Nissan 1999 Skyline GTR R34 from 2 Fast 2 Furious

The second movie in the Fast and the Furious movie series is not well received by fans.  I, however, do not think it was all that bad.  It wasn't the best, but it was not as bad as many fans would put it.  Maybe because Vin Diesel was not in the movie.  Still, 2 Fast 2 Furious was great for the cars and the filmmakers pretty much stayed true to the tuner street scene.

In 2 Fast 2 Furious, the story was all about O'Conner who was on the lam when we caught up to him.  Apparently, he's been trying to stay away from the law since he let Toretto get away in the first film.  In the meantime, O'Conner had been street racing in order to make a living.  Plus, I thought he's really into it, not just because street racing was part of his previous assignment.

This time around, Brian O'Conner was driving around in a Nissan 1999 Skyline GTR R34.  This car posed some obstacles for the filmmakers because it was not available for sale in the US.  For many, including me, the first time I saw a Nissan Skyline GTR was in the movie.  So in order to include the Skyline in the movie, they had to be imported from Japan.

Funny thing was that they went through all the trouble bringing the Nissan Skyline GTRs to the US for filming, but it had a short-lived role in the movie.

O'Conner only drove it in the beginning.  After the first street race, the police who were trying to catch O'Conner shot a special high-voltage dart at the car shutting down its electrical system.  They caught O'Conner and we never saw the car again.  Oh well, at least, it wasn't destroyed.

1986 Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC from Road House

With the death of Patrick Swayze (1952-2009), I thought that it would be a good idea to post about one of his movies and see if there are any cool classic car in them.

The one that stood out in my mind was Road House where Patrick Swayze played a bouncer named Dalton in a small town bar that's overrun with corruption.  Alas, Dalton was no ordinary bouncer.  He had a philosophy degree and a practiced tai chi.  He used his expertise in both discipline to clean up the dirty bar.  You should be able to catch Road House on cable TV every once in awhile.  It's always shown on the Spike Channel and TNN.

Deeply entrenched in the thoughts of many movie fans as a romantic icon from his blockbuster hits Dirty Dancing and Ghost, Patrick Swayze's Road House has a special place in the hearts among his fans for being a movie so bad that it's good.  It's also a guy movie with lots of hot girls with big hair, bar fights with guys in mullets, monster trucks, and, of course, sweet cars.  Dalton drove a nice sky blue 1986 Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC.  Too bad it was destroyed.

RIP Patrick Swayze.

2007 Saleen Mustang S281 Extreme: Barricade the Decepticon fromTransformers

In the Transformers, I'm sure that you've noticed that the Autobots were mostly GM cars.  No other Big 3 cars were represented.  I was always curious why.  Perhaps Ford didn't want to be associated with the bad guys?  We know for sure that Barricade was based on the 2007 Saleen Mustang S281 Extreme, a variant of Ford Mustangs.

In the movie, Barricade was tasked to find Sam Witwicky and he was doing this as a police car.  He was involved in high speed chases, mostly going mano-a-mano with Bumblebee's Camaro.  Together, those two cars provided for some really fun thrills.

1983 GMC Vandura: The A-Team Van!

Back when I was growing up, The A-Team was my favorite TV show.  I tuned in every week to see Hannibal (George Peppard), BA Baracus (Mr. T), Face (Dirk Benedict), and Murdock (Dwight Schulz) shoot it out with bad guys.  I suppose since the show centered around an elite-former-military-unit-now-mercenaries, shoot outs were inevitable and expected.  But what I liked best about the show were not the shoot outs themselves, since no one really died.  More than the shoot outs, I've enjoyed the preparations for pending confrontations with the villain of the week.  I liked watching the A-Team lay out traps, set up barricades, and manufacture a contraption while their theme song played.  Despite the "set up" scenes being played over and over again every week, I thought they were entertaining and I looked forward to seeing them every time.

The A-Team Van

The A-Team would not have been complete without a dependable, kick ass transportation.  That's where the black hot rod-like 1983 GMC Vandura with a distinctive red slash, rear spoiler, and mag wheels came in.  Many fans at the time, and today as well, coveted the A-Team van.  It was appropriately driven by BA Baracus, the muscle of the group who also served as a mechanic while in the military.

The  modded GMC Vandura was always involved in car chases or getaways that seemed to be appropriate for race cars.  Often there were screen shots of it peeling off, making tight turns, and, many times, jumping.  It went off-road in a few episodes as well.  And still, it came back week after week as fifth member of the A-Team.  Very dependable!  And very cool.

1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse from The Fast and The Furious

When we first met Brian O'Conner in The Fast & The Furious, he was a young detective with the mission of infiltrating the illegal street racing gangs in LA.  In order for him to do so, he had to gain some cred as a street racer.  It wasn't enough that he was slinging parts for the auto part store, The Racer's Edge, where he drove a nice red Ford SVT Lightning.  The first car he used to practice and race with was a light green 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse.

In the movie, Sex Drive, there was a few scenes of the orange Pontiac Judge driven by Ian racing on the highway against a light green Mitsubishi Eclipse.  I'm not sure if that movie was referencing O'Conner's Eclipse.

1970 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible from Slipstream

I saw an intruiging picture of Anthony Hopkins standing next to a yellow 1970 Corvette Stingray that is used by his character Felix Bonhoeffer in a movie called Slipstream.  Hopkins also wrote and directed the movie.

While I haven't seen the movie and can't say much about it, the 1970 Corvette Stingray is a fantastic car.  Muscle it is, but in my opinion the Corvette Stingray is more elegant than it is brute.  I like it more than I like the 1967 Stingray from Conair.  It is perhaps the best known model of all the Corvettes.  And the 'vettes have been around since 1953.  The 1970 Corvette Stingrays come in two body styles - sports coupe and convertibles.

The basic shape is essentially from the 1968 release which persisted until 1983, but some refinements were made in 1970.  The cars are distinguished with the ice cube tray grille at the radiator intake and side fender louvres.

The street version of the 1970 Corvette Stingray came with the LT-1 engine option, a small block engine package that can produce 370 horsepower.  The LT-1 engine also had with sharper valve timing and a bigger bore exhaust.  GM could only advertise 350 horsepower due to federal emissions regulations.  The 1970 Corvette LT1 Stingrays could do the quarter mile in 14.17 seconds at 102.15 mph (Corvette history 1970).