Oh yeah, today we’re going full on chase hero mode with two awesome celebrity car death match opponents. These two cars were highlighted in chase scenes directed by the same guy, William Friedkin. In both movies the cars get hammered and beaten to within an inch of their lives, ultimately they both get the job done of the officers (no matter how whacked and crooked they are) of the law. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. We need to recap yesterday’s battle and see exactly which vehicle moved forward into the pool for round two.

[box_dark] Yesterday we pitted two impossibly evil vehicles against one another. The 1951 Peterbilt from Duel and the crazed 1958 Plymouth from Christine. These are two of the most iconically demonic motorized stars in cinematic history. Who won?

Christine DEFEATS The 1951 Peterbilt 281

The old rig will burn in the depths of big rig hell for its crimes against humanity. Meanwhile, the Fury lives on…

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Today we’re looking at two cars that William Friedkin made famous in a pair of his great movies. We’ll give the elder member of the pair the floor first because the 1971 LeMans sedan sure as hell earned it. You remember the scene from the French Connection. Eddie Doyle commandeers the unassuming Poncho to chase a train that a hitman is riding on. The elevated train weaves through Brooklyn in a pretty nonchalant fashion while on the streets below, Doyle is causing wrecks, bouncing off cars, avoiding baby strollers, crashing through garbage stacks, and generally scaring the pants off of everyone in a three block radius. We have read that some of the accidents filmed during the chase (not specifically the ones with the LeMans) were not planned and actually involved regular people. Is that true? Who the hell knows? What we do know is that Doyle ends up catching the train, plugging the hit man in the back, and maintains bad ass stature. One of the things we wish they would have done in a comedic light was to show the keys being handed back to the owner of the Poncho when Doyle was done with it. Thanks for helping the city! Bill Hickman was the stunt driver in this scene and Friedkin actually rode in the back of the car shooting the footage! The video below tells some of the great stories from behind the scenes of a top ten all time movie car chase! The coolest? Without permission, the guys ran that LeMans 90mph for 26 blocks without stopping through Brooklyn. That is insane!

The second cop car star from a Friedkin film today is the early 1980s Caprice 9C1 used as the central point in the famous car chase that sees the Chevy get shot up, nearly drown in the LA River basin, run over train tracks…while drag racing a moving train, driven the wrong way on the highway (more on that in a second) and generally beaten like a rented mule for minutes on end. The Caprice, like the LeMans is a fairly pedestrian looking vehicle but it performs perfectly as abuse is continually heaped onto it during the chase scene. William Peterson is the driver of the Caprice and he’s a lunatic fringe cop that like Doyle isn’t afraid to break the rules to get the job done. Peterson’s character actually make’s Doyle look straight laced as he’s straight up nutsola. We have the chase video below and one of the things to pay attention to is that the scenes which show the Caprice driving the “wrong way” down the highway are filmed in a tricky manner. The Caprice is actually going the right way but the traffic is going the wrong way. Seriously…we’re not kidding. That was a neat little Friedkin twist on that deal. Oh, the fact that you hear the ol’ Q-Jet moaning away as Peterson drives this Caprice at full throttle makes it even better.

You tell us by commenting below…which car survives the fight? The LA 9C1 or the 1971 LeMans?