Even in the early '70's Political Correctness ruined things.....

I read an article today about some stuntmen and car buffs that worked on the Car-Chase Cult Classic "Vanishing Point" that were angry at Chrysler Corporation. Their were five Alpine White 1970 Challenger R/T's lent to the movie company for filming. Four were 440 / 4-speeds and and one-the camera car-was a 383 / Torqueflite. Star Barry Newman said the 440s were monsters, but that he also loved the camera car. He said- "You'd put that Hurst shifter into first and pop the clutch and it would almost rear back." "Those cars were like a locomotive. They just kept pulling and going faster." "The camera car was a 383 automatic, but it was no slouch." "It was really quick too." "Honestly-I think that 383 would run just as fast as the 440s." Stunt coordinator Carey Loftin said the cars were basically stock-except for cranking up the torsion bars and adding Koni shocks to the one he jumped the creek in. Loftin also said that by the end of filming all the cars were basically junk, and he was taking parts off the others to keep the camera car running. And everyone knows he towed a junk 1967 Camaro with dynamite under the hood and an impact-sensitive switch in the bumper behind the camera car toward the bulldozers, and used a quick-release cable to make it look like Kowalski actually drove into the bulldozers. It was a spectacular crash-, but if you look closely at the wreckage-you can see that it's a Camaro, not a Challenger. Some of the guys who worked on the film wanted to buy the cars. Obviously-thinking it would be cool and profitable-years later someone paid over 100k for a Trans-Am that Burt Reynolds drove in "Smokey&The Bandit." However-some Chrysler executive has a hissy fit because he thought the film glorified drug use and running from the police, and not only refused to sell the cars, but demanded they be shipped back to Hammtrack and crushed!!  To quote Patrick Swayze taunting Marshall Teague in "Road House"-"You are such an asshole."  It's probably the same guy who caved into a few griping Christian groups that complained about the little smiling Devil-with-a-pitchfork decals and the "Demon" name on Dodge's cooler 1971-72 version of the Duster 340. The "Speed Demon" emblems were nixed and the name changed to "Dart Sport" for 1973. Ugh. Anyhow-if anyone claims to own a surviving "Vanishing Point" car-according to Stunt coordinator Carey Loftin and director Richard Sarafian-both unfortunately decaesed now-their lying because they were all crushed by Chrysler. At least the "California Kid" lives on.....Mastermind