ALONG FOR THE RIDE: Famous car films

World’s Most Expensive Cars (4.30pm, Ch4) looks at exclusive automobiles going under the hammer at Sotheby’s. Here are some movies in which the car has been the star…

The Love Bug (1968) Herbie, the lovable Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of his own, made his debut appearance in this breezy comedy. He went on to star in a series of adventures, the last of which, Herbie: Fully Loaded in 2005, saw Lindsay Lohan taking the wheel.

Duel (1971) ‘The killer’s weapon – a 40 ton truck!’ ran the tagline for this lean thriller, the feature-length directorial debut of a certain Steven Spielberg. Dennis Weaver is the terrified motorist stalked on a remote, lonely road by the driver of a mysterious tanker truck.

The Fast And The Furious (2001) This adrenalinefuelled action thriller, set in the world of illegal car racing, kicked off one of the biggest movie franchises in the world – which has even survived the death of one of its stars, Paul Walker, who was killed in a car crash in 2013.

Cars (2006) This Pixar animation about the cocky race car Lightning McQueen, who learns the true meaning of friendship after getting stranded in a backwater town, proved so popular that two sequels followed – the first in 2011, and the second in cinemas in July.