Eight of the Greatest Cars in TV and Film History
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Summer is here and it's time for all those great Movie
Blockbusters. Let's take a quick trip down memory lane to pay homage to all the
very special cars from memorable classics we have all grown to love.
The Dukes of Hazzard - 1969 Dodge Charger: With a
confederate flag painted on the roof and doors that were welded shut, the
General Lee was the Duke boys' modified Charger R/T who saw more air time than Delta. To keep the Charger from flipping during flight, the Charger's trunk
was routinely packed with about 1,000 pounds of sandbags and concrete.
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the "Striped Tomato," the Gran Torino was the monster muscle car with the 351
Cleveland and four barrel Holley carburetor used by California detectives, David Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and Kenneth
Hutchinson (David Soul).
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Grease - 1948 Ford Deluxe: Danny Zuko (John Travolta)'s
undeniably enviable ride, and one of the many incredibly "hot" hot rods that
made sitting through the show-tune numbers worth it.
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American Graffiti - 1932 Ford Deuce Coupe: The famous yellow
hot rod was originally a fully fendered red hot rod with red and white
tuck'n'roll upholstery. For the movie, the upholstery was dyed black, but its most impressive feature was under the hood: a growling, souped-up,
1966 Corvette 327 small block engine.
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Thelma and Louise - 1966 Ford Thunderbird: The 315-bhp V8
Thunderbird that ferried the two Bonnie's cross-country on their notorious run
from the law made it almost cool to have a mid-life crisis.
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The Fast and The Furious - 1970 Dodge Charger: It's hard to
pick just one from this gearhead's dream of a film, but we settled on one of
the stars of the movie, the 1970 Dodge Charger with what was apparently a prop
plane engine under (and above) the hood.
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The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift - 1967 Ford Shelby
GT350: This custom '68 Mustang illustrates one of the worst, most tragic custom
jobs ever performed on a Mustang in film history.
Although described as a Shelby Cobra Mustang GT-350 , the '67 and'68 GT350's and
GT500's all have front grill openings, valences, and hoods that don't even
remotely resemble the "Shelby" in Tokyo Drift.
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Batman - 1955 Lincoln Futura Concept Car: With Mickey
Thompson performance wheels sitting pretty in the back and a Ford Galaxie
engine and transmission under the hood, the bullet-proof, justice-bringing
Batmobile was even cool with Robin riding shotgun.
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FLYING CARS: Coming soon to a dealership near you?
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 Speaking of the cool cars of television and movies, isn't it about time we had flying cars like The Jetsons or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? It might be closer than you think!The Terrafugia, a
small airplane that can drive on roads and has been billed as the first
"flying car," is now one step closer to becoming street- and
sky-legal.
The vehicle has cleared a Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) regulatory hurdle for craft classification by weight. A
full-fledged production prototype might be just around the corner, according to
multiple reports.Terrafugia wanted its
Transition vehicle to be classified as a "Light Sport Aircraft" by
the FAA so people eager to fly it would need only 20 hours of flying time. Yet the two-seater vehicle came in 110 pounds (50
kilograms) overweight in accommodating roadworthy-assuring safety items such as
crumple zones. The FAA said that so long as customers are advised about this
extra weight, the car-plane hybrid can be sold.
The Terrafugia completed its maiden voyage last March in
upstate New York. According to its maker, the Terrafugia can transform from a
roadable vehicle that can hit a highway speed of 65 mph to a winged aircraft in
30 seconds.
The plane version can cruise at about 115 mph (185 kph)
and cover about 400 miles (644 kilometers) worth of turf before needing a
refill of regular unleaded gas.
The price is expected to be around
$200,000 and deliveries could start next year, assuming the vehicle passes
crash tests. The company has envisioned its vehicle as finding a home with
amateur pilots who live near air fields, but as any Jetsons' fan knows, flying
cars might well be the wave of the future.
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