honda with a 38 speed tranny.

  6. Jay

    I’m with Henrick on this one.

    Then you’ve got the idiots at Roadkill trying to act like millennials to complete the stupid.

  7. BeaverMartin

    Not exactly late models, but everything in Mad Max Fury Road made me smile ear to ear. Chrome!

  8. \"VIN\"...DIESEL?

    \’Fast and Furious 257,000\’ will have Vehicle Identification Number Diesel doing a car stunt.
    Can\’t wait for it to be released next year!!!!!!!

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