Cars and Hollywood - The Relationship

[CORTINA]

Cars and Hollywood have always shared an intimate relation.Mostly it is the car manufacturers who have benefited in this realtionship by galmourising a average car into a car every one aspires to own.So in this thread I will be writing about cars which were galmourised by hollywood whether in cinema or TV.

• 1977 Pontiac Trans Am - Pontiac Trans -am of mid 1970s were a pale comparison of there former self with just 160- 180 BHP from 6.6 L V8 engine to haul a near two tonne chassis perforamnce can be called anything other than sporty.With years of falling sales a proped up ,tweaked - 1976 three trans am landed in sets of Smokey and Bandit - rest is history as they say - This film starring Burt Reynolds was second highest grossing movie in 1977 forever immortalised the car with this movie and Pontiac had the best sales in that 1977 even beating a recessionary trend in automobile sector.

Movie poster (from tvtropes.org)


(76-77 Pontaic Trans Am-Above picture is fromIs1tech.com)

All car scenes from the movie
YouTube - Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am

• 1982 Pontiac trans Am - Remember the talking car - KITT which used to come in Doordarshan in early 90s.This talking car was actually a modified Pontiac Firebird/Trans Am.Though this model did not make a sales impact despite its TV appearnces but kept the Brand Firebird strong throughout 80s.

(KITT-above picture is from davishasselhoff.com)


(Pontiac trans Am -above picture is from howstuffworks.com)


(Pontiac Trans Am -above picture from Pontiacclub.com)

A youtube video of Knight rider (intro)
YouTube - Knight Rider - TV Intro 1983

• 1966 Chrysler Imperial aka Black Beauty -The Imperial was the most luxurious Chrysler car Though it remained a seperate division of Chrysler upto 1970s .

Chrysler Imperial of 1960s were designed by Elwood Engel of 1961 Lincoln Continental fame.
This 66 imperial was the show star of TV in 1960s due to its impressive gadget list when it was shown in the TV show Green Hornet(1966-67).How much sales got boost is not known but the impact is real


(1965 Chrysler Imperial-Source for above image - Wikipedia)

(Black Beauty- Source for above image -cinemovie.tv )


P.S :In coming days to weeks I will be posting details about more cars so watch this space.

 

[CORTINA]

Re: Cars and Hollywood

• 1983 GMC G series Van - Normally in Hollywood cars and even bikes get glamourised but the first van and only van to be glamourised was the this third generation GMC G series - Van Dura vans.They were popularised in the famous American sitcom - The A- Team.The van used in this show had a huge spoiler in the rear complemented by a black coloured imposing bull bar and the vehicle rode on oversized tyres rimmed on a red coloured mag wheel coloured.

(A - team Van - Source for image imcdb.org )


(GMC G series Van Source for image inetgiant.com)

What was special about the van was its ability to defy physics by drift at high speed, agility at corners , jump without tuning turtle which was really suprising for lumbering box on wheels.A 4.3 litre V6 engine was used to power the G series line up along with six litre Naturally aspirated Diesel.
This A- Team Van is an exhibit in cars Cars of the Stars Motor Museum in Keswick , Northern England.The impact on sales was real and it is as famous as the stars of the show.

• Delorean DMC 12 - The car which was made of Stainless steel had Gull wing door.This car was popularised by the movie 1985-91 triology of Back to Future movie where this car is used as a time machine to go back to future and past.This car in movie was propelled by nuclear power.What was astonshing about this vehicle was that the car was sales never got the flip it required as the comapny was closed 2- 3 year earlier.Strange as it may sound you can buy a new Delorean with Warrnty as a new company is building this car again

(DMC - 12 - Source for image Wikipedia)

 

[safire90]

Re: Cars and Hollywood

Nice thread Cortina.
I believe that movies in Hollywood have given quite importance to cars but it is not the same here in Bollywood. I mean we all have seen Fast & Furious(1-4, 5th one coming), Ronin(fantastic chase scenes), Transformer, Transporter, Gone in 60 seconds etc.

Hope after the Dhoom era, we see a lot of these pretty things in Bollywood!

 

[cooldhaya]

Re: Cars and Hollywood

Very good thread Cortina! I always like Hollywood movies associated with cars , all the movies mentioned by Safire in the above post are real good!


I don know about Hollywood but here down south two movies gave importance to automobiles , One film called Polladhavan focussed entirely on Pulsar and another film Paiya focussed on one Lancer.