Do your research BEFORE you spend your money on a "Movie Car" !!

I always get a kick out of people who think their "stealing" something special or getting an incredible deal on something ultra-rare, and then it bites them in the ass. And it serves the greedy bastards right. Here's a few examples. # 1. "Vanishing Point" Challenger. Several people over the years have claimed to have bought and sold or owned one of the cars featured in the cult classic. Their all liars. Here's why. Chrysler supplied five Alpine White Challenger R/T's for the movie. Four were 440 / 4-speeds, and one was a 383 / Automatic. Although they were pretty trashed,a few members of the stunt crew wanted to buy the cars after filming wrapped. However-the Chrysler brass didn't like the movie. They thought it glorified drug use and running from the police, and demanded the cars be shipped back to Hammtrack and crushed. So any asshole who claims he has one of the "Vanishing Point" cars is lying through his teeth, because they were all destroyed in 1971!!   # 2. "Bullitt" Mustang. Tons of people over the years have claimed to have one of these. Ford supplied five cars for the movie, all 390 / 4-speeds. Ford guys don't like to hear it-but in early practice runs for the chase-the 440 / 4-speed Charger would leave the Mustangs so badly that it was unfilmable. It wasn't even a race. Steve McQueen was furious. Stunt Coordinator Carey Loftin ( who also worked on "Vanishing Point" ) and head mechanic Max Balchowski hopped up one of the Mustangs with headers, an Edelbrock intake and Holley carb, and a Mallory distributor. That's why it sounds sooo badass when McQueen is winding it up. The Charger would still win a drag race,by a car length or two, but now they could film it. Bounding over the streets of San Francisco at speeds up to 115 mph-the Charger kept throwing hubcaps. If you watch the film closely the Charger loses 8 hubcaps in the chase!  However-the Mustang was literally falling apart. The shock towers ripping out, suspension parts bending, door handles falling off. Loftin and Balchowski worked overtime every night taking parts off the other cars to keep the camera car running!! By the time filming was over, only two of the five were left standing. The other three were crushed. One was bought by some guy in New York and has been stored in his garage for nearly 50 years. Chad McQueen-Steve's son and an accomplished racer and car buff himself tried to buy it several years ago and was rebuffed. I'm not sure if the same guy still owns it now. The other one seeming ly was lost to the sands of time until a few months ago someone found it in a junkyard in Mexico. "Basket Case" would be an understatement. It's basically a rusted out body and a vin plate. However the vin number does match one of the five Ford sent for the movie. The current owner has vowed to restore it to it's former glory. How? With a new Dynacorn body and all new and old parts? Even if he finds 390 and a Top-Loader 4-speed with 1968 date codes how much of the original car is left?  Does a vin plate constitute a car?  Also-if you watch the film-the cars have all the chrome and all emblems removed. I don't know how many "Bullitt" cars I've seen with all the emblems and chrome intact!  And given all the facts I just stated-all these people are lying!!  # 3. "Smokey and the Bandit" Trans-Am. Pontiac supplied 10 T/A's for this film and they were all destroyed. Some were 4-speeds-in some scenes you see the clutch pedal or they show Burt Reynolds shifting it, or you can hear him rev the engine and pop the clutch before doing a smoky burnout.. In other scenes you see the automatic shifter on the console!  Rumor has it that Sally Field couldn't drive a stick, and director / stunt coordinator Hal Needham gave up trying to edit the shifters out of the dailies, figuring no one would notice or care. Anyhow all 10 were damaged badly and crushed after filming. Since over 15,000 of the 68,000 T/A's Pontiac sold that year were black and gold SE models-a lot of assholes have claimed to have a "Bandit" car. They don't, they don't exist. Trans-Am Specialties of Florida has the 1976 455 / 4-speed 50th Anniversary SE that Pontiac put a '77 front end on for an early ad campaign, that caused Reynolds and Needham to decide-"That's the car we need".  They also have a black and gold T/A that was owned and driven by Burt Reynolds, but it was not used in the movie. So again-any dolt who claims to have a for-real "Bandit" car is full of shit. # 4. Steve McQueen Porsche 911. This one got a high-end car dealer and Hemmings Motor News and other publications in hot water. They claimed to have Steve McQueen's "personal" 911S for sale. Steve McQueen did in fact buy a 911 brand-new in 1969. Seeing the ad-Chad McQueen sent them a letter that basically said-"Gentlemen-I know without a doubt that you do NOT have Steve McQueen's 911S, because it's my garage."  "My father bought it new in 1969 and drove it for several years." "Before he passed away in 1980 he gave the car to my sister who enjoyed it and maintained it for many years."  "When she died of breast cancer a few year ago her husband gave the car back to me."  "It has never left the family."  "So please stop advertising that you have my father's car, because you don't!!"  Upon hearing about this, the poor slob who doubtless paid way more than the car was worth-sued the dealer and the publications wanting some or all of his money back. Some research was done and hears what happened. While filming the racing movie "LeMans" in France in 1970-Steve McQueen drove a real Porsche 917 race car in the film, and because the Porsche factory was heavily involved in the film he formed a friendship with Ferdinand Porsche-the CEO. One day on the set-they were talking and McQueen commented on the great curvy country roads and said "I wish I had my 911 over here."  Wanting to make his friend happy-Ferdinand Porsche called Stuttgart and had a 1970 911S shipped to France and said McQueen could play with it on his days off. McQueen wrecked it playing grab-ass on a country road. He wasn't injured, but the car was nearly totalled. McQueen offered to pay for it, but Ferdinand Porsche said not to worry, they'd write it off as an expense of doing the the movie since they were supplying the race cars as well. The car was repaired and sold as a used car later on, obviously with this interesting story attatched. Somehow in the intervening years someone either innocently or intentionally embellished the story and the car's status changed from "Driven by Steve McQueen" to "Owned by Steve McQueen". The car buyer was compensated and apologies issued all around, but it embarrased a lot of people. # 5. "Fast&Furious" Charger. They wrecked a 1970 Charger at the end of the 1st movie. The second one and third one didn't have Vin Diesel in them. Paul Walker was in the 2nd one. The 4th one had the original cast re-united. The stunt crew paid $30,000 for a decent '70 Charger and $16,000 for a junk one and other figures in between on '68-70 models to make cars for F&F 4. The "Promotional" Charger that went to movie premieres and now is in a musclecar museum was pretty trick and had a supercharged 528 inch Mopar Performance crate Hemi. The stunt cars used in the movie had fiberglass front ends and Mopar guys are cringing-350 Chevy engines and Turbo 400 trannys!!  The blowers were bolt-on fakes. And they were all wrecked in filming. Even if they weren't, who in the hell wants a cobbled up Charger with a fake front clip and a Chevy engine anyway??   Anyhow be very careful when some clown assures you that this is "The car used in the movie". Because it more than likely isn't!!  Mastermind