   1977 Lotus Esprit – The Spy Who Loved Me, photo from Wikimedia; 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am – Smokey and the Bandit, photo from Wikimedia; 1973 Ford Mustang – Gone in 60 Seconds, photo courtesy H.B. Halicki. Click image to enlarge |
1977 Lotus Esprit – The Spy Who Loved Me
Bond’s cars have always been filled with gadgetry, but this one was a little bit special. After all, how many cars can turn into an actual submarine?
A bit of film trickery was at work here, of course, with an Esprit body stripped of the powertrain and fitted with propellers and scuba gear for its driver. However, it did legitimately work as a submarine, and the shot of the white Esprit diving into the water fired the imaginations of 007 fans everywhere.
1977 Pontiac Trans-Am – Smokey and the Bandit
The highest-grossing movie in 1977 was Star Wars, but at least you could buy the star of the film that came in at a very close second. No, not Burt Reynolds (or his moustache), but the ’77 black-and-gold Trans Am he drove in the film.
With that golden screaming eagle emblazoned on the hood, few movie cars have looked so good, and yet been so slow (they only had around 200 hp). Still with T-tops, gold mags, and tire-smokin’ torque, the Bandit easily put the hurt on Smokey.
1973 Ford Mustang – Gone in 60 Seconds
The original Eleanor ‘Stang was actually a 1971 Sportsroof, facelifted to look like a ’73. Incredibly, despite the 128-foot jump performed right at the end of the movie (uh, spoiler alert or something), the stunt car survives even today.
The Mach 1–styled Mustangs were really at the last hurrah of the muscle car, before fuel consumption and emissions brought on the malaise era. Eleanor allowed audiences to steal one more ride in a high-horsepower V8.
  1972 Ferrari Daytona – The Gumball Rally, photo courtesy Warner Brothers & 1971 Lincoln Continental Mk II – The Car – photo courtesy Universal Studios. Click image to enlarge |
1972 Ferrari Daytona – The Gumball Rally
Released in the same year as Cannonball, The Gumball Rally had arguably the better cast of cars. These included a real AC Cobra, Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, Mercedes 300SL, Porsche 911, and a Jaguar E-type.
The best car of the bunch, perhaps, was the red Ferrari Daytona convertible driven by Raul Julia, who rips off his rearview mirror at the beginning with the line, “The first rule of Italian driving: what’s behind me is not important.” A blue Ferrari Daytona would go on to win the real Cannonball Run, driven by Dan Gurney and Brock Yates.
1971 Lincoln Continental Mk II – The Car
Now this is a truly terrible movie, and a not much better car. Still, when a film echoes down the ages to show up in a Futurama episode, it’s probably worth mentioning.
The Car is a movie about a possessed car that runs people over. Think Christine, except much, much lighter on the whole plot-line thing. The highly customized evil machine was fabbed up by George Barris, and still exists today in a private collection somewhere.
