When Cars Are the Stars

In 2013 Elon Musk bought a used car. For $997,000. It wasn’t any used car, of course. It was the modified 1976 Lotus Esprit that was used by James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977): modified, according to the plot, to become a submarine, ferrying Bond (Roger Moore) and Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) to safety.

But you don’t have to be a trillionaire-in-waiting to want a car from a film. Auction house Bonhams is so convinced that the connection between movie cars and enthusiasts is non-trivial that it will mount “The Movie Car Collection” at its showroom in Paris from November 21 to 28 that will include a General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard and an early Batmobile. Bidding, of course, will also be conducted online.

Bonhams — accurately — observes that cars play a huge role in Hollywood productions.

How big?

Well, a comparison between the occasional cars of James Bond and the central cars of Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) — the driving force in The Fast and the Furious franchise — shows domestic box office gross for the Bond movies just ahead, according to The Numbers. Given that there have been 28 Bond movies and a mere 12 F&F movies it will take Toretto only a few more runs in his black 1970 Dodge Charger R/T (yes, it was destroyed in F7, but cars are rebuilt all the time) to leave Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 in the dust.

Movies focused on cars come in all types. For example, there’s the comedic Burt Reynolds’ vehicle, Cannonball Run (1981) about racing a variety of cars from one side of the country to the other while avoiding the cops. It is based on a real Cannonball dash that was created by Brock Yates, an editor of Car and Driver who wrote the script for the movie. He also scripted Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), which had Reynolds behind the wheel of a Pontiac Trans Am — the sportier version of the Firebird Esprit that Jim Rockford drives in The Rockford Files.

There are sad car movies, like The Art of Racing in the Rain where the 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa is a vehicle for grief. There are emotionally fraught movies like Michael Mann’s Ferrari — the scene of the accident that occurred at the 1957 Mille Miglia race that resulted in the death of 12 and countless injuries is wrenching.

The popularity of cars and movies cannot be underestimated, which is proven by the movie that has almost nothing else in it, Cars.

In 2006 Cars was the second highest-grossing film in the U.S. While it was behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, it was ahead of X-Men: The Last Stand, The Da Vinci Code, and Superman Returns. What’s more, while Cars was in second place, Daniel Craig’s Bond in Casino Royale was in ninth. Yes, even cartoon cars are popular.

(Making Craig credible in his first outing as Bond, the Aston Martin DB5 that is indelibly associated with the character is part of the plot: Bond plays poker with a villain and wins that car—then takes the villain’s wife out for a spin. Yes, the DB5 helps assure Bond fans that Craig’s got the stuff.)

For some movies, people remember the cars, or at least the car chases, more than the plots of the movies. Why is Robert De Niro in an Audi S8 chasing Stellan Skarsgard in a Peugeot 605 through the streets of Paris in Ronin? Why is Gene Hackman, as Popeye Doyle, ripping through Brooklyn in a 1971 Pontiac LeMans in The French Connection? Does anyone remember the name of the character (or even the actor) who is maniacally driving a 1985 Chevy Impala in To Live and Die in L.A.? (Answers: Richard Chance portrayed by William Peterson. And, trivia, it is directed by William Friedkin, who also directed The French Connection. Clearly the man loved chase scenes.)

The most famous movie chase scene is undoubtedly that is Bullitt. Arguably all people know about that movie is:

• Steve McQueen
• Mustang
• Lombard Street

The Highland Green 1968 Mustang GT that McQueen’s character (Frank Bullitt) drives is so iconic that in 2001 the Ford Motor Company built a limited-edition series of Bullitt Mustangs at its factory in Dearborn. The vehicle was so popular that Ford followed up with Bullitt Mustangs for 2008-2009 and 2019-2020. Overall, Ford sold more than 13,000 Mustangs that paid tribute to the movie.

Trying to capitalize on the interest of movie cars and the obvious willingness for some people to pay for that interest, Loïc Maschi, Specialist, Bonhams Collector Cars, put it: “As cinema knows no boundaries, we are looking forward to truly global interest. Most of these cars are authentic pieces of cinema and modern automotive history. With no reserve price, we hope that the sale of this collection will be a real box office success.”

In May 2023 Bonhams conducted an auction that included the 2000 Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R that was driven by Paul Walker’s character in Fast 4. It sold for a world-record $1.36-million.

Included in this auction are several vehicles from the F&F Saga, including a 1970 Dodge Charger from Fast 7 that has an estimate of €150,000-250,000.

The 1969 Mustang Mach 1 driven by Keanu Reeves in John Wick is expected to sell for from €85,000-140,000. (You can be confident Ford won’t produce a Wick Mustang. After all, murder and mayhem are antithetical for companies that recommend you buckle up and drive safely.)

The 2001 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII driven by Brian O’Conner (a.k.a., Walker) in 2 Fast 2 Furious is in the upcoming auction and is expected to go for a modest €250,000-500,000 (a.k.a., $290,000-579,000).

Vehicles used in movies go beyond the one-of-a-kind sale at auction or the limited editions out of factories.

Some argue that the wedge-shaped Lotus Esprit piloted by Roger Moore’s Bond gave rise to the design of the Tesla Cybertruck. But more automotive design enthusiasts maintain that it was the work of designer and artist Syd Mead that was the primary influence, particularly Mead’s designs for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Mead created the “Spinners,” the flying vehicles that maneuver through a dystopian LA.

Mead’s work is admired by car designers in Detroit and production designers in Hollywood. (Tesla’s head designer, Franz von Holzhausen, moved from Detroit to Los Angeles.)

In Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, set 30 years after the original, there are still Spinners. But just as car makers roll out new sheet metal on an annual basis, the vehicle that K (Ryan Gosling) pilots to the ruins of Las Vegas to find Deckard (Harrison Ford) not only has a new design compared to the car Deckard deployed, but K’s car is actually identified with the logo of an existing automaker: Peugeot. Who knew that in 2049 Vegas cops would be driving French cars?

But the Spinners and individual air travel bring us back to Elon Musk. Recently he told Joe Rogan he may be unveiling a Tesla flying car prototype by the end of year. Musk described it as “crazier than all the James Bond cars combined.”