How bad do you want that "Movie Car" ?

With our recent discussions of movie chases and the cars involved, I've gotten quite a few emails from people wanting to build replicas of these cars. They ask what should they look for and how original does the car have to be to be "Right."  Well, that's up to you, the owner and driver of the car in question. A lot of people want a Mustang like the one in "Bullitt."  Some are happy to find a decent 1967-68 Mustang fastback, paint it Dark Highland Green, add American Racing Torq-Thrust mags and call it good. They don't care that the powertain is a 289 2bbl with an automatic, it LOOKs the way they want. I have seen others spend umpteen thousands of dollars chasing down a 390, a Top-Loader 4-speed, and even old Goodyear Blue Streak tires, and a Shelby-style steering wheel, to make it "Exactly" like the one McQueen drove in the movie. The same goes for people that want "Vanishing Point" Challengers. I have seen the gamut from a guy that bought a 318 / automatic 1971 Barracuda and painted it Alpine white and added Rallye wheels and was escatically happy because it was "close enough". On the other end is the guy that spent nearly 50 grand buying and building a 1970 440 / 4-speed R/T that exactly matched Kowalski's ride down to the Coker tire Goodyear Polyglas GT repro tires and "OA5599" liscence plate, or the guy that spent nearly 100K building a 1970 R/T clone with a 472 inch Mopar Performance crate Hemi, a Tremec 5-speed, and an XV motorsports suspension with laser-cut subframe connectors, Koni shocks, custom front and rear sway bars and 275/40ZR17 BFG Comp T/A's on Minilite wheels. Somewhere in the middle was the guy with the nice 340 / automatic 1973 model that had Cragar mags on it. People are crazy when it comes to movie cars. At a recent Barrett-Jackson auction I watched on the Speed channel an "Eleanor" clone-one of the Mustangs that Nicholas Cage drove in the "Gone in 60 Seconds" remake-that was a Shelby GT500 clone and had a 351W / C6 automatic powertrain sold for 100 grand. At the same auction, a for-real, numbers matching, 428, 4-speed Shelby GT500 only brought 75K!!!  Say what???  Some idiot paid 25 grand more for a copy of the real deal-that wasn't even a good copy-it was a 351 automatic, not a 428 / 4-speed-just because it had been in a movie? Are people crazy or what?  That's a rhetorical question, we know they are. Anyway, right behind the Bullitt Mustang and the Vanishing Point Challenger is the 1972 LTD that Burt Reynolds drove in "White Lightning".  A lot of people have asked for advice on how to build a copy of that car. Again, you could just go buy a 1971-72 Ford LTD 4-dr sedan, paint it Chestefield Brown and put some black wheels with chrome lug nuts and white-letter tires on it, and you'd have the look. If you want a 4-speed in it, like Burt had there's three ways to go. The easiest and probably most cost-effective way, if the car has a 351C in it, is to chase down Mustang / Cougar / Torino clutch linkage parts and pedals and then buy a Lakewood bellhousing and a Hurst Competition Plus shifter. If it has to be a 429 / 460 with a 4-speed, I would chase down F150 clutch linkage parts. Or you could go hog-wild and install a custom tremec 5-speed and hydraulic clutch linkage. The easiest and most cost-effective way to have the performance you want is to hop up a 351C / automatic version or try to find a police interceptor that already has a 429 /460 in it. This is a hard one because there no factory built big-block / 4-speed LTDs made. Not like building a Rat-motored 4-speed Monte Carlo-there were some factory built, and Chevelle,GTO, Gran Prix and Cutlass clutch parts would all interchange. See what I'm saying? The best advice I can offer is to copy them to the best of your mechanical ability and the limits of your bank account and be happy with it. Mastermind