The Stars Are Cars Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1968 Ford Mustang GT

The car chase in "Bullitt" is still something of a benchmark in car chase scenes in movies. Ford provided two 1968 390 V8 Ford Mustang GT fastbacks and two Ford galaxies as the other chase cars but the latter was too heavy for the jump scenes on the hills of San Francisco so two 1968 375 hp 440 Magnum V8-powered Dodge Chargers were substituted. The Mustangs' engines, suspensions and brakes were substantially modified but only the suspensions were modified in the Chargers.
Filming took three weeks for 9 minutes 42 seconds worth of film footage. McQueen was an accomplished driver but he only filmed the close-up scenes. McQueen's 'regular' stuntman (the one that made THAT motorcycle jump in 1963's "The Great Escape"), Bud Ekins, drove the high-speed sections. When watching the movie if the interior rear-view mirror is up, McQueen is driving. If down, Ekins is driving. The driver of the Dodge Charger was a stuntman called Bill Hickman. (He didn't need to remember a lot of lines!)

A 1967 Chevy Camaro featured in another Mr McQueen movie, "The Getaway" (1972) but was not either of the getaway cars that Mr McQueen drove.

A Porsche 917 was the race car that Mr McQueen drove in "Le Mans" (1971) but the car was a 1970 model.

[The photo clue depicts wild horses known in the US as mustangs]

Answer: Red and white Ford Gran Torino

The main car used on the show were two 1975 351 Windsor V8-powered 2-door Ford Gran Torinos.The cars were modified by adding a distinctive white stripe over the standard red paint. (Paul Michael Glaser [Starsky] referred to the car as the "Striped Tomato" which became embedded in the script but it was Hutch that used this moniker). The back end was lifted with different shock absorbers, and the tyres were mounted so that only the black wall side would be seen and the brand name was hidden from view. Glaser took an instant and long-standing dislike to the car and did not look after it. It was frequently seen in footage running into kerbs and in the fourth season the car(s) showed visible panel damage in several places.
In the 2004 movie remake of the television show, the car used was a 'copy' of the TV show's '75 Gran Torino.
In 2008, Clint Eastwood starred and directed "Gran Torino", a car very similar (except paint( to the Striped Tomato.

[The photo hint shows a cheap car with the same colour paint job as the Starsky car]

Answer: Ferrari

"Miami Vice" seasons one and two featured a 1972 Ferrari Daytona Spyder 365 GTS/4 replica on a Chevrolet Camaro C3 chassis. There were actually two of them. Ferrari were offended replicas were used and threatened to sue. In the second season Ferrari donated two (after the shows producers literally blew up the replicas) Testarossa models which were used for the rest of the five year run of the series. However there was a third Testarossa used as a stunt car but it was a replica based on the De Thomaso Pantera (same wheelbase as the Testarossa). The "Daytona" name was never an official designation and was used by the Media to capitalise on the success of the model at the "24 Hours of Daytona" event where the model came first second and third. The Ferraris were Crockett's cars. Tubbs drove a 1974 Cadillac Coupe de Ville convertible.

Magnum drove a series of Ferrari 308 GTS models over the production run (two model upgrades). The cars were targa-topped (as designated by the GTS model designation - the Berlinetta was designated GTB). Actually while Magnum drove the cars they actually belonged to the character of Robin Masters and Magnum was allowed to drive them as well as stay at Robin Masters' estate.

[The photo shows a Prancing Horse, which in different form appears as the Ferrari logo].

Answer: "Fun, Fun, Fun" The Beach Boys

"Night Moves" (1976) is an autobiographical song by Bob Seger when he was a teenager in Michigan in the sixties. He told the story of having a relationship with a girl who had a a boyfriend away in the military, but he "took liberties" when writing the song. For example: "Out in the back seat of my sixty Chevy" is not quite accurate - Seger had a '62 Chevy; "Started humming a song from 1962" was actually "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes, released in 1963.

Don McLean's "American Pie" (1971) is probably one of the most interpreted songs of all time, being about the plane crash that took so many young rock and roll stars in the 50s. It contains the lines, "Bye, bye Miss American Pie / Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry" The meaning of levee has never been fully explained but it is speculated it is the name of McLean's local bar in New Rochelle, NY. Chevrolet exploited the popularity of their brand in popular music using this song in one of their ads in the early noughties. they took the music connection a step further by running billboards with pictures of Chevrolet Corvettes stating "They don't write songs about Volvos."

McLean noted that Elton John's "Crocodile Rock", which came out a year later, had similar themes to "American Pie": Young people obsessed with Rock and Roll, an era where music "dies", and in this case similar cars ("Drove an ol' gold Chevy"). In "Elton John: The Definitive Biography", Elton John states "I wanted it to be a record about all the things I grew up with. Of course it's a rip-off."

Interestingly, all three songs mention "Chevy" but no models or further description is mentioned. Possibly this is intentional, Chevrolet has long been branded as a car for the working class, (especially young people, as used models were cheap to buy and repair).

Conversely, "Fun, Fun, Fun" not just specifies the Ford model, the Thunderbird, but the nickname of same, the "T-bird". There are a few theories about the background to this song but one of the most credible is Howard England owned the Utah radio station KNAK. His daughter Shirley stated that she used to borrow her Dad's T-Bird, and one day got caught taking it to the hamburger drive-in instead of the library. The Beach Boys were frequent visitors at the radio station for promotional appearances, and hearing this story, they wrote the song about the misappropriated T-Bird. The Ford Thunderbird (1955-2005) was an iconic car that sold 4.4 million units. The car was not a sports car but created a new niche in car marketing - the personal luxury car. Marc Cohn also had an autobiographical hit with "Silver Thunderbird" in 1991 following up his bigger hit, "Walking in Memphis".

[The photo shows a model wearing the T-Bird colors that John Travolta wore as head of the T-Birds in "Grease" (1978)]

Answer: BMW

Product placement is an important part of movie financing and it has been reported that product placement in the following three movies covered the total cost of making the movies irrespective of income from the movie itself.

In "Goldeneye" (1995), Pierce Brosnan's first Bond film, the featured car was a BMW z3. It only appeared for a couple of minutes. The car was the first non-British car featured in a Bond film. It was powered by a 1.9L four cylinder engine. It was the first roadster built by BMW. While the movie was number one at the US box office the entire 1996 production run of 15 000 sold out. Bond's car was loaded with Stinger missiles and parachute. Also when Bond was introduced to the car, it was listed the car had an ejector seat and self-destruct system but these were never seen in the movie.

In "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997), a BMW 750iL was used. This car was in production from 1994-2001. It was propelleded by a 5.4L V12 346 hp engine, which was shared with the Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph. The car used in the movie (actually 17 were used) was equipped with bulletproof glass, re-inflating tyres, able to be driven by remote control by cellular phone, tear gas dispenser, rocket launcher (where the sun roof was supposed to be, road spike dispenser and cable cutter.

The "The World is Not Enough" yielded the BMW z8 roadster, actually a car that was meant to be a concept car. Only 5700 were produced. They featured a 4.9 Litre 32-Valve engine producing 394hp. Bond's modified car included surface to air missiles, a targeting display in the steering wheel, remote control driving capability (this time) by the key chain, and featured titanium armour, and six drink cup holders.

[The photo shows quadrants in a double circle which looks similar to the BMW logo which cannot be shown here because it is trademarked]

Answer: 1970 red Plymouth Valiant

"Duel" established Stephen Spielberg as a movie director of note. This was his second full length feature but the made for TV movie was elongated from 74 minutes to 90 minutes for a limited theatrical release.
The vehicles were carefully selected. Dennis Weaver was an average American (David Mann) driving an everyday car. The car chosen was a red 1970 Plymouth Valiant with a 225 ci six-cylinder engine. The car make itself was unimportant as it was meant to represent Everyman so a Chevy Impala or a Ford Galaxie would also have done the job. However Spielberg stated the vehicle must be red to contrast against the desert backdrop. Whilst the cars were '70, 71 and '72 models (the latter for the late filmed theatrical release), three were used overall but all were made to look like 1971 models with wheel covers only issued in 1971.

The truck however had specific requirements: it was 1955 Peterbilt 281 which features a long hood of the Peterbilt (instead of the more favoured cab-over type) 'Its split windshield, and its round headlights gave it more of a "face", adding to its menacing personality' according to the blurb on the subsequent DVD (2005). The truck had a Cummins NTC 350 turbocharged engine with a five speed main and a three-speed auxiliary transmission, facilitating top speeds over 80 mph. As there was only one truck, the final scene where the truck was destroyed had to be done in one take (In the theatrical version to allow additional footage, other trucks were needed).

(The photo depicts Pilgrim Memorial in its State Park in Massachusetts which houses the Plymouth Rock).

PS All the other options are cars that are highly featured in other iconic movies. See if you can determine which movie each appeared in...

Answer: 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am

This movie starred Burt Reynolds as Bo Darville, (the Bandit), Jackie Gleason as Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Smokey) and (surprisingly) Sally field as Frog, the bandit's love interest. The movie was highly successful coming second in year's end receipts only to "Star Wars" .

The Pontiac Firebird Trans-am (four of them) were 1976 models with 1977 front ends grafted onto the front end (four rectangular rather than four round headlights). The cars were badly damaged in the movie, with one almost totally destroyed in the abandoned bridge scene. Some of the damaged cars were used for parts for the lesser damaged cars. The impact of the car was so great that for the two years following the movie the Trans-Am outsold the Chevy Camaro (same platform) for the first time since the cars shared the same basic design.

All the other vehicles are vehicles Reynolds has driven in movies: The Citroen in "The Longest Yard" (1974); The Ford in "White Lightning" (1971) and the Dodge Ambulance (1977 model) in "The Cannonball Run" (1978)

[The photo is a picture of San Francisco's TRANS-AMerica building]

Answer: Mini

The Mini's manufacturer in 1969, BMC (British Motor Corporation), only gave a small number of Minis for the movies despite the publicity it was likely to raise. The rest had to be bought by the movie at trade prices. The Mini Coopers used were red, white and blue to give a patriotic British feel to the movie. All cars were stock standard with the only modification being the number plates were set in the future. The movie received favourable views mainly due to the acting abilities of the two leads Michael Caine and Noël Coward, and the direction given by Peter Collinson. The movie is representative of 1960s London and in particularly, Britain as a whole.

The American remake was set in Venice and Los Angeles in 2003. By this time the Mini brand had passed through many hands and was currently held by BMW though the cars were made in Britain. The new generation Minis were clearly stylised on their '60s counterparts but they were considerably bigger. A total of 32 Mini Cooper S models were used in the filming, three were fitted with electric motors as petrol motors were not allowed in the subway tunnels where some of the scenes were shot. Others were modified to handle on-board cameras. No changes were made to the motors or suspension. The remake, staring Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron and Edward Norton was also favorably reviewed and was a commercial success netting $176 million.

[The photo shows a person in a mini-skirt]

Answer: 1958 red Plymouth Fury

"Christine" was a Stephen King novel written in 1983 with a movie version released in the same year. In both formats the car was a red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury. The car itself was not special in any modified way but it did have the ability to kill people without anyone driving it (Only Mr King could make this plotline seem credible). In the original book, the car had four doors:There were no four door Furys - These were called Belvederes. So the book was changed to a two door.
The other options are cars featured in other movies:
In the "Vanishing Point" (1971), a Dodge Challenger has to be driven from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours to win a bet.
In Rain Man (1988), Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman have to drive across the US from Cincinnati to LA as Hoffman's character is afraid of flying. The Buick is the requisite vehicle)
An off-white Ford Pinto features in another Stephen King novel turned into a movie, "Cujo" (1981/1983).

[The photo shows "anonymous" tail fins featured on American cars of the late 1950s]

Answer: Paul Newman

"Cars" (2006) is about a world of anthropomorphic cars. Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is a young stock car upstart who learns a few life lessons when stranded in Radiator Springs, a small town on Route 66 that was forgotten when Interstate 40 bypassed the town.
It seems fitting that Paul Newman in his last movie role played the role of Doc, a 1951 Hudson Hornet, an avuncular role of town physician and magistrate. He bought dignity and wisdom to the character and the role. In the sequel "Cars 2", the role of Doc with another actor was rejected by the producers out of deference to Mr Newman.
The animated car was based on the fabulous Hudson Hornet which won the NASCAR championship in 1951-3 inclusive. (In 1954, Hudson and Nash combined to form AMC. By 1958, the Hudson name had disappeared completely) The hornet had a 5.0L / 306ci sidevalve six cylinder motor that produced 180 bhp. It was the largest production six cylinder engine in the world at the time.A three speed manual or three speed automatic transmission was available. The Hornet had a wheelbase of 124 inches and a overall length of 208 inches. The production run for 1951 totaled 43,656 units.

[The photo shows a pair of blue eyes, perhaps Mr Newman's most distinctive physical feature]