1971 Ford Custom 500 in White Lightning

If you're gonna sling moonshine all around Arkansas, you'll have to have a very fast, powerful car. In case of Gator McKlusky, aptly played by Burt Reynolds, it's a brown 1971 Ford Custom 500 for the movie White Lightning (1973). His car from a series of beefed-up full sized cars built by Ford for the car buffs who liked their speed, power, and room to stretch their legs.

These full size cars were typically Ford Galaxies or LTDs equipped with V6's, ho-hum family economy cars. But when fitted with a V8 429 Police Interceptor / Cobra Jet engine and black steel wheels with Cooper Tire Wide Runner Polyglas tires, they became stars.

I don't know about you, but I've never tasted moonshine. So whenever I hear the word, the picture that comes to my mind are illegal distilleries and hillbillies working away hidden in thick brushes and backwoods. But more so, moonshine runners being chased by local police with whirring sirens on a lonely highway comes to mind.

White Lightning delivered that expectation. The movie was about the convict Gator who was released early from prison to help the Feds breakup an illegal moonshine ring in Arkansas headed by a local sheriff.

Gator McKlusky drove his Ford to the limits. Plenty of screen shots with him peeling off from a dead stop, burning rubber during three point turns, and fish tailing around curves as he got away from Sheriff J.C. Connors (excellently played by Ned Beatty) and his deputies. Without modern-day special effects, we could really see and feel the power of the car and not have any WTF moments. Ok, the parts where Gator rammed other cars head on or back into them without any visible damage to his Ford were WTF moments. But by this time, I was having too much fun watching the movie to care.

Of course, there were "ooo...aahh" moments as Gator popped the hood several times to show off the power behind the wheels. It's suppose to be custom-fitted by Dude Watson (played by Matt Clark), an unwilling recruit of the Feds to help Gator.

Pictures of Ford Custom 500