REFLECTED GLORY
Four movie cars rode their box-office success to fame, despite how truly awful they were
Getting that mythical “big break” on the silver screen is an opportunity some actors use to transmogrify their talent into stardom. Not everyone can make that leap, however, with those unable to parlay their thespian skills into a firm hold on the audience's interest gradually fading away into supporting roles and eventual obscurity.
Here are our picks for four movie cars that rode their box office success to the point the public forgot just how terrible they really were when the spotlight wasn't shining.
1981 DELOREAN DMC-12
It's safe to say the Delorean DMC-12 would never have entered pop culture without the existence of the Back To The Future film franchise. A compromised vehicle conceived by a brilliant General Motors executive who wasn't nearly as skilled at financing his own boutique manufacturer, the DMC12 was a bizarre combination of cast-off parts and eye-catching design elements that failed to come together into anything resembling a compelling driving experience.
Yes, the DMC-12 cut an intriguing silhouette, what with Italdesign providing the classic Giugiaro wedge that was so en vogue at the time. Throw in the out-there decision to build the entire car out of stainless steel and adorn it with attention-grabbing gull-wing doors, and it's clear master marketer John Z. Delorean knew how to get the public to pay attention to his nascent enterprise. The hype was such that the company even offered a version of the car that had been dunked in 24-karat gold as part of an American Express promotion.
Unfortunately, the rest of the DMC-12 simply couldn't match up to its first impression. A succession of uninspired engines found their way between the coupe's rear fenders during development before settling — and this is a generous use of that word — on a mutt of a motor built by the unlikely alliance of Volvo, Peugeot, and Renault. Rated at 130 horsepower, the unit had trouble carting the Delorean around at any speed, and proved distinctly incapable of the kind of blistering performance its appearance and pricing suggested.
That's if you could keep it running, of course. The DMC-12 quickly developed a reputation for unreliability, which is impressive given that Delorean as a business was insolvent by the end of its first year. Had it not been for the saving grace of a certain onscreen time machine, the DMC-12 would have been remembered as just another in a long line of weirdo period rides like the Citroen CX and the Subaru XT.
1976 FORD TORINO
When your Hollywood nickname is “The Striped Tomato,” it's a clue you might not be starting from a position of strength. The 1976 Ford Torino that was showcased in that decade's Starsky and Hutch TV series (and later in the 2004 movie of the same name) was the very definition of all show, no go — and depending on how you feel about intermediate Fords, even the “show” component of that equation is debatable.
That being said, when Ford is throwing free cars in your direction through its entertainment-industry loan program, as a television producer you're not going to say no. Starsky and Hutch primarily used its centrepiece Torino to bash through boxes in alleyways and provide convincingly smoky chase scenes as the script required. So high was the detective duo's profile that Ford actually went out of its way to built more than a thousand Starsky and Hutch replica Torinos, which featured near-identical looks compared to the onscreen star car.
Things were quite different from the driver's seat of these customer cars, which is where fantasy and reality collide in a shower of shattered dreams. The 5.7-litre (351-cubic-inch) V-8 under the Torino's hood had been hobbled down to a wimpy 152 h.p. for official Starsky edition models. This was less than half what the hotrod stunt cars used during filming were equipped with.
TV might have made a generation fall in love with a red paint job and a white stripe, but fewer than 100 of the original Starsky and Hutch edition Torinos remain in existence today.
1976 AND '77 PONTIAC FIREBIRD TRANS AM
If you were The Bandit, and the year was 1977, would your first impulse be to head on over to a Pontiac dealership to buy the fastest sports car you could to aid and abet an interstate liquor run? A backto-back test drive of the '77 Firebird Trans Am versus nearly any import rival would have quickly changed Burt Reynolds' tune, and given us a very different appreciation for the stylish but slow F-body.
It was a dark time for almost any piece of automotive Americana (as established in the above section on the Torino) but the Firebird was actually one of the few bright spots, with its available 200-h.p. 6.5-L (400-ci) engine (an upgrade that came with the Trans Am package). Still, performance testing in that era reveals a less-than-lightning personality for the model, which had a top speed of 176 km/h (109 m.p.h.) and a quarter-mile time of almost 17 seconds. While the aftermarket eventually corrected the 'Bird's lack of fire, these stock numbers are easily bested by almost any modern minivan or even entry-level compact.
As a side note: the cars used during the filming of Smokey and the Bandit were actually 1976 models that had been given a full 1977 visual makeover. Pontiac couldn't spare a single new example due to production constraints, but were happy to shovel over last year's leftovers to get their foot in the door with Reynolds.
1995 BMW Z3
If you're BMW, and you're looking to launch your first roadster in decades, it's hard to think of a better cinematic cannon to borrow than the James Bond franchise. When Goldeneye hit screens in 1995, it featured its secret-agent hero driving a German car for the very first time, part of a full modern makeover for the character that also included the recasting of Pierce Brosnan as the British spy.
While the movie car was loaded with gadgets (as explained by the franchise's Q in a walk-around scene), it was largely restricted to glamour shots in tropical locales rather than any kind of groundbreaking stunts. There may have been a real-world reason for the Z3's rather milquetoast three minutes or so of screen time in Goldeneye: BMW'S absolutely anemic engine choice for the car's first model year.
For 1995, every North American BMW Z3 was equipped with a 1.9-L four-cylinder engine that coughed a mere 138 h.p.. Even when driven in anger, this tiny four was in no way capable of cashing in on the promise made by the Z3's sleek bodywork and respectably capable chassis.
"When your Hollywood nickname is `The Striped Tomato,' it's a clue you might not be starting from a position of strength.