A question about cars used by TV companies.

[tyred]

I'm just watching a repeat of an episode of Heartbeat where an apparently immaculate Ford Zodiac was wrecked.

Do TV companies really wreck good examples of what is now a very rare car (and it would have been rare when the programme was made too, although not that valuable at the time) to make these sort of period programmes or is it really a complete basket case made to look presentable? Or is the actual accident some sort of camera trick and the car tweaked to make it look like it had been crashed?

Seems a waste of classic cars.

 

[markemark]

Might be an unroadworthy car.

 

[PeteXXX]

I've often thought this, too.. If it's a newer car, it's not important and just part of the film budget, but to destroy a 'proper' car is quite sad..

 

[a.twiddler]

To an enthusiast, I expect even an unroadworthy car can be a basis for restoration. Do they perhaps use large scale models?

 

[DCLane]

Often the cars aren't suitable for road use any more. They're 'tarted up' for the screen, with a better condition car used in moving shots.

 

[annedonnelly]

There's an episode of Heartbeat that features my friend's Hillman Imp as an extra. Mine is a 1975 model so was too young to feature. I seem to recall the filming involved a lot of waiting around in the cold

 

[CanucksTraveller]

When you see unique or rare cars crashing in films it's often just a moulded fibreglass body shell on a similar length but far less exotic donor chassis. Many famous film cars (like Knight Rider's Kitt, The Fall Guy's pickup, the General Lee) were jumped / crashed so often that they had dozens of expendable copies made. The "close up" car is usually referred to as the "Star" or "Hero" car and the copies known as either A or B models depending on how much detail they have, and how closely it might be seen on screen.

There's a scene in "The Rock" where you can see the fibreglass body shell shaking distinctively on a "Ferrari" as it lands, I think the chassis was a common US GM model from which they'd made 3 replica "Ferraris" for stunt work by putting some nice yellow plastic body shells on them and sorting the suspension and wheels to make it sit like a 355. They looked very convincing.

 

[Gunk]

The BMW Z8 that was cut in half in a bond film was a fibreglass body shell mounted onto a Corvette chassis

 

[DRM]

I wonder if newer cars that get wrecked on TV/Films are the sub standard ones that don’t get sold, but are used as factory hacks, bit of free product placement for the manufacturer using something that would get ragged round the factory then scrapped anyway

 

[cougie uk]

I'm just watching a repeat of an episode of Heartbeat where an apparently immaculate Ford Zodiac was wrecked.

Do TV companies really wreck good examples of what is now a very rare car (and it would have been rare when the programme was made too, although not that valuable at the time) to make these sort of period programmes or is it really a complete basket case made to look presentable? Or is the actual accident some sort of camera trick and the car tweaked to make it look like it had been crashed?

Seems a waste of classic cars.

I immediately suspect something if a character is driving a car cheaper or older than you might expect. The script probably calls for it to be crashed or blown up.

No idea about the Zodiac - it might look better on TV than real life.

 

[Blue Hills]

Pretty almost always dud old cars tarted up I think.
Nerdy folk used to, maybe still do, delight in pointing out that the car that went over a cliff or whatever wasn't actually the same car that had been seen driving around earlier - an ever so slightly different model etc.

 

[Illaveago]

I once met a chap who supplied the old Top Gear with a Triumph Dolomite Sprint , Rover 3500 and an Austin Princess . He wasn't happy as he had been told he would get the cars back .
What I have noticed with the new series is that cars don't breakdown as much as they used to .
Top Gear must have messed about with the cars as a rear door would not have fallen off the Rover without the hinge pins and check strap bring removed . Neither would the Sprint's rear bumper fallen off as it is held on by 4 bolts .

 

[Electric_Andy]

Top Gear must have messed about with the cars

Yes this is what annoys me about programmes like that, it's all too "normal and sensible" to do a real test of endurance using a roadworthy car. There always needs to be some gimic of things going wrong, and we are led to believe this is part of the cars character but in fact it's obvious that it's all staged. I know, scripted shows are all staged, but it would be far more interesting IMO if they just got on with it without all the childish gimmicks.

Re: film cars, yes I've heard that cars like the General Lee had 100's of reproductions made to be crashed; in fact I htink that show holds the record for most written off cars?

 

[Illaveago]

Yes this is what annoys me about programmes like that, it's all too "normal and sensible" to do a real test of endurance using a roadworthy car. There always needs to be some gimic of things going wrong, and we are led to believe this is part of the cars character but in fact it's obvious that it's all staged. I know, scripted shows are all staged, but it would be far more interesting IMO if they just got on with it without all the childish gimmicks.

Re: film cars, yes I've heard that cars like the General Lee had 100's of reproductions made to be crashed; in fact I htink that show holds the record for most written off cars?

Working in a body shop we used to talk about how car's like the General Lee landed with both front chassis legs bent and then in the next shot looking as though nothing had happened .

 

[CanucksTraveller]

Re: film cars, yes I've heard that cars like the General Lee had 100's of reproductions made to be crashed; in fact I htink that show holds the record for most written off cars?

I know The Blues Brothers formerly held the record for the best part of 2 decades for the most cars written off in a film, mostly Dodge Monaco police cars in the two famous scenes involving Illinois State Troopers on the banking, then the big downtown smash involving mostly Chicago City PD Monacos. The Dodge Monacos in those crashes were all real working / original cars, but pretty well used and recently retired after their forces had modernised their fleets to 1980s models. They came from a few forces so some had to be re-liveried, and some of them had roll cages and harnesses put in, otherwise they were stock.
That record was 103 cars, then the abomination that was Blues Brothers 2000 destroyed 104, just to pip it.

But yes, I read that The Dukes of Hazzard totalled over 200 cars which is really quite outrageous, and there seems to be some lore that The Matrix Reloaded killed 300, but the latter seems less substantiated.