Automobiles and Popular Culture
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From the General Lee to the A-Team Van: Television's Unforgettable Vehicles
KITT may be the TV car that comes to everyone's mind, but screen history isn't limited to it: an orange Dodge Charger, a black GMC van and a ghost-hunting Cadillac - all vehicles that have reached cult status. Here are the stories of legends that rem…
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DeLorean DMC-12: A Car With a Story Even Without the Time Machine
The DeLorean DMC-12 is a sports car that was produced for only two years between 1981 and 1983, with a production run of about 9,000 units that turned it into a commercial failure, yet thanks to its stainless steel body and gull-wing doors it became …
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How Did KITT from Knight Rider Become a Television Legend?
KITT, the fictional AI-powered vehicle based on the 1982 Pontiac Trans Am at the heart of the Knight Rider series that hit screens on September 26, 1982: Knight Industries Two Thousand. This black car that talks, thinks, and makes its own decisions i…
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Legendary Movie Cars Sold for Millions at Auction
The answer to how much movie cars fetch at auctions is quite surprising: the highest-selling examples exceed millions of dollars. James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 went for 6.4 million dollars and the Porsche from Le Mans for up to 14 million dollars - b…
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How Did the Batmobile Change Over the Years?
The Batmobile, redesigned from scratch with every new Batman era since 1939, is fiction's longest-running vehicle saga: From the pink-hotrod cartoon years to Tim Burton's gothic monster, Christopher Nolan's military tank, and Matt Reeves' raw muscle-…
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Were the Legendary Movie Cars Really That Fast?
Short answer: most of the time, no. Bond's DB5, the DeLorean, Trans Am and Mustang may look like monsters on screen, but their real production versions were often ordinary, even underpowered cars. Camera tricks, low frame rates and clever editing mak…
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Hollywood's Legendary Rentals: Behind the Scenes of the Movie Car Trap
Movie car legends are often not coincidence but the result of marketing deals between studios and car brands; rental cars, product placements and script tweaks in exchange for advertising actually turn cinema's legendary cars into a kind of 'rented s…
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Where Do Film Companies Get Their Stunt Cars From?
Film companies source their scene cars from three main channels: specialized picture car rental companies, private owners and collectors who lend their vehicles to sets, plus the in-house studio fleets of major productions. Not every vehicle that app…
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How Did Cars Turn Into Characters in Animated Films?
In animation, cars stop being road-gripping metal parts and become lead actors with eyes, voices, quirks, and heartbreaks. Designers give cars personality by making the headlights the eyes, the windshield the gaze, and the grille the mouth; thus, in …
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How Were Cinema's Legendary Car Chase Scenes Filmed?
The legendary car chases of cinema were shot by rigging cameras to real cars and letting real stunt drivers floor it on real roads; in cult scenes like Bullitt, The French Connection, Ronin and Mad Max: Fury Road, it is not CGI that speaks, but soupe…
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How Did Bond's DB5 Become the World's Most Famous Movie Car?
After entering cinemas with Goldfinger in 1964, the Aston Martin DB5 ceased to be just a car and became the world's most famous movie car; today a Bond DB5 finds buyers for millions of dollars at auctions. And the best part of the story is this: the …
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The Cars That Are the Centerpiece of TV Series and Advertisements
Cars beloved by TV series and commercials are the most enduring stars of screen culture: Knight Rider's talking supercomputer KITT, The Dukes of Hazzard's orange monster General Lee, and models captured by legendary directors' cameras who turn even a…
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