The baddest movie musclecars.....

Someone asked me the other day to rate the baddest movie musclecars. I aim to please, but I took that to mean what the cars could do in real-world performance, which might change the rankings from people's perceptions. # 1. Has to be the BAMF '55 Chevy that starred in both "Two-Lane Blacktop" and "American Graffiti" with minor changes. This car was built in 1970 and featured a straight front axle, a fiberglas tilt front end, and a 12:1 tunnel-rammed 454 backed by a muncie 4-speed. This was a "10 second car" before Vin Diesel was born. # 2. The "California Kid". The Iconic '34 Ford with the black,red and orange flamed paint job built by Pete Chapouris for the movie starring Martin Sheen and Vic Morrow is still around. It still appears at car shows. It's simple, but it works. A pumped-up 302 backed by a C4 is both powerful and bulletproof, and in a light '34 Ford, rocks then and now. 'Nuff Said.  # 3. A 440, 4-speed, 4.10 geared '70 Challenger R/T has to rank pretty high. I know Mopar-ites want to rank it # 1, but do you really think Kowalski's Challenger could out run the badass Rat-motored '55 from Two-Lane blacktop, or the lightweight "California Kid in a drag race?"  # 4. "Milners small-block Chevy powered '32 from "American Graffiti" has to get some respect. We know it couldn't beat the Rat-motored '55. The Challenger from "Vanishing Point" or the similar power-to-weight ratio "California Kid?" That's open to debate. But reputation matters as much here as performance, so I'm not going to argue. # 5. Ford guys are going to be pissed, but according to stunt coordinator Carey Loftin-the 440, 4-speed '68 Charger would leave the 390 / 4-speed Mustang so badly, that they couldn't even film it. Star Steve McQueen was furious. Loftin and head mechanic Max Balchowski hopped up the camera car with headers and an Edelbrock intake, a Holley carb, and a Mallory distributor. Much to their dismay-the Charger would still outrun it-but McQueen and Stunt double Bill Hickman could stay close enough to film it!!  Loftin said the main challenge was taking parts off the other cars to keep the camera car running. The Charger, with torsion bar front suspension and a Dana 60 rear end, had no problems other than throwing hubcaps while bounding over the streets of San Francisco at speeds up to 115 mph. If you watch the movie closely, the Charger loses 8 hubcaps during the chase. The Mustangs were constantly ripping through shock towers, and falling apart. That's why only one or two of the five "Bullitt" Mustangs are known to exist today. The others were crushed as junkers after filming!  # 6. All that aside, we have to include the Highland Green '68 Mustang Fastback from "Bullitt" simply because with it's loud exhaust, Torq-Thrust mags, and all chrome trim removed, it looked and sounded so fucking cool. And with it's open rear end and lead-foot McQueen driving, it lit one-tire fires better than anything before or since. # 7. It's demise was shown every week in the opening credits of the Lee Majors hit stuntman-turned-bounty-hunter series "The Fall Guy"-but you gotta love the yellow 440 '69 Charger from "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry." And the barefoot, hip-hugger jean,bursting halter-top clad Susan George. Or turn in your man card. Period. # 8. Scoff if you want, but the 400 powered black Trans-Ams driven by Burt Reynolds in "Smokey and the Bandit" were the fastest cars available at the time. And Burt and director / buddy / Stunt coordinator Hal Needham made the most of them and sold hundreds of thousands of cars for Pontiac from '77-79. I know some people are going to bitch about a few omissions-but I don't care and here's why. I didn't include the "Dukes of Hazzard" Charger because we all know they wrecked 216 '68-70 Chargers during the series run, and many of them were 318 / Automatics. As far as I know only GL #26-built by stunt coordinators to beat a Traco-engined "Knight Rider" '82 T/A in a friendly race with the "Knight Rider" stunt crew-had a pumped 440 and a beefed-up suspension. I'm not going to worship a bunch of clunker, 318, 2bbl automatic cars whose main function was to crash well!!  Ditto for the "Fast&Furious" movies. I'm going to go "Stuntman Mike" here. ( The deranged car-driving serial killer played by Kurt Russel in Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof" ). He said he hated CGI and longed for the "Bullitt" days, the "Vanishing Point" days,-when you had great men doing great thing's with great cars. He's right. The Charger in the "F&F" movies had a fake blower and a 350 Chevy under the hood!!! And pulled the front wheels with the help of hydraulic jacks!!  Vin Diesel's Chevelle had a 502 and a TH400-( not a 4-speed like they showed in the movie ) but it had 500 lbs of lead in the rear bumper to make it wheelie. Even the Grand National-had a 350 Chevy and a TH400 powertrain-and the body was mounted backwards to make it look like he was going so fast in reverse!!  Not the same as McQueen and Hickman going 115 through San Francisco or Carey Loftin jumping the creek in a Challenger that was stock except for Koni shocks and cranking up the torsion bars!!  Or Robert Mitchum actually flipping a '50 Ford in "Thunder Road".  Mastermind