Top 10 Movie Cars of All Time

[Haltech]

When a vehicle eclipses the flesh-and-bone actors and becomes the superstar of a film—that's when it's a great movie car. There are dozens of memorable cars in film, but to crack the top 10, a vehicle must inspire car culture, and influence a generat







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[fooqr]

I have 6, in loose chronological order:

1) The tricked-out '32 Ford Coupe ("The Deuce") from American Graffiti. The film essentially single-handedly started the entire retro '50's/60's trend that STILL hasn't stopped, and it popularized the concept of cruising. (You see echoes of it in Disney's Cars movie.) I think it accidentally tapped into a faux-nostalgia vein among baby-boomers in much the way that a mosquito might accidentally tap into a vein in your arm and explode itself. (It's influential, I didn't say I liked it.)

2) Mad Max's Ford Falcon interceptor. I don't care about reality, that car was sweet! And, since the movie actually sucked from any sort of production value, it was the car that made us all love it. That car made the career of Mel Gibson, and started a whole movie franchise. One could argue that the Mad Max franchise popularized at least the extreme fashion sense that had become associated with the punk movement in the UK, brought it to the US mainstream. All because of the Falcon.

3) The black Pontiac Trans Am driven by Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit. Not only did the car (and Burt's mustache) make the film the second-highest-grossing film of 1977 (behind Star Wars, so no shame in being #2), but it spawned thousands of copy cat golden eagles on the hoods of Trans Ams all across America. Every teenage boy of the late '70's dreamed of owning a black Trans Am with a golden eagle on the hood. Come on, admit it, you wanted one...

4) OK, it's not a movie, but keeping with the Trans Am theme, KITT from the TV show Knight Rider ('82 Pontiac Trans Am). Given David Hasselhoff's utter lack of talent, there's no other way to explain his enduring popularity as an actor. And, I know what you're going to say, but how did he land that role on Baywatch? Riddle me that. It all goes back to K.I.T.T.

5) The DeLorean DMC-12 from Back to the Future. Given that only 9,000 were ever made, it's instantly recognizable by people who grew up in the 80's as the Back to the Future car. I'd hate to own one, because people would incessantly ask me if it had a flux capacitor. Well, that and the fact that it apparently needs about a minute to do 0-88 mph. (The actual DMC-12 needed 10.5 s for 0-60, which, if you believe YouTube, was recently equalled by a turbocharged Smart Car.) Come to think of it, I guess it must've been an early hybrid and all that excess weight would have slowed it down.

6) Really, any car from The Fast & the Furious. Whether it spawned the concept or not, the film legitimized the concept of rice.