Full Editorial
Movies and TV shows allow us to escape reality for an hour or two, and sometimes the things we see on the big or small screen live on in our memories. We remember heroes saving the day and villains seeing their plans thwarted, and we also remember the clothes our favorite stars wore and the cars they drove. Just about every film set in the 20th or 21st centuries features cars, but some of them are far more memorable than others. Here are some of the most iconic motor vehicles from popular films and TV shows.
James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5
James Bond’s Silver Birch Aston Martin DB5 has appeared in eight of the suave secret agent’s 25 films, but it was the iconic car’s 1964 debut in “Goldfinger” that made it a star. Fast and expensive sports cars had appeared on screen before, but none of them featured revolving license plates, machine guns, and a passenger ejector seat. Bond drove a Lotus Esprit that turned into a submarine and a BMW Z8 fitted with surface-to-air missiles in subsequent films, but none of his cars have captured the public’s imagination like his DB5 did all those years ago.
The Batmobile
The Batmobile has appeared in many guises over the years, and every fan of the Caped Crusader has his or her favorite. The most famous Batmobile was designed by custom car legend George Barris for the 1960s TV show that starred Adam West. It was based on the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car, which Barris purchased many years later for just $1. Barris turned the show car into a TV icon in just 15 days, but his modifications were purely cosmetic. West’s Batmobile was said to be powered by an atomic turbine power plant, but a far more mundane 429 cubic inch Ford engine really lurked under its hood.
The DeLorian Time Machine
The DeLorian was an underpowered and quite average supercar when it was released in 1981, but that did not stop it from becoming one of the most famous vehicles in movie history. In the 1985 science fiction film “Back to the Future,” the DeLorian was fitted with a flux capacitor that ran on plutonium to bend the laws of physics and travel through time. The DeLorian was chosen because its stainless steel bodywork and gullwing doors looked futuristic. In the film, it sported a vanity plate that read “outatime” and had to reach a speed of 88 mph and consume precisely 1.21 gigawatts of energy to travel to a prespecified date and time. Thanks to the film, the DeLorian has become one of the rare cars enthusiasts search for most often on online marketplaces.
Bandit’s Pontiac Trans Am
Not all famous movie cars have atomic power or a host of gadgets. Unmodified cars that became screen stars include Tom Sellick’s Ferrari 308GTS from the 1980s TV show “Magnum P.I.” and the Ford Mustang Steve McQueen drove in the 1968 movie “Bullit,” but both of these vehicular legends take a back seat to the Pontiac Trans Am made famous by the “Smokey and the Bandit” series of films. Burt Reynolds was the star of the films, and he used the black muscle car with a golden phoenix on its hood to elude law enforcement as he escorted a truck carrying illegal beer across state lines.
