Visiting a farm the other day I came across a rusting hulk that had once been a Zephyr 6. The first thing that came to my mind was "Z Cars". The car was synonimous with the programme and was as much a star as any of the actors who appeared in it. Del boy's Reliant Regal was another which attained a fame way and above it's humble station in life by becomming almost a lead character in the show.
Are there any other cars which it is impossible to think of without a TV show or movie automatically appearing in the same thought bubble?
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www.saint.org/volvo.htm
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Any original Mini in the right colour will forever be Mr Bean's car to me. There are a few obvious ones, such as the A-Team's van (must be black with the red stripe though!), the General Lee and the miraculously unblemished barge piloted by Starsky & Hutch. I think cars such as the DeLorean (flux capacitor option sadly not available) and KITT don't count, as the story was about them in some way, rather than them being ancillary to the plot. However there's another car that has that resonance for me - when I see it I don't think "Jag", I think "Inspector Morse's car".
I'd better stop now and let someone else have a go, far too many to mention and I have work to do!
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andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
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www.saint.org/volvo.htm
Don't forget Ian Ogilvy's white Jaguar XJ-S too :-)
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Unconfirmed rumour dept: When The Saint was commissioned in the 60s, Jaguar were approached to supply Roger Moore with an E-Type. At the time they couldn't make them fast enough and this TV nonsense was just a waste of time, wasn't it? Who is this Lew Grade chap anyway?
Volvo stepped in and supplied P1800s for the various series, replacing them with facelifted versions over the years. Sales went up.
When Return Of The Saint was being commissioned in the 70s, Jaguar had an XJ-S at ITC's offices before they'd finished the phone call.
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Unconfirmed rumour dept: When The Saint was commissioned in the 60s Jaguar were approached to supply Roger Moore with an E-Type. At the time they couldn't make them fast enough and this TV nonsense was just a waste of time wasn't it?
Yes, well-known piece of Jaguar history.
Likewise, The Italian Job producers had to buy most of their minis, according to the excellent documentary which is on the end of my video copy... cos they couldn't persuade the manufacturer to help them out.
Apparently, though, Alfa were falling over themselves to lend/give the crew as many cars as they wanted - hence the car transporter, the alfa factory roof etc etc etc getting prominence!
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Loved Saint books when I was a callow 14-year-old, but never thought Roger Moore remotely suitable for the part. Too chubby, and smug in the wrong way. Simon Templar has a brittle side that Moore simply can't do.
As for that Volvo coupe I never could stand the hairdressery look of the thing. A very poor substitute for the Saint's Hirondel and (in the later stories) his second car, a Furillac.
'... a mere whispering sixty, for the Saint was in no hurry.'
Sixty in the thirties was fast, the equivalent of a hundred or more today.
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Inspector Morse's '59 Jaguar Mk II
Clk Sec
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The 1969 Dodge Charger will always be the General Lee :)
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The avengers elan was rubbish. What climbed in and out of it however was not.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Ford Consul aka Ford Granada Mk I - Sweeney
Ford Capri MkII - Professionals
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Lotus Se7en - The Prisoner (KAR 120C)
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coco the clowns car that starred in the laurel and hardy films
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Groan.
The rough but still comfortable Lincoln Continental with reverse-rake rear window, like a 105E Anglia and doubtless from the same corporate styling pen, in the movie Five Easy Pieces.
The BMW 503 convertible in The Last Run, often on late night movie channels these days. The car is the movie's co-star really, and comes to a sad end...
etc., etc.
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Drool ...
Let's hear it for Mrs Peel.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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Terry's Capri in Minder
Afur daily's Daimler Double 6 in Minder
Wesley in last of summer wine's LR S111
Thora Hirds (wesleys wife in last of summerwine) Triumph Herald convertable
Capri in Profesionals
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Columbo's 1959 Peugeot 403 Cabriolet. (one of only 504 made)
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I just watched a trailer of the new Mr Bean movie, still driving his old green Mini.
You'd thought he'd move by the times & brought the new Mini by now, not that i can see him driving one he'd be messing about with all the gadgets it comes with. LOL
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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The appalling cyclecar - a genuine 1920s piece of carp - driven by Jacques Tati in the original M. Hulot's Holiday... There's a scene where an inflated inner tube rolls into a cemetery and falls into wet dead leaves, where someone at a funeral mistakes it for a wreath and hangs it on the gravestone. The tube then deflates to the consternation of the mourners. Has you rolling in the aisles...
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I watched 'Children of Men' on DVD - a not-very-good UK film. Set in 2027. The cars were Fiat Multipla, some 'bottom-style' Renaults and a Citroen CX estate. All with some cladding to make them look different. The film gives a nightmare vision of the future - well, it'll certainly be an automotive nightmare if we're all driving French and Italian cars in 2027!
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Reminds me of the SF film "Gattaca" - it had a somewhat retro-futurist look to it, including some slightly disguised Rover P6s...
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My Mother the Car
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Mother_the_Car
Absolute rubbish but exerted a strange fascination for 14 yo Hawkeye.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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Gad,
Years of therapy down the drain: cue music "a 1928 Porter that's my mother dear" they had no CBBC in them days so it was either that or Muffin the mule......I was about four I think...
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Frank Cannon's Lincoln Continental Mk IV coupe with the oval-shaped 'opera windows' at the back.
With the voice of Karl Malden (from The Streets of San Francisco) saying "Tonight's episode...''
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Mike Randall's white Vauxhall Victor FD in 'Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).
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John Steed's Bentley 3-Litre (don't know the label colour, do you Lud?) in the Avengers.
I think I'll take a break now...
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the Steed I remember drove a Jaguar XJ V12 Coupé with wide wheels and extended wheel arches?
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"Vauxhall Victor FD"
That would be my choice - strangely enough.
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How about the black Wolseley 6/99 with the bell on the bumper that carried Raymond Huntley and his sidekick in 'No Hiding Place'?
Or the even earlier black Wolseley that carried 'Fabian of the Yard'?
I really must get out more...
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what! WHAT! no one has mentioned Bullit! Shake a leg people
Everyone will say - Hey he means the 1968 Ford Mustang G.T.390 Fastback,! but No! he means the 1968 Dodge Charger R/T 440 Magnum 9 (in black the "new" car colour)
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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On the subject of Magnum - The Ferrari
RS 2000 MK11 - The Professionals
Jaguar - The Equaliser - Edward Woodward.
DeLorean - Back to the Future.
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Fullchat
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You must be about 47.
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how about the cars in the cannonball run, the mitsubishi starion,
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what about christine the 1958 plymouth fury that repaired itself after getting smashed to bits attempting to kill people in the film of the same name, sure would put a lot of spanner monkeys out of work if it went on the production line
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And a teeny bit more!!
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Fullchat
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On the subject of Magnum - The Ferrari
+1. Incertain circles is known as the 'Magnum Ferrari'.
(same as the 'Sweeny Granada' and 'Inspector Morse Jag' already mentioned.)
Apparently Tom Selleck was given a few Ferraris in his time - Magnum, and the additional sales it made for the 308, are said to have pulled the company back from the brink of bankruptcy at one stage.
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Jersey detective Bergerac's roadster - a Triumph?
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Yes, it was a Triumph, 1800 or 2000cc, slow but pretty.
On the subject of which, the other day I saw an episode of Maigret on French TV, made in 2002 but depicting the 1950s I guess and, in the background of one shot - a Triumph Mayflower!
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Wasn't Cannon the 25-stone private eye? Don't want to carp mh but it was a different whale, anyway originally: an Oldsmobile Toronado, 6 or 7 litres of Detroit V8 with auto and FRONT WHEEL DRIVE... It was said they ate front tyres and I'm not at all surprised. Don't think the model lasted long.
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Sorry lud, most of the episodes were the lincoln. It had a car phone!
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I only remember the Lincoln - liked it so much I put on 2 stone!
In the books - yes, I really was a William Conrad fan - Cannon actually drove a Wankel-engined Mazda!
IIRC correctly the Olds Toronado really was an amazing bit of kit - the FWD arrangement involved chain drive from 7-litre engine to transmission.
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I definitely remember a fat dick with a Toronado. Was there another one?
If not it was Cannon in first series or something. Perhaps the chain broke (I had forgotten about the chain) and they got him something more reliable.
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There's no answer to that...
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There's no answer to that... seconded
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I had thought of an answer when I first read it......any more cars ?
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The 1970 Dodge Challenger in "Vanishing Point", with Barry Newman.
The 1981 New Zealand film "Goodbye Pork Pie" featured a yellow Mini that was progressively modified. It ended the film doorless and front-less (apart from the engine) but still mobile.
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The Alvis 3 litre convertible in the Stephen Fry "Kingdom" series.
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"Goodbye Pork Pie"
Watched that on C4 when it first started whilst courting SWMBO - age shows. Cracking film that anyone got it on DVD ?
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There's no answer to that...
There must be really. I have done a google, not really my sort of thing, and have come up with Mannix, another late sixties TV gumshoe, who had a customised drophead Toronado.
But the one I remember was a standard one with a roof, maroon I think, and I remember that the very obese eye obviously needed such a vehicle. I would put a small amount of money on an early Cannon episode or two.
Someone once posted a link to a wonderful website connecting all the cars ever made to films in which they appear, but I have lost it.
To my surprise the Toronado went on being produced until the nineties, but like everything else in Detroit getting smaller, uglier and slower, if slightly less unwieldy, as the years passed. The real beached-whale monstrosity only lasted four years from 66-70, with the next one fairly similar.
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Someone once posted a link to a wonderful website connecting all the cars ever made to films in which they appear but I have lost it.
Allow me to help! www.imcdb.org
Gareth
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Thank you very much garethj.
But I have trawled through the Oldses, found the Toronados and come up with Mannix, Charlie's angels (with the car used by a minor character) and a few movies. No fat private eyes.
Perhaps I have imagined it.
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Perhaps I have imagined it.
>Hooray! I'm not gaga yet after all!
Oooopps - Tad too hasty there Lud.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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TV gumshoe who had a customised drophead Toronado.
I think the original Toronado had front drum brakes too, crazy on such a big heavy car when discs had been around for a fair few years on other US cars.
There was a reprint of an original late '60's road test of it in an Autocar compilation book, which they said something to the effect that the acceleration was very good but the stopping ability was woeful!
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The white Mini Moke in 'The Prisoner' - I am a man, not a number...
Regards,
John R @ Work :¬)
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Don't think anyone has mentioned Smokey and the Bandit with the 77/78 black Pontiac Firebird Transam. Then James Garner had a standard gold Firebird (non-Transam) in The Rockford Files. And my uncles' neighbour had one a few years later.
For some reason as a 8-10 year old I thought these cars were the best thing ever designed. A but too cheesy and underpowered for my tastes now though, compared with some choice examples of their late '60's forebears.
There was a quite funny piece on them on a 5th Gear(?), the presenter was saying they looked like they were designed by a bunch of 14 year old boys. "Lets have two exhausts... no wait, make it four exhausts!"
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Harry Potter - blue Ford Anglia.
Reference Bergerac's car, the Triumph Roadster 1800 had a conventional 4 speed lever, albeit on the right of the steering column. The 2000 had a 3-speed, but with the characteristic large knucklejoint. I think if you look closely you can see that he changed the 1800 to a 2000 part way through the series.
What was the car that the heroine, Anna, raced around in in "Diamonds from Amsterdam"? A real beauty.
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Can anyone remember a program (early '60s) about a chap who drove round in a 'car' that had bolt on wings. Usually the adventure involved him stopping to affix the wings to fly off to the rescue etc...
What was it called?
Regards,
John R @ Work :¬)
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1973 XB GT Ford Falcon Coupe that became the Interceptor in the original Mad Max.
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The New Avengers featured the Jaguar. Lovely bodywork , Purdey I mean.
Linda Thorson (Tara King) drove an AC 428 in the Avengers - a rather rare car IIRC.
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Does anyone remember poor old "genevieve" what ever she was? oh! and Ambroses "yellow thing" in the same film.
and the "batmobile" whatever that was?
billy
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"genevieve" what ever she was? oh! and Ambroses "yellow thing" in the same film.
Darracq... and Spyker.
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a 1904 Darraq, now in the Dutch national motor museum. The spyker was re-painted orange and is currently being driven by Adrian Sutil, failed to complete the 2007 British F1 at silverstone.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Does anyone remember poor old "genevieve" what ever she was? oh! and Ambroses "yellow thing" in the same film.
and the "batmobile" whatever that was?
Genevieve was a Darracq and the yellow thing was a Spyker
The 1966 Batmobile was a customised 1950s concept car, the Lincoln Futura. More here: www.thebatcave8k.com/1966batmobile.htm
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you are both correct! after i posted my thought, i actually got myself curious, and did a google to satisfy my- self, came up with the same results!! should probably have done it first, and then posted, that way i would have made myself look almost knowledgeable!!
cheers
Billy
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A few years ago the BBC serialised the excellent The Crow Road by Iain Banks. Uncle Fergus the villain's cars were an Aston (DB6 I think) and an absolutely gorgeous Bentley Continental circa 1958-62.
The doctor in the first episode - he dropped dead outside the crematorium where the hero's grandmother exploded (I kid you not...) - drove a very nice Rover P6.
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no wonder they called it "crow Road" with all that carry- on (carrion)
Sorry ;-)
Billy
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Maybe I missed it in the list... Aston Martin DBV from Goldfinger. I particularly liked the ejector seat and the number plate switcher amongst the gadgets
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VW Bora (51) 2.0 SE
VW Touran (54) 1.9 TDI
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No real men out there then? - Dukes of Hazzard ! ISTR there was a woman, no idea about the cars though. Only the fact they had the tyres squealing when they were driving off road, fantastic.
Oh yes it was Daisy Duke, the day I forget her will the time to give up altogether.
Papho
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"No real men out there then? - Dukes of Hazzard! "
Anyone see Smallville last weekend? Because Bo Duke plays Clark Kent's daddy, they often make tongue in cheek references to the Dukes of Hazard. Jonathan Kent might be whistling the theme tune whilst working on the farm or you might hear it on the radio in the background.
Last week though, a Dodge Charger comes barrelling towards him and Clark and just before Clark has to use his super strength to protect his father, it does a handbrake turn and stops with 6 inches to spare. Who should be driving? Yep, it's Luke Duke, playing the part of a shady senator. From then on it's Dukes of Hazard all the way, with the Charger kicking up dirt, exiting through through the windows and Lex Luthor refering to them as "good old boys"
I saw Daisy Duke in something recently too, she's not ageing well.
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'Real men' indeed. Camp actors playing rednecks you mean...
I wonder how many Dodge Chargers they got through per episode? Cars don't take kindly to wheelspin, big jumps and so on.
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I wonder how many Dodge Chargers they got through per episode?
I think it was 200-250 cars. For your Saturday afternoon viewing, they had a similar problem with the Fall Guy's GMC pickup truck until they built a dedicated lightweight one for jumps. This could be jumped and driven away!
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Yes, I know it is a van, but how could we have got this far without mentioning Del Boy's Reliant Regal? Not to mention the Ford Capppri...
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Ghia
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Yes I know it is a van but how could we have got this far without mentioning Del Boy's Reliant Regal? Not to mention the Ford Capppri...
>>
Ahem,
Original post?
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Maybe I missed it in the list... Aston Martin DBV from Goldfinger.
Have still got the corgi model and it all works.
MD
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>> Maybe I missed it in the list... Aston Martin DBV from Goldfinger. MD
Yes, you missed it on the list.
Do pay attention, 007.
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>> Maybe I missed it in the list... Aston Martin DBV from Goldfinger. Have still got the corgi model and it all works.
I've still got one somewhere at my Mums house, unfortunately mine was well played with, and I lost the little man from the ejector seat. But worst of all I repainted part of it with bright metallic blue Humbrol Enamel.
It takes the biscuit when they come on Junior Antiques Roadshow or whatever, with one that has never been removed from the box!
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Sorry about that - a lot of words on this thread since OP.
What about the yellow Rover P6 driven by spymaster George Smiley in that masterpiece, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy?
And, as we seem to be including film car stars, how about the yellow Mk II Jaguar driven by Bob Hoskins in Mona Lisa?
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Showing my age here. 'No Hiding Place' featured a Wolsey 6/90 with a bell on the front. The programme also starred a young Johnny Biggs who went on to become Mike Baldwin in Coronation Street.
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Shocked no ones mentioned Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels or Snatch yet.
Lock Stock had AC Cobra, RS 2000, 74 Ford Consul, '84 Granada Mk II Estate, 2 Rover 3500s, P5B and P6B all of which I loved as a young boy. Also have to admit to a strong liking for the late 70s Transit and Renault Master in the film but not too sure if should own up to that.
Snatch had the Series III XJ6 and Rover SD1 3500 which were the only highlights for me personally.
Also think the films are excellent too.
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Shocked no ones mentioned Lock Stock and two smoking barrels or Snatch yet. Also think the films are excellent too.
I was going to say one of them was unwatchable garbage, but now it would be rude so I won't. I haven't seen the other so you could be right about that.
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yes lud but with a wad to choke a donkey on you could buy the car of your dreams/nightmares ;-)
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O.K., but is was Raymond Francis in 'No Hiding Place'.
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Thanks for that - I can picture him but the name was a blur.
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I can picture him
Sour looking wiry geezer with a moustache? Not much sense of humour? Looked as if should be on commuter train in bowler hat reading Daily Mail? Was that Raymond Francis?
I fear so.
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Surprised that no one remembers the Ford Torino from Starsky & Hutch. All sorts of car from Escorts to Avengers ended up sporting the red paintwork with the white stripe along the flanks as wanabbes everywhere tried to look cool (Not).
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Found some more!
The Prisoner: Lotus Super Seven
The Baron: Jensen CV8
Man in a Suitcase: Hillman Imp
The Persuaders: Aston DBS and Ferrari Dino
Department S: Lancia Fulvia Coupe
Jason King: Bentley Continental
Return of the Saint: Jaguar XJ-S V12
--
Fullchat
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More or less but not so wiry. That's just what dicks used to look like ;-)
To get back to reality, didn't Lord Peter Wimsey used to travel in a rather nice open Lagonda, driven by his 'man' Bunter?
Dredging even further into the depths of my memory, I think Raymond Charteris gave the 'real' Saint (rather than the TV one) a 'Hirondelle' (French for swallow) but nobody ever figured out what it was actually meant to be.
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Sorry, that should of course be Leslie Charteris.
I now have 'Raymond' on the brain...
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As far as I can see nobody has yet mentioned the car-star of Withnail and I, with its single windscreenwiper and shattered headlight. "Bring me the finest wines known to humanity..."
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As far as I can see nobody has yet mentioned the car-star of Withnail and I
Great stuff, one of the best films ever! Its a great cinematic moment with them setting off up North in the Jag with Hendrix playing..
What about Twin Town, with Rhys Ifans and his brother joyriding round Swansea in an old BMW 528i, then doing donuts on the rugby pitch in a Cobra replica.. (Cars do not have a starring role but thought I'd mention anyway).
Another one is Dead Mans Shoes (brilliant film). Local smalltime hardmen/ drug dealers driving round Matlock 5-up in a white and green 2CV Dolly, could not look any more ridiculous if they tried.
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