The Car Challenge

[Dannie Boy]

No owner not a film star, your on the right track with film.

It's a 1932 Ford Deuce Coupe as featured in the movie American Grafiti.

[STEVE G]

.....as featured in the movie American Grafiti.

That was a good movie that I'd completely forgotten about.

[magnum]

Correct, great film directed by George Lucas before is star wars days,starring Harrison Ford and Richard Dreyfuss 1973.
A great car reminds me of the old Custom days and the Manchester Belle vue rod & custom shows, some amazing vehicles on show.

[Nereus]

Not really a challenge, but I will post this here as it sort of follows on from the last challenge:
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Wrecking cars at a fast pace

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/motors ... fast-pace/

For a long time, the 1980 comedy classic The Blues Brothers held the record for crashing the most cars in one movie: 103.

Fast & Furious 6, which opened in cinemas this week, may not match that film as a cult classic but it easily surpasses it in terms of crashing cars.

"We actually beat The Blues Brothers' record in Fast & Furious 4 and we beat that record again in Fast 5 when we trashed some 250 cars," says Dennis McCarthy, the picture car co-ordinator on the past four Fast & Furious films.

"But Fast 6 is the very first film I've worked on where we actually lost track of how many cars we were using. We were dealing with over 100 cars per day across several countries.

"But it's somewhere in the 350 range and we trashed pretty much all of them. Maybe 40 or 50 cars survived. So, to my knowledge, Fast 6 now holds the record for wrecking the most vehicles."

And what vehicles get wrecked in part six of the hit franchise that will soon earn $2 billion worldwide? Try a 1969 Dodge Daytona driven by series star Vin Diesel. Try a 1970 Ford Escort RS2000 driven by co-star Paul Walker. Try a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda, a rare 1971 Jensen Interceptor and a 2010 Switzer Nissan GT-R with a reputed 1000 horsepower.

Then times each of those beauties by 14, as each needed multiple copies. The car budget alone on Fast 6 was in the many millions, but McCarthy is not allowed to say the exact figure.

But don't start weeping on your leather steering wheels just yet, car lovers. No original cars were harmed in the making of Fast 6 (or any of its previous instalments).

Almost all are replicas produced from scratch at McCarthy's Los Angeles workshop Vehicle Effects, where he conceives, sources and builds specialised cars for Hollywood movies with a team of up to 70 mechanics, panel beaters, painters, parts experts, drivers and buyers.

He's built everything from the famous number 53 Volkswagen Bug in Herbie: Fully Loaded to the superhero cars for The Green Hornet and the upcoming Superman reboot Man of Steel.

"It makes no financial sense to go out and buy new cars, strip them, modify them for our needs and then go out and wreck them," the 46-year-old explains.

"I wouldn't want to do that anyway - I love these cars.

"No, it's much cheaper to build from scratch for three reasons.

"One, these cars go for upwards of $200,000, so it's not really affordable. Two, original cars would not meet out needs in terms of performance and stunt capabilities. And three, I need to modernise them anyway. I don't want the look of showroom cars; I want them to be lower, meaner, faster and cooler-looking cars.

"So we shop for cars in the $6000-$8000 range that are full of rust and missing parts and missing motors. That's a starting point for us.

"Then, to all our stunt cars, we drop in a GM LS3 motor, which puts out about 480 horsepower, a GM automatic transmission and a Ford nine-inch differential.

"Most cars run Brembo brakes and fuel injection. So they're infinitely adaptable and completely reliable."

In a move that's sure to fire up Ford fans, McCarthy even drops those LS3 small blocks into 1969 Ford Mustangs.

But while he's been careful to give Fast 6 fans the American muscle they're accustomed to, including Diesel's 1969 Dodge Daytona and an array of late- model Chargers and Challengers, he's mixed it up by adding some European flavours.

There's the Escort Cosworth, the Jensen, several BMW M5s, a Ferrari FXX and an Alfa Romeo Giulietta.

McCarthy, who sources cars from all over the world, also employed Ben Collins - formerly the mysterious "Stig" on Top Gear - as a stunt driver who drifts the Daytona through London's famed Piccadilly Circus in Fast 6.

"It's always the same goal for everyone that works on these films - and that's to top what you did last time," McCarthy said.

"I definitely know we've done that on Fast 6."

[richard]

Nereus, do you know Andy Banwell?

[Nereus]

Nereus, do you know Andy Banwell?

I don`t believe so, although I have known a couple of "Andies" in the past.

[STEVE G]

"Then, to all our stunt cars, we drop in a GM LS3 motor, which puts out about 480 horsepower, a GM automatic transmission.....

I'm surprised that they use an automatic gearbox, I hate the things.

[PeteC]

Here's a quick one. Looks British, doesn't it. Pete

7.jpg (31.08 KiB) Viewed 287 times

[Dannie Boy]

Here's a quick one. Looks British, doesn't it. Pete

7.jpg

Looks American to me but not sure which one yet!!

[PeteC]

Here's a quick one. Looks British, doesn't it. Pete

7.jpg

Looks American to me but not sure which one yet!!

Yes, it's a weird one and I had forgotten all about it.....until my daughter was watching "My Favorite Martian" movie this afternoon. Pete

[STEVE G]

Is it a Plymouth? I know they made cars similar to that but I couldn't be any more specific to the model.

[pharvey]

Is it a Plymouth? I know they made cars similar to that but I couldn't be any more specific to the model.

A Valiant??? My old man had a later model when in SA....

[Nereus]

In Australia they were called Chrysler Valiant, I think in the US Plymouth Valiant.

[Dannie Boy]

In Australia they were called Chrysler Valiant, I think in the US Plymouth Valiant.

This one looks to be a 1962 model

[PeteC]

In Australia they were called Chrysler Valiant, I think in the US Plymouth Valiant.

Correct and correct. Strange looking thing then and now but I recall many housewives had them in the early 60's. Pete

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Valiant