The General Lee

The General Lee was the car used by the main characters of the Dukes Of Hazzard TV series that ran from 1979 to 1985, Bo and Luke Duke, who lived in a fictional town of Hazzard County in Georgia.

The car itself was a 1969 Dodge Charger painted in bright orange with a Confederate Battle Flag painted on the roof. It had a horn that played the first twelve notes of the song Dixie.

As the car was meant to be a race car, it had its doors welded shut and a roll cage installed and the main way that Bo and Luke Duke had of accessing the car was sliding in through the driver and passenger windows.

Having a race car background was a handy way of explaining the presence of the roll cage and welded doors, which were necessary for all the stunts that the car was continually used for.

The Dukes of Hazard was remade into a movie in 2005 long after the TV series finished, but the producers thankfully resisted the urge to use the far less popular new Dodge Charger models and still used the original 1969 shape.

Delorean Time Machine

The DeLorean is a time travelling car invented by doctor Emmett Brown in the 1985 film ‘Back to the Future’, and continued into its sequels, ‘Back to the Future Part 2 and 3′. The car is based on a standard DeLorian DMC-12 which was originally manufactured in Northern Ireland. The company only produced cars from 1981 – 1982 before entering bankruptcy, and only approximately 9000 cars were made.

The Delorean had several major stand out features such as gull-wing doors and a stainless steel unpainted body shell, and was significantly modified in the film, with the key feature being the ‘Flux Capacitor’ which allowed time travel. The car had to achieve 88 miles per hour to travel in time. Due to the popularity of the film there are now a significant amount of the original DMC 12 cars that have been converted to being replicas of the film car, and there is even an online guide of how to convert your DeLorean.

during the film series, the car features several modifications, mainly to its power source, as originally the car is powered by a nuclear reactor to achieve the 1.21 gigawatts of power required to time travel. On travelling in time the plutonium required for the reactor is not available, so Lightning is harnessed, then later after a future travel the car has a Mr Fusion cold fusion reactor to allow household waste to be used to power the flux capacitor. After this trip the car also has been fitted with the ability to fold its wheels downwards and fly.

Herbie - The Love Bug

Herbie is a Volkswagen Beetle that has appeared in several movies, starting with the 1968 ‘The Love Bug’. He has a mind of his own, and the ability to drive himself, and ignore his drivers commands. Herbie is bought by a down on his luck racing driver who enters him onto several races, which is how Herbie acquires his iconic blue, white and red racing stripes, and the racing number 53 logo.

Herbie appeared in several more movies based around a similar theme, such as Herbie Rides again, Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo, Herbie Goes Bananas, Herbie The Matchmaker, and the most recent movie: Herbie Fully Loaded.

Unlike other movie franchises, Herbie was never significantly updated, even though Volkswagen redesigned the Beetle model in the late 1990′s – Herbie retained his original shape and style. Occasionally the stripes were a little thicker or thinner, sometimes it is fitted with wider wheels & tyres, or a different rear spoiler, but the Volkswagen Beetle never significantly changes shape, no matter what the movie.

KITT - Knight Rider 2008

In 2008, a made for TV movie was produced under the title Knight Rider, being a pilot episode for a possible TV series. The movie itself was not that well received, but it managed to allow the series to be recommissioned. It featured a cameo for David Hasslehoff as the original Michael Knight, and in the Movie his son takes on the mantle of becoming the next Michael Knight with an all new K.I.T.T.

The original KITT stood for ‘Knight Industries Two Thousand’, and in this movie the name stays but stands for ‘Knight Industries Three Thousand’. The car itself is a Black 2008 Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang, fitted with a host of upgrades, most obviously is the red light scanner fitted in the front. The car has the ability to transform both into a more aggressive attack mode, featuring a grappling hook, a laser that emits from his front scanner, double mini guns, missiles, a dart gun, a sonic inhibitor, and an EMP weapon.

The car also has the ability to turn into other vehicles (all supplied for the TV series by the Ford motor group) such as a Ford F150 FX4 pickup in off road mode, a Ford E-150 van, a Ford Flex, a Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, and a 1969 Mach 1 Mustang.

Team Knight Rider Cars

Team Knight Rider was a spin-off series from the original Knight Rider TV series that ran in 1997 and 1998. It differed from the original instead of using just the one car as a replacement for KITT, it used 5 main vehicles all with artificial intelligence. They were:

Dante – a modified Ford Expedition SUV vehicle that functioned like a mobile command centre, Domino – a modified Ford Mustang Convertible, Attack Beast – a modified Ford F150 pick up truck, Kat – a customer high tech motorcycle that can combine with Plato – another motorcycle to form a high speed pursuit vehicle.

In the series KITT was originally replaced with a car called KRO that was based on a black Ferrari 355, that becomes unstable, and effectively turns into one of the TV series bad guys.

Knight Rider 2000 Poster

Knight Rider 2000 is a made-for-television movie that was meant to serve as a pilot for a follow up TV series to the original Knight Rider, but the following TV series was never commissioned.

The Film saw the original K.I.T.T. car being broken up for parts, and his Artificial Intelligence unit fitted into a new car – the Knight 4000. The new car has most of the original cars gadgets such as voice activated controls, and the ability to talk, but also featured a virtual reality head up display that could project into the inside of the windscreen, a microwave stunner that could incapacitate criminals, a thermal expander, again microwave based that could heat up targets and cause them to explode, a fax machine, and amphibious mode allowing the car to float on water and manoeuvre like a boat.

Knight 4000 Car

The car design was based on the Pontiac Banshee IV concept car, but the actual concept car could not be obtained from Pontiac for use in the film, so the producers used a Dodge stealth and customised it to look like the Banshee.

Knight Rider 1982 KITT

The original Knight Rider TV series ran from 1982 – 1986, featuring David Hasslehoff as Michael Knight, and K.I.T.T. a Pontiac Trans-Am with artificial intelligence that was capable of talking.

The car was fitted with several fantasy upgrades such as a turbo boost function that was introduced whenever the car was required to do a stunt, allowing KITT to jump unfeasible distances and heights.

Kitt was also fitted with a bullet-proof body and glass, and most famously a series of red front lights fitted into the front bumper that served as a scanner allowing the car to ‘see’, and became the trademark of both the car and the series.

Knight Rider 1982 K.I.T.T.

James Bond Aston DB5

The Aston Martin DB5 is the first car seen in the James Bond movies, and will forever be known as the original and Iconic bond car. This is despite the fact the in the James Bond Novels, the author Ian Flemming wrote bond as owning a grey 1930′s Bentley convertible, owned by Bond himself and never modified by Q division.

Aston’s offering of a free DB5 for the movie (whereas Bentley wanted to charge for their car) cemented it’s place in history well before product placement in movies was heard of, and is estimated to be worth millions to the brand and is the reason that BMW offered so much to replace Aston Martin as Bonds car of choice for movies in the 1990′s.

The DB5 features in 5 separate Bond films: Goldfinger, Thunderball, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies and Casino Royale. In the latter film a new explanation is given as to just how Bond gets the car by winning it in a game of poker.

The Aston DB5 has gadgets differing for each movie, but perhaps the best known use of the car was in Goldfinger, where the car was fitted with pop out gun barrels behind the front indicator lights, a bullet shield behind the rear window and a 3 way revolving number plate.

One of the promotional cars used during the movie launch was bought for £5000 from the owner, and was sold at auction in 2006 for $2,090,000.

The production car used a 4.0 litre engine producing 282 horsepower.

Aston Martin DBS - 1969

The first Aston DBS was used in the 1969 film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service starring George Lazenby. The car was not seen much in the film – only before the opening credits and towards the end of the movie as the wedding car. The car can also be seen in the background of one scene in the later film Diamonds Are Forever, when bond visits Q branch.

There is little known about the movie car, as other than that it had a hiding place for a sniper rifle in the glovebox.
The production car was built by Aston Martin from 1967 – 1972 and was the successor to the DB6, and shared its 4.0 litre V8 engine.

Bond Aston Vantage Volante

The Aston Martin Vantage Volante featured in the 1987 James Bond film ‘The Living Daylights’ starring Timothy Dalton and was the last Aston used before BMW paid a fortune to take it’s position in the franchise.

The car’s appearance in the film was somewhat confusing as at the beginning of the film it is a convertible which Aston classify as a Volante. Later in the Film the car is Winterised by Q branch, and turns into a hardtop coupe.

The production car is fitted with a 5.3 litre V8 capable of 0-60 mph in 5.3 seconds. In the film the Aston has a full compliment of Bond gadgets and weaponry, including tyre spikes, a Jet engine fitted behind the rear numberplate, retractable outriggers in the style of skis to help on the ice, heat seeking missiles behind the front headlights, side firing lasers in the front wheels which are used in the film to slice enemy cars in two, bulletproof windows, a fireproof body and a self destruct system.

Bond Aston Martin Vantage