Automobiles that Never Really Were, 1st Gear Quiz

Answer: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Ian Fleming wrote his novel "Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car" in 1964 to entertain his son Caspar. The novel was (quite) loosely adapted to film in 1968 using a screenplay written by Roald Dahl and Ken Hughes. Albert R. Broccoli, the same fellow who produced the early James Bond films, produced "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." In the novel and film, Commander Caractacus Potts buys and restores a Paragon Panther which turns out to have magical powers to transform itself into all manner of vehicles. An additional character, a pretty girl named Truly Scrumptuous, is added to the film.

Answer: KITT

The Knight Industries 2000 was driven by David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight in the first series of "Knight Rider". It was a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am voiced by William Daniels. The Knight Industries 3000 was driven by Justin Bruening as Mike Traceur in the second series.

It was voiced by Val Kilmer. William Daniels' name never appeared the credits because he was trying to establish his role as Dr. David Craig on "Saint Elsewhere" at the same time.

Answer: a stock car

"Rapid Roy, the Stock Car Boy" drives a 1957 Chevrolet. He learned to drive stock cars running moonshine but decided that dirt-track racing and the figure-eight demolition derby were safer. Roy can be recognized in that he has a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his t-shirt sleeve, a tattoo on one arm that says "Baby" and "another one that just say hey."

Answer: My Mother the Car

The network gave up on "My Mother the Car" after thirty episodes and a declaration by TV Guide that it was the second-worst television programme of all time, worsted only by "The Jerry Springer Show." In it, a lawyer buys a 1928 Porter touring car and discovers that his deceased mother speaks to him through the car radio. Jerry Van Dyke is Dick Van Dyke's younger brother; he played assistant coach Luther Van Dam on "Coach" (1989-1997).

Answer: The Bluesmobile

The Dodge Monaco is the first Bluesmobile, seen in the first Blues Brothers movie (1980). It was replaced in "Blues Brothers 2000" (the 1998 sequel) with a 1990 Ford LTD Crown Victoria, also called The Bluesmobile. The producers bought 13 Dodge Monacos from the California Highway Patrol and pretty much destroyed them all in making the first movie. Elwood excitedly describes the Monaco to his brother Joliet Jake: "It's got a cop motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks."

Answer: Hot Rod Lincoln

Singer-songwriter Charlie Ryan wrote "Hot Rod Lincoln" about his own custom car: a 1930 Model A with a Lincoln engine. The first recording was in 1955 followed by a second in 1959 attributed to Charlie Ryan and the Timberline Riders. Johnny Bond recorded it in 1960.

The most successful cover was that of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen in 1971. The country flavour of this rock and roll song is apparent in this line: "My pappy said, 'Son, you're gonna' drive me to drinkin' if you don't stop drivin' that Hot Rod Lincoln.'"

Answer: Melmoth the Wanderer

Nabokov apparently had in mind an 1820 Gothic novel by the Reverend Charles Robert Maturin entitled "Melmoth the Wanderer." In it, Jonathan Melmoth sells his soul to the Devil in return for 150 extra years of life and then searches the world for someone to take over the pact from him. When Oscar Wilde was released from prison, he traveled under a pseudonym, Sebastian Melmoth, with doubtless reference to Maturin's novel, not Nabokov's.

Answer: Mad Max

The Interceptor first appears in "Mad Max" (1979) driven by Max Rockatansky and again appears (worse for wear) in "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior" (1981) and even briefly in "Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015). The car is "based on" a '73 Ford Falcon because, as the mechanic character who built it says in the first film, he took "A piece from here and a piece from there."

Answer: Busta Rhymes

According to the story line, the Reptar Wagon was invented by Stu Pickles and made to look like Reptar, a green T-Rex sort of creature adored by the babies on the show. It is a motor vehicle capable of being driven on land and across water ("AquaReptar"), of speaking (in the voice of rapper Busta Rhymes) and breathing fire (like Godzilla).

Answer: Ecto-1

The Cadillac hearse, the Ecto-1, was built by the Miller-Meteor Company and rebuilt, according to the backstory to the movies, by Dr. Ray Stantz who mortgaged his mother's house. The hearse works for the Ghostbusters because there is so much room for Proton Packs, P.K.E. Meters and all that other really-cool technical stuff. Replicas of the vanity plate are available to collectors.