When my eldest nephew was very young, maybe 2 or 3, we had a tradition that whenever he was at my house we’d watch car chases on YouTube. Nothing with graphic violence, mind you, but plenty of tire-squealing, wheelcover-losing, trashcan-destroying action – the iconic Bullitt car chase, for example, or the epic chase from The Junkman. Well, I stumbled across a YouTube channel the other day full of car chases and I wish I’d been able to show my nephew these when he still had an interest.
Considering the budget TV shows have historically had for action sequences, vis-à-vis movies, you generally have an idea what car will bite the dust by the end of a car chase. This ’82-83 Malibu meets a fiery end because, of course, all cars explode when they crash. Oh, Hollywood. There’s something about 80s car chases that really appeal to me though, perhaps that mixture of big, old American iron and newer, smaller stuff. And watching Hunter and McCall chase the perp through Los Angeles has gotten me really excited for my return visit this year.
See any interesting cars during the action? Or do you have eyes only for Det. Sgt. McCall’s sporty red Daytona?
At the time, I had eyes for Det. Sgt. McCall.
I was about to say that.
She’s still yummy today
It’s actually a 79 or 80 Malibu that meets a fiery end. The head on shots at 1:43 show the single headlights, and as the car is spinning out of control at 1:49, you can see the more sloping roofline of the earlier model.
blowed up real good!
+1 Yee Haw!
I miss John Candy’s comedy. SCTV was mandatory watching way back when
I don’t know why but used to hate Hunter when I was a kid, it used to be rerun on the networks in the daytime through the 90s, but I watched a good chunk of season 1 recently and I now cant stop watching it. It’s constant over the top action and car chases with all the great 80s cop show cliches I love. Every single chase I have seen ends in the bad guy’s car exploding too, no matter how improbable. Such a good antidote to the boring and overly dramatic police procedural shows on now
The 85 Cougar @ the 1:04 Mark caught my eye
The bad guy’s car was required to either: 1. explode or 2. flip over in dramatic fashion after which the occupants would drag themselves out shaking their heads, in your less-violent shows. Just your average day on the road in the 80s.
And of course, seat belts were never used, but somehow in scenario 2 they managed to get out of the cars with no injuries other than to their egos!
If my eyes aren’t deceiving me they appear to pass the exact same gold colored Tercel wagon twice, and at the same location. At around 49 seconds the Malibu passes the Tercel as it’s about to take the off ramp. Then both cars are shown rounding a corner. Then at around 59 seconds the Malibu passes the Tercel again, at the same off ramp, followed by the Daytona.
Yeah they show the car passing the same Tercel twice. Not uncommon to see in these TV show chase scenes. Shoot it from multiple angles and use both, or they only had so many cars for stunt shots so the same cars are used in multiple scenes.
Like the VW in the Bullit chase
While it was no 1968 Charger and Mustang fastback, for television, that wasn’t too bad. It was especially interesting to see a typical, period FWD vehicle used, as well, although I’d be willing to bet that the Daytona was entirely the result of product-placement. Otherwise, why wouldn’t they have used a more photogenic (and dramatic) Mustang or Camaro?
Lee Iacocca was trying to push FWD Daytona as a “new Pony Car”.
Ford planned the [FWD Mustang] Probe to compete with it. GM had a FWD Camaro/Firebird concept, GM80, but it got cancelled, instead of renamed.
I think the early Daytona is equally attractive to the early Fox Mustangs and gen 3 Camaros. Only thing that would make it more photogenic would be if smoke bellowed out from the rear tires like it could on Mustangs and Camaros, but the stunt drivers successfully made up for it with liberal use of the handbrake
The Wraith also featured a Daytona extensively in some race scenes
Malibu starts out as an ’82 with 4 headlights and upright rear window, then magically turns into a ’79, with single headlights.
And no time is lost stopping to pick up “Hunter” in Dodge.
And as in all old TV shows/movies, cars “blow up” easily.
Gee, I don’t remember Dad’s Malibu handling that well. Maybe it needed new shocks. As well as…
…don’t forget flying hubcaps in corners and tires squealing on dirt roads.
I love the way the FWD Daytona drives in pursuit just like the RWD Malibu, with plenty of drifting. Yessir, that Malibu was one powerful car!
It’s all due to the fixed rear windows. The weight savings provides a significant power boost. And more hip room!
Credit to Hunter for using late model cars in their car chases. Even crashing some of them. The same YouTube channel features scenes from CHiPs. A show where you could anticipate an upcoming crash scene by the number of early 70s AMC Matador sedans and Chrysler fuselage models gathered in a slow speed freeway scene. Usually involving a hidden ramp. 🙂
CHiPs was notorious for replacing late model Dodge Monacos with early 70s Dodge Polaras, in many crash scenes, just before impact.
To perform those awesome flips, stunt folk remove the passenger seat and use a “cannon” directed straight down at the road. During the flip, the cannon expels a slug, which is basically a 8″ round, 2 foot long chunk of telephone pole.
In this “Hunter” clip, you can clearly see the slug exiting the cannon during the roll over, along with the cannon opening in the bottom if the passenger floor. Slide the time bar to 1:45, and then watch the action at 1:52.
Wow that’s really interesting. I didn’t notice this at all when I watched it the first time, but going back and seeing it again, it’s incredibly obvious – and somewhat ludicrous
“it’s incredibly obvious – and somewhat ludicrous”
Yep- The folks making big budget movies would have used a better camera angle, or even re-shot the sequence if they saw the slug so clearly in the dailies. For a weekly TV show, the producers just said, “Eff it- the Rubes will never see it.”
Nowadays, the CGI wizards would simply digitally remove the slug from the footage.
“Nowadays, the CGI wizards would simply digitally remove the slug from the footage”
What is this slug you are talking about? 😛
I like it!
I’m having trouble figuring out how this worked. It looks to me as though in this scene the car rolls in the direction opposite what I’d expect from this cannon-shot slug.
Daniel Stern-
You’re right- I saw the cannon with the slug flying, and assumed they had used to perform the flip, but it looks like the stunt man may have initialed the roll himself (or zigged when he should have zagged…).
I learned about the cannon from an article about the movie “McQ” in Motor Trend magazine, which had this to say about it:
” The Mar 1974 Motor Trend article reported that stuntman Hal Needham was injured in Los Angeles, CA, while practicing a driving stunt for the action sequence on the beach.
Needham had designed a “cannon” to be placed behind the driver’s seat of a car driven by one of LaSalle’s thugs. When triggered, a “charge of black powder” would cause a powerful thrust, sending the car into the air.
Experimenting with the device, Needham admittedly placed too much explosive powder into the cannon and sent himself twenty-five feet into the air. When the car landed, Needham’s back was broken upon impact. The stuntman, who claimed he had never before been badly hurt while working on a film, also lost several teeth and suffered from a punctured lung as a result of the accident.
Gary McLarty, a stunt driver, flew to Washington to take Needham’s place. While driving through shallow ocean water at a speed of 75 miles per hour, McLarty triggered the cannon, causing the car to flip over “six times.” Fred Waugh, who played the role of “Bodyguard” in the film, also served as a stunt driver, wearing a “camera helmet” on his head to capture the point-of-view of “McQ” during the chase.
Filmmakers paid the company Stunts Unlimited, co-founded by Needham, around $30,000 for their work on the production.”
Needham went on to gain fame as the director for “Smokey and the Bandit,” as well as a number of stunt driven films in the eighties.
…three times apiece.
In the later seasons, Dee Dee’s Daytona was replaced by a Dodge Dynasty sedan.
What a come-down! I mean sheesh, at least replace it with a Spirit R/T or a Lancer or something even vaguely sporty.
I didn’t remember that. I do (mostly) remember a sequence wherein Hunter blew the engine in his green Fury and the motor pool manager tried to “upgrade” him to a light green Dynasty, hyping it up by saying it had a turbo engine and air conditioning and everything. Hunter thinks about it for a minute, then asks the MPM what colour the new car is. MPM says something like “Oh, it’s Spruce Frost Metallic, ain’t it nice?”. Hunter says “What color is my old car?” MPM says “It’s green.” Hunter says “Tellya what: Whyn’tchya put the engine from the Spruce Frost Metallic in the Green. Gimme a call when it’s ready” and walks off, much to MPM’s frustration.
By the end of the show, Hunter ended up with a 1990 Ford Crown Victoria. Dee Dee ended up leaving the Department but her last car was a gold Dodge Dynasty
From:
http://hisbadgeherbadge.forums-free.com/the-history-of-hunter-and-mccalls-cars-t646.html
“Starting at the end of second season or for the start of third seaon and on through the first episode of seventh (last) season Hunter was given to drive a Moss Green 1977 Dodge Monaco! This car became his trademark vehicle, to the point that when it was blown up/smashed up in the 2-part “Hot Pursuit” and a couple others, it was always replaced wth an identical model! For last season (after Off. Molenski smashed up Hunter’s Monaco in the first episode) Hunter was given to drive a new Silver 1990 Ford LTD Crown Victoria–which he finished out the series with.
McCall first drove a Garnet Red & Silver 1984 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z. But, after it caught fire (if I remember right)–starting for third season and on through season five Dee Dee drove a Bright Red 1987 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z (sometimes I think a Turbo X is visible on this car too??). For season 6, and McCall’s last one, she drove a Gold 1990 Dodge Dynasty–sort of a step down from the sporty Daytonas.”
Needs more flying hubcaps, but an entertaing ‘chase’.
The Malibu has a factory rear sway bar, which means its probably a 9C1 police package car, which also means its a pretty competent performer that, had it been a real chase, would have no problem out-cornering that weak, flimsy, wrong-wheel-drive K-car.
Chevy for the win in this one, and that’s from a Mopar guy that happens to own an ’83 9C1 Malibu
You beat me to it Dan, that rear bar was the first thing I noticed too. Although it could be an F41 civilian car, as they also had the rear sway bars. My brother’s Cutlass Supreme 4-door was an F41 car and it handled very well, at least as good if not better than a Caprice F41.
It’s almost guaranteed it’s a 9C1. The studios bought old cop cars by the case lot from the auctions. This practice served their purposes perfectly. They had lots of marked units for various productions, and unmarked (or quickly painted as such) units provided transportation guys with heavy-duty equipped vehicles on the cheap. Perfect for stunt work.
On the Dukes of Hazzard, you can see this. Plenty of ex-police units there as well.
All of Roscoe’s patrol cars were ex-CHP units painted white. There is one ep with a rollover scene where the unique Cali-only catalytic converter setup can be seen. Dual large cats plus a mini-cat on the driver’s side front pipe.
The other side pipe goes without. I guess Mopar engineers just kept throwing converters at it until it passed.
Funny how much that Daytona sounds like it has a V8 engine—and the obligatory 217-speed automatic transmission (every time the camera angle changes, we hear a shift…just like in the Dukes of Hazzard…)
“217-speed automatic transmission”. Bwahahahaha!!!
The thing I love about so many chase scenes are the tire tracks that mark how many practice runs and or takes it took to get the shot they wanted. In this clip we see that they did the parking brake stop to pick up Hunter once before the take we see. Other times you see many sets of tracks from previous runs.
Me and my buddy would try stupid stuff in our cars back in high school; me in my ‘71 Skylark sedan, him in his ‘71 Duster coupe. While most of our crazy sliding antics were in the parks or strangers’ front yards, we did try the “Rockford” spin on pavement numerous times, to no avail. We’d accelerate in reverse, lock ‘em up, and try to sling the front end around, but we never could get the front end to complete the trajectory. The cars would come to a complete stop about 1/2 to 2/3’s way through the “sling”.
Fast forward to 20 years later (about 15 years ago) my buddy tells me it turns out the stuntmen overinflated their tires to make them slide easier. He goes on to say it’s a good thing we didn’t know that, or we’d have been sliding around every corner, every day. I gotta say…he’s right! Bwahahahahaha!!!
I found out as a teenager I was pretty good at sliding a car around on unpaved surfaces. Less speed is required, thus the consequences of “trial and error” learning is reduced. You learn to “set” your wheels and anticipate the “break”. To this day I’ve never been able to duplicate those abilities on pavement. That’s probably a good thing. Too much speed is required, and like I said, the consequences increase exponentially.
On Thursday nights at 9 when I was a teenager I dropped everything to watch “Hunter.” I remember Hunter was always given the most beat up cars because he kept writing them off, and Officer McCall’s nickname was “the Brass Cupcake” because she was pretty yet tough. One lone that has stuck with me from that show is one episode when they were in a strip club and Hunter was looking lustfully at one of the women there and McCall told him, “Hunter, your horns are showing!”