EXHIBITION ABSTRACT

Since the advent of the motion picture, automobiles have been prominently featured on screen, serving not just to transport characters from one place to another but also to reveal aspects of the characters’ personalities and serve as important plot devices.

In many cases, a stock model is suitable for a movie or television series, but sometimes modifications to production vehicles are needed to create a memorable automotive costar. The modifications can be as simple as a decorative paint job that gives a vehicle a distinctive look to suit its role, or more extreme, such as customizing one model to appear to be another car entirely. Sometimes on-screen automobiles are modified for better performance. Action movie cars can have weapons added, and sci-fi vehicles often feature futuristic elements that anchor them in another time. 

Whatever the level of customization, the alterations made to movie and television cars help create the automotive characters that serve alongside the human actors and aid in establishing the world in which the story takes place.

1966 VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE
“HERBIE”

Driven in Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005)

In Walt Disney Pictures’ Herbie: Fully Loaded, the endearing Volkswagen Beetle that debuted in the 1968 movie The Love Bug returns, this time transformed into a NASCAR contender. Thirty different vehicles were used in production, with different looks to suit the scene. This example is driven by Maggie Peyton (Lindsay Lohan) in the racing sequences. To make sure the race scenes looked realistic, the vehicle was modified for the track and equipped with an upgraded suspension, full roll cage, disc brakes, and Goodyear racing slicks.

COLLECTION OF THE PETERSEN AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM

1981-83 DeLorean DMC-12
“Time Machine”

Driven in Back to the Future (1985), Back to the Future Part II (1989), and Back to the Future Part III (1990) 

When writer/director Robert Zemeckis and co-writer Bob Gale were developing Back to the Future, the stainless-steel DeLorean was cast as the Time Machine, in part because its gullwing doors made it look like an alien spaceship. Over the course of two sequels, the Time Machine emerged as a character of its own, undergoing progressive transformation as a result of its time travel experiences. Of the three visually distinct vehicles created for the trilogy, this is the only example to appear in all three films.

COLLECTION OF UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD

2001 Honda S2000
2 Fast 2 Furious

Driven in the first action sequence of 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

This Honda S2000 is driven in the first action sequence of 2 Fast 2 Furious, a movie in the Fast & Furious franchise that offers a glimpse into the lifestyle of some modern day tuner car aficionados. Painted a custom shade of pink for the character Suki (Devon Aoki), the roadster was equipped with a Comptech supercharger to increase horsepower from 240 to 340 and a special ground effects kit with 18-inch rims.The car survived the scene in which it jumps a bridge with only minor aesthetic damage.    

COLLECTION OF THE PETERSEN AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM
GIFT OF THE MARGIE AND ROBERT E. PETERSEN FOUNDATIO