More "Tales From the Crypt".....

In the last post I talked about testing and tuning and finding the right combination to get the maximum performance out of your car. People don't realize how important this is. Even on a bone-stock engine bad tuning or simple neglect can cost you as much as 50 hp. When was the last time you changed the plugs and wires on your musclecar? The points, condenser, rotor and distributor cap?  When's the last time you changed the fuel filter? Is your carb jetted rich or lean or "right on?" When's the last time you checked the timing? Is it advanced or retarded?  Is your vacuum advance hooked up and working properly? Does the throttle linkage open fully without sticking or hanging up? On automatic cars-is the kickdown hooked up and functioning? Is the vacuum modulator hooked up and working? When's the last time you changed the fluid?  All these things are cheap, easy fixes, but if their neglected can cost you a ton of performance. Once all that's working and your getting maximum performance from your stock combo-then you can think about modifications. You have to remember that an internal combustion engine is basically an air pump. The more air and fuel you can make it flow-the more power you'll have. Now that's a very simplistic view-and right now we don't need to go into port velocity, cam timing etc. For this discussion that sentence will fly. The largest improvement you can make on any car regardless of make or model is improving the intake and exhaust. These offer the most "bang for the buck". A friend of mine bought an '83 Camaro with the LG4 305 4bbl, a 5-speed stick and a 3.73:1 rear end. He was crushed when my '77 T/A blew his doors off. Adding insult to injury-my car was not a 400 / 4-speed W72 model, but a lowly L80 403 Olds / TH350 model!!  As I said in the last post-my car was not exactly stock and surprised many a 400 Pontiac powered T/A, as well as Corvettes, "5.0" Mustangs, IROC-Z's, and another pal with a 2WD short-bed 454 pickup. He asked for my help in hopping the Camaro up. We put some Hedman shorty headers on it that had AIR tubes and an O2 sensor port from the factory. We also installed an Edelbrock Performer intake with an EGR valve. We did put real dual exhausts on it with some shorty glasspacks. It sounded badass. I told my pal that since we had the 02 sensor hooked up, the ECM would compensate the fuel mixture on the electronically controlled Q-Jet carb, and we might not have to mess with re-jetting the carb at all. We didn't. We had another drag race, and it was too close to call. The Improvement in the car's performance was stunning. Before I could just run away from him. Now depending on who spun their tires less-it was hard for either of us to get even a 1/2 car lead. The intake and exhaust improved the perfromance  that much on an otherwise stock 305 Chevy. He decided to go "whole hog" and we installed the matching Edelbrock Performer cam. Now he could beat me by 2 or 3 car lengths depending on launch. Which he got better at. You don't think of a 305 Chevy as having a lot of torque. The cam made a stunning improvement in the mid-range and top-end, but it did lose some on the bottom-end. This actually made the car quicker-because he had less wheelspin. Before if he dropped the clutch at any rpm over 3 grand, he just roasted the tires. Now he could drop the clutch at 4,500 rpm, spin the tires for 30 feet and rocket off the line!!  Shifting at 5,500-5,700 rpm, he totally stunned many LB9 / L98 Z/28 and Corvette owners, and crushed every "5.0" Mustang that challenged him. The best race he had was with a Buick Grand National. Since they ran low 14's right off the showroom floor, that demonstrates the HUGE improvement we made from the stock LG4 that wheezed out 150 hp!!  My pal asked what could he do next to get even more oomph. I laughed and said he should be happy with what he had, that unless he wanted to invest in a nitrous system, he had about reached the limit of the 305's potential. More power than he had would require swapping in a 350. He kept the 305 until he sold the car a couple years later-because "It's so damn much fun to drive as it is, that I can't bring myself to pull the engine and start over". In the early '60's Chrysler found more performance not in the engine, but the transmission. With the introduction of the Torqueflite in 1962-they dominated stock and super stock drag classes. Manual trans cars require quite a bit of driver skill, and let's face it-the best of us give it too much throttle or miss a shift once in a while. The automatics would launch consistently at the same rpm every time,with much less wheelspin, and would shift at the same rpm every time. Any racer will tell you that consistency is the key to winning. GM lagged behind. The TH400 was introduced in 1965-in "big" cars like the Impala and Catalina. If you wanted an automatic in a Chevelle, or a GTO or even a Corvette you got the awful 2-speed Powerglide / ST300!!  The TH400 wasn't available in a GTO or Chevelle until 1967, and the Corvette until 1968. Now most of your musclecars-will have Torqueflites if their Chrysler, TH350 or 400s if their GM or C4 / C6's if their Fords. All of these are excellent trannys and with the proper shift kit and torque converter can really rock. Part of the reason my T/A was so deadly in a "Stoplight Gran Prix" was the TransGo shift kit. It would kick down to 1st gear below 20 mph. This was a huge advantage. Think-If me and say a 400 Pontiac-powered automatic T/A-or even a 383 Road Runner or 396 Chevelle with an auto are coming up to a red light-we start slowing down to stop. We get down to 10-15 mph, but still moving. The light turns green and we punch it. My TH350 kicks down to low gear. The T/A / Chevelle / Road Runner's tranny kicks down to 2nd. We've both just floored it, we've both got 400 cubes in roughly a 3,700 lb car. Except I'm in 1st gear and the other guy is in 2nd. Who's going to accelerate harder? And once I get that car length or two lead-it's going to be awful hard for the other guy to make it up. Unless he's got a SERIOUS motor-he's not going to. A friend of mine had a 340 Dart with a Torqueflite and this shift kit that stunned many a big-block car. He had 3.55:1 gears which is a great compromise between jack rabbit starts and reasonable freeway cruising rpm, and like I said-if the cars were moving at all he'd be in low and the other guy'd be in 2nd. That's how we beat many a "faster" car. In fact we'd tell people that to avoid wheelspin being a factor we'd prefer to run from a 10-20 mph roll!! And they'd fall for it, thinking they'd really smoke us now. Surprise!!!  The reason is most automatic trannys are programmed to downshift to low gear only from a complete stop. If the car is moving at all-even 10 mph-they'll kick down to 2nd, but not low. TransGo and B&M make shift kits and governor weight kits to solve this. Even on later cars with AOD trannys like a 700R4-these kits will give you automatic kickdown to low gear and a full-throttle upshift to 4th.  My pal with the 454 pickup grenaded the Rat one day. Another friend gave him a 400 small-block out of his wife's wrecked station wagon. He rebuilt the 400 installing the old standby-the "350 hp" 327 Corvette cam, a set of headers and a 3310 Holley on an Edelbrock Performer intake. The 400 actually had more torque than the 454!  With the 454 it would smoke the tires if you wanted to, but it actually came off the line really good. The 400 just fried the tires. He had to work on walking it off the line and hitting it maybe 20 feet out to avoid excessive wheelspin. Once he got the launch down, the truck was really quick. He gave my buddy in the pumped-up '83 Camaro a run for the money neither of us will forget. Scoff if you want-but a 4,300 lb pickup that runs low 14s, and has 15 inches of vacuum at idle is pretty cool. Anyone who drove or rode in that truck couldn't believe a small-block could have that much power. It was a simple but effective combination. The old L79 350 hp cam was a little lumpy in a 327, which is why it was only available with a 4-speed in a Corvette, Chevelle or Nova. It's better in a 350, but really sweet in a 400. And the intake and exhaust allowed it to breathe as it should, and the pickup's 3.73:1 posi rear certainly helped put that power to the ground. Sometimes less is more. Never under-estimate a simple, perfectly tuned combination with an experienced driver. A buddy of mine restored a '72 440 Road Runner. He used the stock 440 Magnum cam. It didn't even have headers on it-he used the stock exhaust manifolds, with a good Dynomax system behind them. He used an Edelbrock Performer intake and matching 750 cfm carb. He did install the TransGo shift kit, and swapped the 3.23:1 gears for some 4.10:1s. Funny-the 4.10s didn't seem to help one ounce in low gear. However-they made a HUGE difference in 2nd and 3rd!!  This car smote many a "badass" hot rod in biblical fashion. He showed his tailights to everybody, including my 455 / TH400 '73 Hurst / Olds. In my defense-at that time my car still had the stock 3.08:1 gears. If I had 4.10s ( which I later installed ) or if his car had the stock 3.23s-it might have been a different story. But that's "bench racing".  His car was really quick. He ran it at Reno-Fernley Raceway one time and it ran 13.54. Not bad on street tires with a mild combo. We all know how strong a 440 Magnum is, even basically stock. Anyhow-it takes a little trial and error, but it's worth it in the logn run to maximize your performance.  Mastermind          

You need to do testing and tuning to get the best results....

I talk to a lot of people who complain that their cars don't perform up to magazine test cars results. As I said in a previous post sometimes the test cars are "ringers" i.e.-supertuned or mildly modified. Even when their bone stock there can be glaring differences in 0-60 and 1/4 mile times.  The last 400 4-speed Trans-Ams tested in 1979 are a good example. Car and Driver's test car ran a 15.3 second 1/4 mile time. Hot Rod's ran a blistering 14.61. Was Hot Rod's car a ringer?  No it wasn't. The difference is the driving technique. Car and Driver launched the car a 2,200 rpm with "some wheelspin" and all shifts were lift-throttle. Hot Rod Revved it up to 3,500-4,000 and dropped the clutch hard, and powershifted their way to the 14.61. Popular Hot Rodding and High-Performance Cars tested 400 / 4-speed Formulas. PHR ran a 15.04. High-Performance Cars ran a 14.78. The difference could have been weather-maybe a headwind, or track conditions or driver skill, or maybe one car was just a couple tenths quicker. That happens. In the early 90's several magazines tested "5.0" Mustangs. The 1/4 mile times varied the quickest being a 14.72 and the slowest being a 15.29. The test cars were all 5-speeds, some had 2.73:1 gears and some had 3.08:1s. Some had only 250 miles on them; one had 5,600. Certainly small differences could be attributed to one having a better broken-in engine, or slightly stiffer gearing. But 14.70-15.30 is a broad range-six tenths, which would be six car lengths in a drag race. ( The rule of thumb is 1/10 equals 1 car length ). Most of this was launch technique and shift points. All the testers said the car's would spin the tires as long as you want to stay on the throttle. While that's great for a burnout contest, it's not conducive to quick 0-60 or 1/4 mile times. Most of the testers would pop the clutch between 2,500-3,000 rpm which would cause the excessive wheelspin-and would shift at the 5,500 rpm redline. Hot Rod got the fastest time by slipping the clutch and walking it off the line at 1,800-2,200 rpm, and short-shifting at 4,800-5,000 rpm. This avoided the excessive wheelspin on launch and made maximum use of the 302's tractor-like torque curve. Yeah, the engine would rev to 5,500 and beyond, but it wasn't making any more power above 5,000 rpm. Revving to 5,500-5,700 was just beating up the valvesprings unnecessarily. I learned this when I had my '69 Judge and again when I had my '77 T/A. The Judge was a Ram Air III / 4-speed model with 4.33:1 gears. It also had an Offenhauser Dual-Quad intake with two 750 AFB's on it, a hot Crane Solid-lifter cam, and Hooker Headers. It also had Lakewood Ladder bars and N50X15 Mickey Thompsom "Hot-n-Sticky" rear tires. It launched best if I popped the clutch about 3,800-4,300 rpm. Below 3,500 and the car would go slower. Above 4,500 and it would blow the tires off. But in that 500 rpm window it would come out of the hole like a rocket, with just enough wheelspin to get the car moving with alarcity and the engine up on it's torque curve. Because of the RAIII 400's massive torque times didn't vary much if I shifted between 5,800-6,200 rpm. I could run it to 6,500-6,800 if I wanted to-but the car didn't go any faster; I was just beating up the bottom-end and the valvesprings for no reason. Once I had mastered this technique I was deadly in a drag race. Rev to 4,000, side-step the clutch, powershift at 6,000, rock-n-roll baby!!  But I had to play with shift points and launch rpm to know this. And it matters even on cars that aren't super-hot like the Judge. My '77 T/A was a 403 Olds model with a TH350 and 2.56:1 gears. When it was bone-stock I figured out it made no difference on launch if I just punched it off-idle or if I powerbraked it to 2,000 rpm. Neither technique showed a noticeable gain over the other. This was probably because the 403 made 325 lbs ft of torque at 1,600 rpm. This torque rating was identical to the 400 Pontiacs, except the Pontiac's torque peak came much higher in the range. I learned that shift points made a difference even with an automatic. The car ran quickest if I shifted manually at 4,900 rpm ( 1-2 ), and 4,400 rpm ( 2-3 ). After I modified it with Hooker Headers, a Holley "Street Dominator" intake, a custom-jetted Quadrajet, a TransGo shift kit, and swapping the R46SZ ( .080 gap ) plugs for R45S ( .040 gap ) plugs the 1/4 mile time dropped substantially-from 16.3 to 14.9!! The plugs made a big difference. Even with the headers and the single-plane intake-the car had noticeably more power-but it would start to run out of breath about 4,700 rpm. Even GM's mighty HEI couldn't bridge an .080 gap at high rpm. With the .040 gap plugs it would pull hard to 5,400 rpm. With this serious extra power infusion, I had to change my driving technique. Now the car launched better if I powerbraked it  to 2,000 rpm. And it ran quicker if I shifted at 5,200 rpm 1-2, and 5,000 rpm 2-3.  So it's definitely worth it to take the time to play with launch rpm and shift points and find your car's "Sweet Spot".  That's how my T/A beat many supposedly "faster" cars.  Mastermind      

We need a good "Southern Fried" Revenge tale....

There has been talk of Quentin Tarantino doing a remake of the cult classic "White Lightning". I talked at length about this in a post a couple years ago. I don't think it's a good idea. 1st off-with marijuana now legal in most states it would be a pretty hard sell to make the audience believe that anyone gives a shit about untaxed whiskey in this day and age. Secondly-in order to do all the car stunts Tarantino himself had Kurt Russel's "Stuntman Mike" in "Death Proof" rail at length about CGI "ruined" action movies and that new stuff couldn't compare to "Bullitt" or "Vanishing Point" or "White Line Fever"-you couldn't use new cars. The airbags would trigger, the fuel pumps shut off, the suspensions fall out if they were abused like '71 LTD that "Gator" drove. You'd have to set it in the late '60's and use old cars. Third, the acting was awesome. Burt Reynolds played a badass, good ole boy convict perfectly. He'll buy you a beer, tell you a joke, screw your woman, and kill you for a nickel. "Gator" tells the feds what they want to hear to get out of prison-that he'll catch JC Connors for income tax evasion and taking money from whiskey runners. It's pretty clear that Gator plans to kill him from the outset, and doesn't care if he dies or goes back to prison as long as he gets the man who killed his little brother. That's a badass motherfucker. No cutesy "Good guy in bad circumstances" or "Innocent Man Falsely Accused" crap that was so popular in the '70's. Ned Beatty-who played the meek businessman raped by hillbillies in Deliverance does a complete 180 and is utterly chilling as the corrupt, ruthless, murdering Sheriff J.C. Connors. He was more threatening in my opinion than Strother Martin ( "What we have here is a failure to communicate" ) in "Cool Hand Luke". That's range as an actor. Matt Clark was great as a tragic Federal Informant, and Bo Hopkins and R.G. Armstrong are both good as evil moonshiners who turn on Gator when they figure out he's undercover. The greatest performance however was by Jennifer Billingsley-"Shake-a-Puddin". Her brown roots showing in her bleach-blonde hair,barefoot in that skimpy sundress for most of the movie, she just oozed sex appeal, and has sex with Gator in a pond while her boyfriend ( Bo Hopkins ) sleeps in the house up the road. She's not even angry when Gator sets her up for rape so they can escape "Big Bear" and his henchmen. Together they kick ass and she even drives the wounded Gator to a home for unwed mothers for medical attention. Other actresses have tried valiantly to nail the southern slut that men die and kill for-Kim Basinger in "No Mercy", Teri Hatcher in "Heaven's Prisoners" and most recently Reese Witherspoon in "Mud", but none can top Billingsley's epic performance. The movie as a whole is awesome. I just don't think you could improve on it. Just like they shouldn't have done "True Grit". You can't top John Wayne in a western. Like the original "Vanishing Point" "White Lightning" should be on the movie director's "Thou Shalt Not Remake" list. However there's other classics that you could successfully re-do. Here's my list. # 1. "Thunder Road". This made Robert Mitchum a big star. He played Luke Doolin a Korean War Vet who was at war with the feds and other moonshiner's trying to take his business.  Mitchum got this project bought because he had Elvis Presley committed to star in it. Col Parker-Presley's manager convinced him that playing a gangster would tarnish his good-guy image. When Elvis pulled out-Mitchum stepped in, starring and singing the title song. It was a huge hit. In a remake-I'd set it in the late '60's and make Doolin a Viet Nam Vet. I'd also have the gangsters running drugs as well as booze and dabbling in gambling and prostitution. You could use classic musclecars in the chases and Doolin and fellow Vets could kick a lot of ass. Let the screen writer decide if Doolin goes out in a blaze of glory like the original, or if he changes it and he survives and gets away, or goes to prison. I think it would fly, especially if the stunt work was "old school" not CGI.  # 2. "A Small Town in Texas." This one starred Timothy Bottoms, Bo Hopkins and Susan George. It was written by William Norton who also wrote "White Lightning".  Timothy Bottoms played "Poke" Jackson a Texas football hero who just did 5 years in prison on drug charges. He may or may not have been set up by the evil sheriff played with glee by Bo Hopkins. All he wants to do is retrieve his high-school girlfriend ( George ) and their son and move to California where he has a job lined up. However while he was away the sheriff has been dating his girl. Further complicating things-Poke witnesses the Sheriff murdering a popular Hispanic politician. He realizes he's between a rock and a hard place-he either has to run or kill the sheriff to ensure his and his girlfriend's safety. If he kills the sheriff, there's a good chance he'll go back to prison. Try selling that you killed a cop in '70's Texas in self-defense.  He's leaning towards just leaving the state either with or without Susie and the kid. He's that worried. Then the sheriff goes too far kills his best friend. He decides he'll kill the asshole and worry about consequences if he survives. There's some good chase action-one with a 650 Triumph motorcycle and the other with a '64 Chevy pickup that's supposedly 427 powered. Susan George turned in her usual performance which was look sexy in skimpy clothes and yell at the hero a lot-just as she did in "Straw Dogs", "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" and the Civil War potboiler "Mandingo"-where her inter-racial sex scene with boxer Ken Norton ( this was 1975, remember ) got her some Sharon Stone "Basic Instinct" style notoriety for a few years. Mostly she just looked good in a straining halter-top. Anyhow it was good revenge flick and worthy of re-visiting if it's done right. You could even set the story in modern times. Football Hero set up by dirty cop? People would buy that. # 3. "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry". This one starred Susan George and Peter Fonda and a yellow '69 Charger. The film actually has a good plot. Fonda is a former race-car driver who decides to fund his return to NASCAR by robbing a Wal-Mart type mega store. Him and his mechanic buddy kidnap the manager's wife and kids and force him to co-operate. The kidnapping and robbery sequences are suspenseful and believable,and there's some good car-chase action early on in a '66 Chevy Impala. Susan George is a one-night stand that Fonda takes along. She looks incredibly sexy and spends most of the movie barefoot in a straining denim halter top and hip-hugger jeans that barely cover the crack of her ass. They swap the Impala for the Charger and make a run for freedom. Fonda and George trade wise-cracks at each other while the mechanic tells Fonda he's "over-driving" the car. Vic Morrow is great as an obsessed sheriff trying to catch them. They go out in a blaze of glory at the end-hitting a speeding freight train. This spectacular crash was used in the opening credits of "The Fall Guy" for years. Anyhow-the robbery-kidnapping-force the employee to help plot would still fly today-especially with cell-phones and computers etc. Just change the dollar amounts. You could use a modern Challenger or Charger. I vote for Chris Hemsworth for the role of "Larry" and Scarlett Johansen as "Mary".  Scarlett Johansen barefoot in a halter-top the whole movie-that's worth the price of admission right there. # 4. "Bobbi Jo and the Outlaw."  This one starred a pre-"Wonder Woman" Lynda Carter and Evangelist-turned-action star Marjoe Gortner.  Carter is a waitress who wants to be a country singer who takes up with Marjoe, who fancies himself a modern-day Jesse James or Billy the Kid. Lynda Carter gets naked a lot.  Some good action as they go on a crime spree and some good chases in cars Gortner steals. As with all '70's movies of this type it doesn't end well for the dynamic duo. Did I mention that Lynda Carter gets naked a lot?  The only problem I see with this one is casting. Lynda Carter was smokin' hot and could sing, and Marjoe was a good-looking sonofabitch, and had charisma in spades. How else do you go from being a traveling, fire-and brimstone-basically a real-life "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show" Bible-Thumping Huckster to a movie star? Talk about balls and self-esteem? This guy thought Elvis might be as cool as himself. He also guest-starred on a bunch of TV shows in the '70's like "Charlie's Angels" "Fantasy Island", and made some other "B" movies. What modern actors can fill those shoes?  Are you listening QT?  Mastermind            

If you want to build a copy of a "Movie" car or something else do it!! .....Just don't go batshit crazy making it "Correct"...

I talk to many enthusiasts who'd like to copy a "Movie" car or something else but worry it would cost so much they couldn't possibly do it. Now I mentioned the one-off factory-built manual transmission BMW 733I driven by Jason Statham in the original "Transporter". Yes, if it could even be done-converting a 740i  from automatic to stick would be astronomically expensive. However-the 540i Sport models have the same V8 as the 7 series and were available from the factory with a 6-speed manual!!  So if you want to live out your "Transporter" fantasies-start looking for a stick-shift 540i !!  If you want a "Bullitt" Mustang clone-you don't need to spend $25,000+ on a for-real '67-68 390 GT.  Buy a 289 Fastback and play with that. Torq-Thrust mags and a Dark Highland Green paint job and you've got the look.  Since it's a fake anyway-you could swap in the engine and 5-speed tranny out of a '90's fuel-injected "5.0". Or buy a nasty 351W crate engine from Ford SVT or Blueprint engines. Want to play "Magnum P.I?"  I see 308 / 328 GTB / GTS Ferarri's for anywhere from 25-50 grand all the time, depending on mileage and condition. That's not chump change-but I'd much rather spend 40 grand on a for-real Ferarri than 100K+ on an "Eleanor" clone!!  Or you can hop up a base-model. I've talked before about a friend who bought a 6-cylinder / 3-speed '69 Camaro at an auction back in the '80's for $900. A mild 350, a Saginaw 4-speed, a cowl-induction hood, some Rally wheels and paint and emblems-and everyone "oohs" and ahhs" over his "Z/28". Total investment-$ 3,500!!  Even 30+ years ago that was unbelievably cheap. With only 697 built you can't touch a 1969 T/A for under 100 grand. But 15 grand will buy you a nice example of the other 115,000 V8 Firebirds built that year. Year One, Ames,NPD and other places sell the scoops and spoilers, hood tach if you want it, etc to clone a Trans-Am. It's a fake anyway-so who cares if it's a 350? Or if you just "gotta have" an RAIII or RAIV spec motor-It wouldn't be that hard to find a 400 if you wanted one,put some Edelbrock heads and other goodies on it, and even with paint work and everything for less than 25K you'd have a car that no one would know wasn't the real deal unless they checked serial numbers or you told them!! And it would still be big fun to drive. Ditto for a '65-68 GT350 or GT500 Shelby Mustang. Tony Branda and other companies sell the body trim. You could hop up a 289 or swap in a 347 crate motor for a cool "GT350". Want a GT500?  428s are hard to find-but 390s are plentiful and externally identical. Edelbrock claims 452 hp from a 390 with their "Performer RPM" package. That'll get you down the road quickly!!  The point I'm making is you can have a fun toy for not a lot of money if you don't go crazy. Don't scour the galaxy looking for an overpriced "Li'l Red Express" pickup with a smog-dog E58 360. Buy a '74-79 Dodge 1/2 ton, put a stompin' 440 in it with dual-quads or a Six-Pack,( or a 472 Crate Hemi!! ) paint it monochromatic black and get a license plate that says "TRMNATR"!  See what I'm saying?  Mastermind          

More "Movie" and "TV" cars to avoid....

I spoke in the last post how I know for sure that no one has a "Vanishing Point" Challenger, "Bullitt" Mustang, "Bandit" T/A etc. You really have to be careful when buying because there are schysters everywhere who will try to make a quick buck off an unsuspecting consumer. I have a friend who has been in the movie business for 30+ years and she said most of the time a car used in a movie is crushed after filming because the film makers are afraid of liability claims. For example BMW built a one-off manual transmission 733i for the "Transporter". If someone bought that ( impossible; it was blown up in the film ) and drove it-how would a dealer gets parts to repair it? Would BMW warranty it? It's just too risky financially for the car builders and film companies. Someone buys the car-then crashes it and is injured or injures someone else. A lawyer proves that the wreck was caused by mechanical failure due to parts breakage from the stunt work in the film. The "Deep Pockets" rule is used and the movie company takes it in the shorts because some idiot rolled a car while pretending to be Jason Statham or Vin Diesel. They just won't risk it. If it's something really unique often it ends up on display at the Peterson Automotive museum or at Universal Studios. But that doesn't stop scammers from trying to soak the public. I saw a few advertised just the other day. One was a 1969 Charger. It was yellow with black stripes and Ansen slot mags. It had a 440 and a Torqueflite. The seller didn't say that it was the actual car from "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" ( It couldn't be-we saw that car's demise at the end of the movie and in the opening credits of "The Fall Guy" for 5 years ) but he sure hinted at it. I have seen numerous "Eleanor" Mustangs for sale all over the internet. This one really cracks me up. The original "Gone in 60 Seconds" starred H.B. Halicki and a yellow '73 Mustang Mach 1 nicknamed "Eleanor". The final 40 minutes of automotive mayhem is still entertaining to watch 45 years later. Like Tracie Thoms said in "Death Proof"-several years ago Nicholas Cage, Robert Duvall, and Angelina Jolie were in a stinker re-make that wasn't nearly as good, even though it had a much bigger budget. And the Mustang called "Eleanor" was a '67 Mustang with a body kit on it. It was supposed to be a Shelby GT500 but it was obviously a fake. The car is cool looking no doubt about that; but compare it to a for-real GT500-and you'll see the glaring differences. Plus the cars were not 428CJ models. They had 351W crate engines and C6 automatics!!  All of them were priced over 100K. Huh?  I see for-real, numbers-matching documented with a Marti Report 428 CJ Shelby GT500s for sale all the time-some under 100K, some over.  Think about this. You can buy a fully restored, numbers-matching, for-real 428CJ Shelby GT500 for your $100 grand, or you can buy a 351W powered "kit car" that someone cobbled up that's a copy of a car that never existed!!  Which line do you want to be in?  The original "Batmobile" was built by George Barris on a Lincoln Futura chassis. I don't know anyone who doesn't know this. However there are dozens of "Batmobiles" for sale on the internet every day, and god knows what they are made from! I see all kinds of "Starsky&Hutch" Torinos. Once in a while they'll have something really cool-like a 460 backed by a Tremec 5-speed. Most of the time it's a nothing '74-76 Torino 2 dr painted red with a white stripe, with 14" slot mags, with bench seats and a column-shifted FMX behind a 2bbl 351M!!  Now who could resist that?  Every once in a while you'll see a "Miami Vice" Daytona Spider for sale. Except it's not a Ferarri. Neither was the one on the show driven by Don Johnson. It was a Kit Car based on a 1981 Corvette built by Tom McBurnie. And it was blown to bits in the season 2 opener. However-McBurnie and a company called Rowley Corvette and a few others were selling these kits that used a '68-82 'Vette chassis for a few years in the late '80's. However Ferarri sued NBC and the Producers of "Vice" for copywright infringement for using a fake Ferarri and passing it off as real and won-that's why Sonny Crockett got a White Testa Rossa in season 2. Ferarri supplied that as part of the settlement. They also got an injunction that made Rowley and McBurnie and others stop selling the kits. But anyway-now and then you see one advertised on the 'Net or in Hemmings, usually for some astronomical price like 150K. And these are almost always based on an L48 /TH350 '76 model or something similar. If I wanted a '76 Corvette-I could find one for 3-5 grand in any state in the union!!  I've never seen one with a snarling aluminum-headed 454 and a 5-speed. Not that that would be worth 150K either; I'm just saying these cars are never anything really badass their just a '70's Vette with a different fiberglass body!! You may not be able to buy a Real Daytona Spider for 150 grand, but if you want a real Ferarri-I see 308 / 328 GTS's, 512BBs,Testa Rossas and F430's all the time for between 30 to 100K depending on mileage and condition. The all-time winner for sheer Chutzpah goes to the guy who was selling a gold '78 Firebird. With a 301 with a 2bbl and an automatic. Who wanted $30,000 for it becuase it's "Just Like" the "Rockford Files" car!!  ( James Garner drove several gold '74-78 Formula and Esprit Firebirds on the series that ran from 1974-1980 ). Excuse me?  I've seen 400, 4-speed, 4-wheel disc braked, 10th Anniversary Trans-Am models with low mileage for sale for 15K, and you expect someone to pay 30 grand for a 2bbl 301 base model??  What's next the blue and white Mustang II from "Charlie's Angels?" Farrah has sadly passed away, and even if it came with a barefoot, bikini clad Cheryl Ladd-( She still looks awesome ) who really want's a '76 Mustang II?  Anyhow just remember the old saying-"Buyer Beware".  Mastermind