Why classic cars from hit movies are licensed to thrill

Iconic film and TV vehicles can fetch millions – but do check the provenance, writes Dan Moore

Secondhand cars are revving up in price but one thing can make a vehicle even more attractive to an investor: a cameo in a blockbuster film. Take the 1968 Ford Mustang GT that Steve McQueen drove for one of the most famous car chases in movie history. The Bullitt car chewed up the streets of San Francisco on the tail of gangsters in the late-1960s cop thriller, only to be discarded after filming.

Bought by Bob Kierman for $3,500 (£2,658) in the 1970s, the car was sold in 2020 for a cool $3.4m at a car show in Detroit. This is about 40 times as much as normal Ford Mustang GTs, which crop up at auction fairly regularly. Several are currently for sale at £65,000.

Richard Wrightson of Classic Motor Hub, a trader, said the premium was not an exact science. “A famous car will generate excitement but no one can say whether the mark-up compared with a similar non-famous car will be five, 10 or more times its expected value.”

Rarity is key for driving up value. The “striped tomato” Ford Gran Torino from the 1970s TV series Starsky & Hutch was as much the star of the show as the actors. But when one went up for sale a few years ago, its sun visor signed by actors Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul, it fetched just $40,000. Why? Several red cars with a white vector stripe were used in the show, and identifying which starred in any scene is difficult.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that Ford produced more than 1,300 “Starsky & Hutch” liveried cars for general sale at the same time. Investors can expect to pay £14,000 to £21,000 for a mid-1970s Ford Torino that may, or may not, have appeared in the series.

Another example is the 1974 AMC Hornet used in The Man with the Golden Gun. Rod Laws of Glenmarch, a cars auction database, said: “Two were made for the stunt where it corkscrewed over a river, but only one was used and its provenance is well known. It sold for $110,000 in 2017. A comparable model went for around $10,000 at the time.”

Provenance is everything, but it’s not enough just to be a Bond car. Peter