If you are a fan of the cult classic 1977 movie “The Car”, or if you collect movie cars, this is a great find.  This is a tribute car that was built by George Barris  and Anthony Trafini after the movie was released for promotional purposes.  I am told that all of the cars from the actual movie were destroyed.  This one was built by Barris from steel (not fiberglass) and is a fantastic tribute car.   Imagine taking the kids to school in this!!

This monster of a car features full air ride suspension along with plexiglass “black out” windows (velcro – for show purposes).  Also has red lights around and under the car.  Runs and drives fine.  Truly a sinister find.

* To view a short “walkaround” video, click here

* To view a short video showing the motor, click here

Two bicyclists cycling on a canyon are followed by a mysterious Lincoln Continental Mark III down the road. At the bridge, the car proceeds to crush one cyclist against the wall, and ram the other from behind, causing him to fall off the bridge. A hitchhiker, hoping to get a ride, encounters the car and insults it after it purposefully tries to run him down. In response, the car runs over him and leaves. The local sheriff’s office, called to the first of a series of hit and run deaths, get a lead on the car that appears heavily customized and has no license plate, as pointed out by Amos Clemens (R. G. Armstrong) after he sees it run over the hitchhiker.

That night, in an apparent bid to kill Amos, the car instead runs over the sheriff, leaving Chief Deputy Wade Parent (James Brolin) in charge. During the resulting investigation, an eyewitness to the accident states that there was no driver inside the car, furthering Wade’s confusion. Wade asks his girlfriend, Lauren (Kathleen Lloyd), who is a teacher at the local school, to cancel the upcoming marching band rehearsals for their safety. Lauren and her friend, who is Wade’s deputy Luke Johnson’s (Ronny Cox) wife, ask him to let them rehearse, to which Luke unwittingly agrees.

The car enters the town and attacks the school marching band as it rehearses at the local show ground. It chases the group of teachers and students into a cemetery. Curiously enough, the machine will not enter onto the consecrated ground as Lauren taunts the purported driver that any of the townsfolk have yet to see. Seemingly in anger, the car destroys a brick gate post and leaves. The police chase the automobile along highways throughout the desert before it turns on them, destroying several squad cars and killing five of Wade’s deputies in the process. Wade confronts the vehicle and is surprised to see that none of his bullets put a dent on the car’s windshield or tires. After trying to open the door (when it is revealed that the car has no door handles), Wade is knocked out and the car escapes.

That evening, Lauren, on her way home to pick up her things, is killed when the car jumps driving straight through her house and rams her, right when she is speaking to Wade over the phone. Luke puts forward to a grief-stricken and maddened Wade the theory that it acted in revenge for the insults hurled on it by Lauren and notes it cannot enter hallowed ground. Wade concocts a plan to stop the car by burying it beneath a controlled explosion in the canyons that lie outside of town. After discovering it waiting for him in his own garage, he is forced to carry out his plans post haste. He is pursued by the car into a mountainous canyon area where his remaining deputies have set a trap for the machine. In a final confrontation, Wade and Luke, at the edge of a cliff, bait the car into running straight at them, then jump aside as it goes over the cliff. With the dynamite detonated and the rubble falling on it, a monstrous demonic visage appears in the smoke and fire of the explosion, shocking the deputies.

The final scenes show Wade refusing to believe what the group saw in the flames, despite Luke’s insistence about what he saw. The film concludes, in some cuts, with the car prowling the streets of downtown Los Angeles, clearly having survived.

According to George Barris’ website:

Designed for the movie “The Car” starring James Brolin. Made from a 1971 Lincoln. Fenders were 20 gauge steel shaped over the original body. The grill was hand made from square steel tubing. Four bumpers made from heavy 18 gauge steel. Seven inch single headlights sunk behind the grill and fender. Body was raised to upper doorline. Four radius wheel wells around a six inch reverse deep chrome wheels and Goodrich tires.

Top was chopped 4 inches with all black transparent windows. Full body roll bars installed over and around stunt driver. A steel tube canon was installed on passenger side which had a telephone pole inside and steel cap which housed dynamite and black powder. When the stunt man rolled the car he would trigger the tube telephone pole by igniting the dynamite which drove the pole into the ground and roll the car 5 times. Finished with 20 coats of black pearl lacquer. A total of four were made.

Interesting trivia about ‘The Car”:

– The make and model of “the car” was a 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III black coupe.

– In order to give “the car” a “sinister” look as requested by director Elliot Silverstein, car customizer George Barris made the car’s roof three inches (7.6 cm) lower than usual and altered its side fenders that same length again both higher and longer.

– The technical specifications of the four versions of “the car” were as follows. They were built on a Lincoln Mark III chassis with a 460 cubic inch engine and deep-recessed chrome-plated Cragar wheels. The 18-gauge steel frame weighed 5500 pound, was 20 ft (6 m) long and 9 1/3 ft (2.8 m) wide. The cars’ bodywork was painted in steel, pearl and charcoal coloring. The cars’ windows were laminated in two different shades, smoked on the inside and amber on the outside, so one could see out of it but not into it.

– According to director Elliot Silverstein, the distinctive sound the horn of The Car makes, spells out the letter X in Morse code.

– Major stunts in the movie included a stuntman’s first-time ever jump, a 196 ft fall from a bridge and a “barrel role” by “the car” over two other vehicles.

– According to a 1977 interview with James Brolin, the working title of the film was “Wheels”.

– An arcade video game machine called “Smashing Drive” features the car, painted as a New York taxi on a rampage in the city. The game’s “attract mode” sequence begins with the car sitting on one of the stainless steel Deco eagles on the Chrysler Building, and then jumping off to the street below.

– “The Car” was specially built for this film by renowned automotive designer George Barris who had built many special vehicles for the film and TV industry including the Batmobile for Batman (1966). Publicity for the picture stated that Barris had built cars for such celebrities as Cher, Sonny Bono, Liberace, Clark Gable, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Evel Knievel.

– This film is listed among The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson’s book THE OFFICIAL RAZZIE® MOVIE GUIDE.

 – Twelve men worked on building four versions of “the car” for the movie for ten months. Construction took eight weeks. Many safety devices and mechanisms had to be installed for occupational safety reasons so as to protect the stuntmen who would be riding inside them.

 – Car cost $84,000 to build.