While poking around for background info on another car story I came across this little bit of (what could be) great news: Hollywood will be doing a biopic about Phil Hill, the first American world driving champion, and Tobey Maguire is going to take the lead.

Like all announcements of upcoming racing movies, I look upon this with an equal mixture of hope and dread.

Hope, because I love a good movie, and maybe, just maybe, they can make a good one about racing this time around. And dread because … well Sweet Jesus, have you seen Sylvester Stallone’s “Driven”?

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At the Moscow Tuning Show this year, students from MHPI Design School modified a Chevy Camaro to look like a car from the recent movie Death Race. The movie, a remake of the 1975 flick Death Race 2000, features Jason Statham as a former race car driver who is framed and forced to participate in a race to the death against prisoners in armored cars, fighting to be released from the prison. The movie is worth a watch if you have the chance.

The car looks authentic, and the team did a good job making it look like it came right off the set. Check out RPMGO.com for more information and a photo gallery. Continue Reading…

Whoa! talk about a bad-ass looking car. This was spotted on the set of the new Transformers movie at Edwards Air Force Base.

If you click on the image above, you can see there are more than one of those cars on set, as well as quite a few other cars that will be used in the movie. This car looks evil; let’s hope somebody makes it into production. Looks like a heavily modified Corvette to me! Continue Reading…

I have a theory, and it seems to be holding: Top 100 (or 1000 or 50 or whatever) lists are mainly there to start discussions, and on many occasions, arguments.

It’s very rare when you’re going to look at a list of something like “The Top 50 Bourbons”, and say, “They’re right ‘Ol Rebel Rot-Gut Special Reserve IS the best bourbon there is!”

Take for example this list from the good folks at the Rotten Tomatoes movie site. They have generated a list of the 50 Most Memorable Movie Cars (apparently that would be to date). As both a movie, and a car guy I braced myself for the seemingly inevitable onslaught of 40 to 45 glaring mistakes.

I made it no further than #s 40 and 39.

#40: Milner’s Deuce Coupe from American Graffiti

#39: Cobretti’s Mercury from the Sylvester Stalone movie Cobra

Are you kidding me?

Are you frickin’ kidding me?!

The fact that Milner’s Deuce Coupe barely scrapes into the top 40 is insulting enough, but to be ranked below an unwatchable Sylvester Stalone vanity piece?

That’s an insult to both car guys AND movie historians.

Milner’s Deuce Coupe is pretty much the rolling definition of “hot rod” and American Graffiti will probably be played to space aliens to show them what “cruising”, “illegal street racing” and “youth car culture” is (assuming it hasen’t been shown to the little grey guys at some theater out at Area 51 already).

But no-oooooooooooooooo.

The dinguses at Rotten Tomatoes said, “You know, Cobretti’s Mercury from Cobra is a totally bitchin’ ride. MUCH better than, say Milner’s Deuce Coupe from American Graffiti .”

Talk about a waste of machinery.

Full list after the jump.

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I know, I know … “willful suspension of disbelief” and “it’s just a movie” and all that, but BOY does Hollywood takes liberties with both physics AND cars a lot. From tires screeching on gravel to Tom Cruise as a viable race driver, they sure like to play fast and loose with all things car.

One of the better examples of this, to my eyes anyway, was those mediocre (and that’s being charitable) “Transporter” movies. The folks over at Always Watching complied the ten worst moments from “The Transporter” Film Series and came up with this list:

10) Frank Martin Jumps Car Onto Moving Vehicle
9) Frank Martin Fights Henchmen While Oiled Up And Using Bike Pedals
8) Frank Martin Uses Hose To Brutally Injure His Attackers
7) Frank Martin Drives Car Off Parking Garage Roof
6) and 5) Frank Martin Kicks Door Into Guy’s Face, Throws Gun Into Air, Then Catches It Behind His Back
4) Frank Martin Fights Lola On Curtains, Impales Her Using Decorative Living Room Fixture
3) Frank Martin Defeats 50 Guys Using Metal Rod
2) Frank Martin Disables Four Carjackers
1) Frank Martin Flips Car Upside Down And Uses Crane To Detach Car Bomb

On their site, they’ve even got the moving pictures to prove it.

Did you know that Charlie Chaplin was in a racing movie? He was, it was called “Kid Auto Races at Venice”.

Near as I can tell, it has not one, but two races contained with in the movie. There’s both an actual automobile race going on, but in the last bit of the film, there is also a kid’s soapbox derby-style race going on. They seem to be going on side by side, and the same track … which I presume to be a street circuit in Venice CA.

I found out about this odd little bit of car racing trivia from this blog I check out written by a comedian/writer.

Racing movies are, by and large, crap.

Even the “good” ones are pretty flawed. “Grand Prix” is overly long and has that horrid tacked on soap opera “plot” and “Le Mans” has no plot at all. The less said about “Driven” & the regrettable “Days of Thunder” the better.

“Kid Auto Races at Venice” is also pretty thin on plot … essentially Chaplin is a real pain to a camera crew trying to film the race.

The Film itself and more after the jump.
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