At the beginning of the week I asked you What was the Best Car Movie Ever Made? I gave you my criteria and 10 choices. The poll received a total of 94 votes and showed a very clear winner. The results are below.
Not surprisingly (this is a Porsche site after all) Le Mans
I have to say that most surprising to me was the lack of votes for "The Gumball Rally"
The feedback from the poll was great and I appreciate all the input and suggestions of movies to add to the list. Believe it or not I received 42 recommendations for car movies not on my list. So, one of the next posts to follow will be a quick hit list of the movies everyone suggested.
I’m shocked that Smokey didn’t run away with this. Every time I see a pic of an old Trans-Am I think of Sally Field in a wedding dress.
Smokey didn’t stand a chance. I was actually surprised that Le Mans didn’t have a stronger showing. This being a Porsche site and all.
In 1976 I was at the NYC movie theater where Steve “Yogi” Behr and I dragged Car & Driver columnist and Cannonball Run founder Brock Yates to see “Gumball Rally”. I personally, having at that time raced in one of the “original” Cannonball Runs along with Steve and Brock, loved the Gumball Rally. Brock was so freaked out about the obvious and fragrant rip off of his highly touted, illegal cross country race, that he made up his mind that he would write a screenplay and convince Hollywood to make the “real” movie. When Smokey and the Bandit came out in 1977, Brock had his man, Stuntman extraordinaire and Smokey Director, Nal Needham. One sidebar, Wes Dawn, Hollywood stuntman and make-up artist, who did that incredible stunt in Gumball, driving the Ferrari into a moving Truck’s empty trailer bay, was in the Doghouse, big time with Brock because Wes had raced in a Cannonball and was now considered a “traitor” for his work in Gumball (where you can see him in the “stalled XKE” at the beginning of the film). Wes eventually did win Brock over and co-drove with me in the fastest ever Cadillac in the 1979 Cannonball.
Hal Needham!
Jeff,
Thanks for the great story. We love hearing this kind of stuff and the history behind iconic races like the original Cannonball Run. If you have any pictures you want to share, it would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks for reading.
Porsches have appeared – both in starring roles – i.e “LeMans”, and in cameo bits – “Bullitt” and “Behind the Green Door”, to mention just two – in an astonishing number of films. It would be interesting to develop a list of all such titles. Such a list should probably include use of plastic Speedster replicas (“King of the Mountain”), but state that fact.
@Petah,
I agree. However, I think it has already been done. We found it once before. Will look around and see if we can find a link to it again.
PCA member ; ’96 911/993…………………………my (late) vote goes for Vanishing Point or Italian Job #1
Russell,
Thanks for the vote and welcome to our site!
One of my favorite Porsche movies was released in 1987 starring Charlie Sheen entitled “No Mans Land”. The plot involves a professional car theft ring specializing in Porsche 911s infiltrated by an undercover cop played by D.B. Sweeney. There are a few great chase scenes that would be appreciated by avid Porschephiles.
Great site!
I talked with Brock Yates at Car and Drivers 50th party at Indianapolis Raceway Park back in 2005. Brock is a super nice guy with a lot of stories. I’ll give you one of them. He wanted Steve McQueen for the starring role, but McQueen already had cancer, and sadly passed before Cannonball was released in 1981. Burt Reynolds got Farah Fauset Majors to star because Loni Anderson asked for $60,000, and Burt was dating Farah at the time. Naturally she got a lot less than 60 big, large, ones!! Okay, now to the Lemans movie. It is a great car movie, but has NO plot. Director Sturges quit, because he recognized a dog (think Ishtar), and went home. I enjoyed it as a gearhead only, but I would cast my vote for Bullitt. Bullitt is nationally recognized as the greatest car chase of all time. Many have imitated it like the Roy Schnieder movie “The Seven Ups”, and the French Connection. Bullitt still wins, and it had a plot. So drive a Porsche and watch Bullitt, but I wouldn’t recommend jumping hills in a 911, because even the Mustang crushed an oil pan in the first landing!!
If the Bullitt Mustang(s) are among the best-known movie cars, with the assassins’ Charger(s) right up there, it has occured to me that whoever ended up with the little green VW that appears several times in the Bullit chase scenes also has a claim to fame. …but who could document it?
Without question, Porsches have cameos or starring roles in a vast number of films, including LM, Bullitt…even the early porn classic Behind The Green Door.
I need to find No Mans’ Land…