Since the 1970’s I’ve been an avid “star car” fan, builder, and collector. I’ve spent way too much time researching, and enjoying movie and TV cars as my main hobby. With a career in TV and films, I have had access to many of the screen used cars and spent many years on the backlots of studios looking under tarps and finding out little tidbits of info on these stars of the screens with wheels! Today, with the advent of “Google search”, most everything you may have a passing interest in can be answered almost instantly but not everything comes up on some of the older or less “famous” movie and TV vehicles.
So today I’m just going to publish a small part of my “blog ideas” list, and see what you and other Star Car fans want to read about, and it can also be used as a check list if you want to see a film that also features a cool ride! Leave a comment on which car you want to see a blog about, and I will dig though my files and share my “analog” info along with what I can gather from my star car pals!
In no particular order:
“HAROLD AND MAUDE” JAGUAR HEARSE
“CHITTY CHITTY-BANG-BANG”
“BULLITT” STEVE McQUEEN – 1968 FORD MUSTANG 390 GT
Ok, This is from a blog I found about the 2012 Hollywood Christmas parade, but he got our whole line up and had nice things to say about all of the members who came and participated! On April 6th we will have more than this epic line up, with a few new members and surprises as well! Come out to the Burbank parade and meet the Star Car Central team!
Wait, what!? The 1960s Batmobile from the Adam West “Batman” show and the 1989 Batmobile riding together??
Awesome. The 1989 one even unleashed a bunch of firecrackers underneath it. Where does he get those wonderful toys?
Another shot of the two Batmobiles.
I’ll take one of each.
Yeah, baby.
Remember when cars looked cool?
Okay, apparently the Christmas parade just turned into a pop culture cars parade, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
Here’s the DeLorean DMC-12 from “Back to the Future”.
Another shot of the DeLorean.
Not one, but two Herbie Volkswagen Bugs drove by.
Herbie fully loaded, with stickers and new rims!
The Pontiac Trans-Am from “Smokey and the Bandit”.
Look out, it’s them Duke boys speeding by in the General Lee!
I wonder if Boss Hog will ever catch ’em.
Apparently this was Bumblebee from the Transformers movie.
I wouldn’t know, because I tried blocking that bastardization of a beloved childhood memory from my mind long ago.
Starsky & Hutch. Word.
Scooby Doo riding on by in The Mystery Machine van!
Well whaddaya know! It’s the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Van along with April O’Neil walking beside it!
And yes, that’s the same van from the TMNT video I appeared in earlier this year.
Probably the most intimidating van in history – the classic van from The A-Team.
It’s KITT from Knight Rider.
(fun fact: KITT stands for “Knight Industries Two Thousand)
There was a second Knight Rider car that drove by and the motion lights on the front were gold instead of red.
Must’ve been KITT’s brother, KATT. (HAR!)
Time to go off-roading with Jurassic Park.
Smile while you can kid… you’ll be devoured by a Velociraptor soon enough. Merry Christmas!
Now this one was a real treat for me… I’m a HUGE fan of John Carpenter’s “Christine”, so getting to see the Plymouth Fury
from the film was nothing short of awesome. I do wish they had it playing 1950s rock & roll when it drove by though.
I’ve seen it plenty of times over the years, but the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters is always a welcome sight.
Are you kidding me!? Alright, they definitely saved the best for last. An X-34 Landspeeder occupied by
two Jawas with perfect glowing yellow eyes, a Tusken Raider, and Leia in the Boushh disguise. Amazing.
Nothing says “Christmas” like an X-34 Landspeeder chasing after the Ecto-1 chasing after Christine.
Well even though I invented the word “Crossgeeking” to discribe those fans who like more than one fan favorite item from two different worlds (like “Herbie the Love Bug” and speaking Klingon) I am certainly not the only star car fan who realized that the only thing better than seeing a famous movie or TV car driving down the street, is a whole bunch of them!
The loose coalition of StarCarCentral.com chapters continues to grow and meet all around the globe!
Here’s what’s going on around the world, in the world of StarCar get togethers, that is!
AUSTRALIA!
Alex has the heart to get a group going Down Under, he says that the main 3 focuses will be for those who want to hire a car, A social group of like minded a little crazy movie car enthusiats, and helping out with Charities as much as they can. 🙂
Australian Chapter is looking for Founding members, so if you have a movie or TV star car, send Alex an email info@starcarsaus.com.au
NATE TRUMAN’S STARCARCENTRAL.COM ON THE RED CARPET FOR THE 2011 HOLLYWOOD CHRISTMAS PARADE!
FRANCE!!!
In France Claude heads up an active chapter of his own, doing all of the hard work to organize weekend events. Star Car owners from France and near by countries have had several great get togethers in the last few years, and they have another one coming up! If you are in France why not stop by and join in the fun!
Here’s the info:
Just under two months before the Meeting of Cars stars of Cinema & TV in Port Dienville (France).
Like last year, the lodging of Colombier welcomes us but with a little fewer rooms. We will complete with homestay but with limited possibilities.
So I need to know soon if some of you are planning to join us during the two days (Saturday 21 and Sunday, July 22) that we may organize the reception at best. Of course I know it’s difficult for those who have anocean to cross ! I remind you that the home is offered for maximum 2 persons per crew.
Here is the provisional program :
Saturday, July 21
– Appointment from 10:00 (location to be defined according to the planned activity in the afternoon but it will be in the Lake District or region of Bar sur Aube)
– 12:00: Picnic at the place of Rendez-Vous
– 1:00 p.m.: Shooting a short film with our cars featured. For its 10 years anniversary, the site http://www.retourverslefutur.com/ in collaboration with McFly Prod and 10200 Z’Images launched a screenplay competition on the theme of movie cars. After selection, the winning scenario is being re-write. We will send you as soon as it will be ready.
IMPORTNANT: for this shoot, we also need to know what are the vehicles that will be present (organization, insurance, license)
– 7:00 p.m.: Appointment at Colombier for a festive and friendly presentation of the cars to the public. Buffet on site.
Sunday, July 22
– 10:00 Appointment with clubs and other owners (location will be specified later) then trek to Port Dienville (road book supplied). Besides, if you belong to a club, feel free to invite members on Sunday. The registration form will be posted on our web site soon and I will send you a pdf version to share.
– Arrival at Port Dienville between 11:00 and 12:00. We anticipate a grouped arrival of the cars of Cinema & TV for the show !
– 12:00: Lunch in Port-Dienville
– From 12:00 to 6:00 p.m.: exhibition of cars (Cinema, collection, exception) on the site of Port-Dienville (if it’s sunny and hot, nearby beach and swimming possible for people who appreciate)
– 3:00 p.m.: Parade of cars stars
We had a little meeting in Holland well, technically it was in Belgium ’cause it was like 2 miles across the border
convention for movie cars here in Belgium Bruges on the weekend of 6.7.and 8 september 2013 ,here you have the link to the page made http://www.facebook.com/groups/362397297148643/movie cars convention in Bruges next year . the weekend of 6, 7, and 8 september 2013 .on sunday 8 september i will organize even a meeting with all american cars , ihope you can all jon us .Please don’t add people from he U.S. or Ausralia or japan because those people won’t come !!this convention is specialy for people from Europe !!!
this would be for a hole weekend from friday until sunday ,hotel will be arranged and parkings for your cars too,
Nate Truman’s StarCarCentral.com gang were invited to be a part of the “Hollywood Treasures” TV show where Nate and Ken from TMPCC helped the staff and stars of the show locate the screen used Camaro from the first Transformers movie, SCC member Randy drove it in with the “seat suit” to hide the driver, so it looked like it was just driving itself. Randy also brought it out for the Drag races in Barona, CA.
Charger Steve from the San Diego Chapter of StarCarCentral.com put on a great event with cars from Nate’s group going up against the San Diego area movie and TV car owners, for a long fun day of StarCar Drag Racing!!!
So the days of me hunting around the world for other fans with little result, has changed quite a bit! Spend some time and look around facebook, or google for events happening near you. I am sure after a while you will start connecting with other movie and TV starcar fans and find they are a lot of fun to hang out with, and of course, DRIVE those cool cars!
Crossgeeking at it’s finest. My Shaguar and A-Team meet up for the first time!
So get out there and find a few “mates” to share your hobby! Enjoy, Share, and do some good – put some smiles on other people’s faces, and you just might find one on your own! To the Batmobiles, Let’s go!!!!
Starcar fans are all around the world, and starcarcentral.com is trying to keep up with all of our members and chapters so you can find the famous movie and TV car events near you!
One of the most active groups outside of Nate Truman’s Hollywood division is run by Dee up in the upper left corner of the USA! He has even started a “starcar Concourse”. After searching for star cars all over the U.S. Dee and Nate found several owners and they all started hanging out together up north! So heres the info on their upcoming event!
Its time for the big 5th Annual ‘Star Car Concourse Classic” show at the Americas Car Museum.
The show is always the last Saturday in August, this year the 27th, and is held at the LeMay Museum’s Marymount location in the Tacoma/Spanaway area. This will be a ‘sanctioned’ AMCA event, hosted by the International Movie & TV Vehicle Owners Association and madmaxcars.com. The larger event, the LeMay/Americas Car Museum’s “Openhouse” that we are featured at, is a VERY COOL annual event even if it were not for the moviecars contribution, so it is well worth the trip. You can find the basic details on our events page here: http://www.madmaxcars.com/events.shtml
Then out in the middle of the USA Michael Knight has a great group that is now doing Comic cons and features one of the two original Monkeemobiles! Here’s a few shots of them sharing the star cars with fans of all shapes and sizes at a recent con!
"Robin, you seem.... Different?"
Original Ghostbuster Ernie Hudson showed up to see and sign the Ghostbuster tribute car (Hey, before you point out it’s not the right body style, not everyone can find a 1959 Mercury Meteor Ambulance, ok? )
Ghostbuster Ernie Hudson and SCC chapter leader Mike Knight!
Everyone had a great time chatting up Ernie about his time as a ghostbuster, and he even signed their car!
"To StarCarCentral.com, thanks for the cool car... what? I don't get to keep it?"
Like I mentioned before, They also have one of the two Monkeemobiles from the old TV series, and it showed up at a live Monkee show!
Well what did you expect them to be rolling in?
Meanwhile, over in Europe, France specifically, Claude has been hosting a great star car get together each year, and it keeps getting bigger each time!
And an article in the french mag “La Vie de l’Auto” The N°1 for the collectors in France! 🙂
Thanks to guys like Michael, Dee, and Claude – fan boys and girls around the US and the world have opportunities to see and get up close to their favorite movie and TV cars!
Where ever there are two or more starcars gathered in the SCC name, you are sure to have a party with some fun loving people! So to all those who are lovers of cool creations for the screen,
thanks for being part of the star car movement in your neck of the woods! TO THE BATMOBILE! Transformers, ROLL OUT! If you see a star car, or better yet, a bunch of them together,
Make sure you say “HI” and tell them you saw them here first!
Since the first starcarcentral Television shoot, the question has been asked, what is the all time favorite movie or TV star car?
Many people have posted their top ten or top fifty favorite movie and TV cars. Some lists are just muscle cars, some crazy hollywood customs, but the question still remains, which car featured on screen, either in a movie or TV show, is the world’s all time favorite vehicle?
Well finally NATE TRUMAN, long time movie car fan and expert and founder of StarCarCentral.com is taking on the challenge to find out who has the bragging rights to the title “Favorite Movie/TV starcar of all time!”
For you to cast your vote, check out the new poll, and vote for or add your favorite! Only one vote per person, and the poll will stay open for ONE YEAR. Spread the word to other fans of your favorite car and get them to vote or else your favorite may not even make the top twenty!
The poll will be posted all over the net, and you can help! Either send them to the StarCarCentral blog to vote and read about the latest happenings, and news in the world of movie and TV cars, or share the poll yourself on Twitter, Facebook or your own website or blog!
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<a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/4197657/">What is your favorite Movie or TV car?</a><br/>
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Scroll down on the right and vote for your favorite movie or TV vehicle! Let the battle begin for the most beloved 4 wheeled movie star! Since Nate Truman started the SCC aka StarCarCentral in Hollywood, groups have organized around the USA and the world. Our last big gathering was at CBS studios, where we had 27 different star cars in one place (only 25 in the photo below!)
27 movie and star cars met at our biggest to date gathering, how many can you name?
Share this, tweet this, facebook it, or direct your fan friends back here to vote only once! The poll will stay active for ONE YEAR! Then the final answer to which movie or TV car is the worlds favorite movie car will finally be known! Bragging rights are on the line, so get your fellow fans to vote! If our favorite car isn’t on the list, then add it! Stay tuned, and spread the word! Only ONE starcar can come out on top!
Can you name all of these TV cars? Three are not in the poll yet, can you name them?
Anyone know what the PINTO or Porsche is from? Add it to the poll! Don’t split the vote on your favorite car, make sure it hasn’t been listed all ready!
Not all of these cars are in the poll yet, but you only get one vote, so use it wisely!
Share this, tweet this, facebook it, or direct your fan friends back here to vote only once! The poll will stay active for ONE YEAR! Then the final answer to which movie or TV car is the worlds favorite movie car will finally be known! Bragging rights are on the line, so get your fellow fans to vote! If our favorite car isn’t on the list, then add it! Stay tuned, and spread the word! Only ONE starcar can come out on top!
Our second time with the Long Beach Comic Con, and we had an all new car line up! Oscar for some reason got a shot of this superheroine with his Magnum P.I. Ferrari, I don’t understand the connection, Oscar?
Jon “Bumblebee” pulled out all the stops for the fans in his full on Transformer outfit, and was photographed more times than Lindsay Lohan coming out of Rehab!
Obi_Shawns starwars car was a hit as always! Here’s some of the line up outside the main entrance! Starwars next to Magnum P.I. next to Lou’s Starsky and Hutch next to transformer’s Bumblebee! We are by definition cross- geekers in the SCC! (Crossgeeking, TM Nate Truman the combination of two geeky pursuits enjoyed by the same person- please tell webster to add my word to the next edition!)
Here’s a perfect example. Oscar loves Magnum P.I. and he likes sexy women. I mean Star Trek cosplay. 🙂
Down at the start of the lineup we had Alex and Jenn’s Knight Rider KITT cars. Who doesn’t love KITT?
Oscar met up with the 501st for a group photo, now that’s some serious muscle to protect his Ferrari!
Special Guest appearance by Bryan Fear and his pal driving the Ghostbuster Ecto-1 car, they were on several missions that day, but stopped to drop off a costume for a friend, and said “hey” to the SCC guys from the street! A ghostbuster’s work is never done! Great to see the Ecto driving down the road!
A good time was had by all, and the weather was just great! I think we will be back to support the Long Beach comic con next time!
Don’t forget, we are at Frank n sons this saturday, rain or shine! But if it DOES POUR, Get smart will have to take a rain check! (I will have Bruce Wayne deliver the Batmobile no matter what!)
Come meet the guys, we will have 20 cars under one roof! So even if it rains, we will be inside in the middle of the event! Get your photo with your favorite star car! Meet the owners! Participate in “Geekswapping” (TM 2003 Nate Truman “trading collectibles with others, of totally different geeky hobbies.” eg. “I will give you a death star lego set, for that 1:18 scale fireball run Batmobile…..”
Next blog the SCC shows up for Downs Syndrome walk, and Autism!
Once again I am playing catch up so stay tuned, starcarfan!
Star car Central clubs are getting together and having fun all over the world! This group took to the dragstrip and took the famous movie and TV vehicles head-to-head! No one posted their quarter mile times, so I guess the winner only gets bragging rights to those who where there!
The General Lee heads up the gang, and they all took their turns on the dragstrip!
Starsky and Hutch Torino vs The General Lee Charger? Who will win? Great (or crazy!) minds think alike, and these photos remind me of my time on the track with “Road and Track” years ago at California Speedway! So I know it was a day of just plain star car fun! The monkeemobile vs. the Ectomobile? How cool is that?
One of my “rules” is we help out for charity’s and fire/police events, but usually just once. We have so many requests that every summer weekend is booked sometimes at several places at once! But Officer Lee at the South Pasadena police dept. treats us so nice, we come back to this one show, year after year! The first time was just before I left to go on the very first Fireball Run! This year, it was Paul and Reba who were raring to leave on their Fireball experience, Paul’s second time, and Reba’s first time out as co-driver!
Oscar opened up his office and had more snacks, drinks and a big screen TV, and most importantly, AIR CONDITIONING!
We even got to see Oscar perform with SEAN CASSIDY! WOW! Oscar is the guy at the piano…. a LONG time ago!
As the Star car Cats usually do, we wandered in groups, some stayed with their cars, others wondered off to look at the car show, and as always I circled and tried to connect with everyone at some point in the day! Lots of laughs at Oscar’s office (our new annual hangout!) and lots of good food and drink from the SPPD. Alex even left his car for a while and had a donut with us… next year we will shoot for Jerry to walk away from Herbie, at least to see the car show!
New to this event were Dave and his wife Barb, and Derek Joseph with their General Lee, Mark G. brought a police dept. display car, Jason debuted his Autobot Emergency vehicle, and John showed up with his Bumblebee Camaro too! Jerry’s Herbie as always is perfect, and Alex and His KITT were polished hourly. Paul set up his tent and tirelessly chatted with fans while the rest of us, Sue, Oscar, Jason, Charlie, Ari, Lou looked for shade and just enjoyed the day.
Gary stuck close to his Highway Patrol cruiser and Mark had to make an early exit to attend a wedding, but a few hung around to let the heat of the day pass and watched movies at Oscars place!
We are a “free form” group and everyone seems to like it that way!
After years of getting emails from people around the country and the world asking to see some starcars, I started asking my internet pals who shared my disease to represent starcarcentral.com in their area. We have lots of chapters around the USA and a few scattered around the world now.
This summer we have many get togethers and here are a few of the highlights.
On May 15th the fans of Smokey and the Bandit took to the road and recreated the famous beer run of the second movie, with an actual Snowman replica truck and lots of Bandits! they just finished up yesterday, and I am sure they had a great time!
Then on the other corner of the country, Dee and the Northwest chapter of Starcarcentral.com are putting on a big all movie and tv car concourse!
I had been contacted by several star car owners in the upper left hand corner of the USA and now thanks to SCC they are all pals now and putting on great starcar events! GO NORTHWEST! or SCC-NW!
SMALL POSTER – BIG SHOW~ THE EVENT OF THE SUMMER FOR STARCARCENTRAL.COM~!!!!!!!
In California, even the main branch of the SCC is slowly growing into three chapters, and the SCC-CC (central California) headed up by BTTF Paul has a big show planned for May 29th in Frazier park California, with over 20 different starcars, and the long awaited debut of Ecto-1!
Stop by and say “HEY” to all the guys
Frazier Park, Ridge Route Run
2nd Annual
Downtown Frazier Park
May 29, 2010, Saturday
10:00am til 3:30pm
Nate Truman AND Paul Nigh will both be available to autograph your SCC memorabilia! 🙂
Batmobile and BTTF Tee shirts will be available for sale at the SCC main tent! Get yours, before they are all gone!
A french TV crew will be shooting a documentary about cars in movies the whole day starting with Nate Truman driving the Batmobile to the event early in the morning.
And speaking of France, Starcar pal Claude is putting on his own starcar event this summer, and if you live in Europe, this is your only chance to see a pile of famous movie and TV cars in one place!
July 17th it starts and if you want to learn more, go to THIS LINK!
Meanwhile out in Arizona, more starcar owners got together for a “cannonball” like no other!
Where else can you see the batmobile recreate the Canonball run scene of painting over the speed limit sign, with CATWOMAN doing the painting? (Can you say “crossgeeking”? trademark nate truman 2003)
thanks for Glen Wacker and willitmakeit.com you can see three hearses drag racing, and lots of other starcar fun all for a great cause.
Check out Glen and his car crashing spactaclars at willitmakeit.com!
If you are missing Duke Fest, (it stopped in 2008, but there are pettitions to get it going again!) you can always stop by Moberlys 1st Fan Fest
Moberly’s 1st Fan Fest, Featuring The Dukes of Hazzard at 24 Raceway on Hwy 24E. Enjoy two days of music, family fun including autograph signing with cast members from The Dukes of Hazzard. Friday 8am-8pm and Saturday 8am-6pm. Tickets are available at the Moberly Area Chamber of Commerce. For more information call 660-651-2826.
My Pal Travis Bell will be there to talk about the “LOST” General Lee, and Barris is promising to unveil the only Super Pursuit Mode KITT to exsist! Is it Jay’s? Jennifers? The french one? Someone go and find out!
And as always, the Peterens Auto Museum has a whole room dedicated to movie and TV cars, featuring a drivable Mach 5 and the screen used Green Hornet car, the Black Beauty among others!
Cars are rotated regularly, the batmobile is no longer there, but always some fun stuff!
Well, I will have to wait until Monday to tell you all about the Barris show, but I figured the “coming up” news was more important than the “all ready happened” stuff! Have a great weekend! Seacrest – OUT!
The SCA… AKA the Star Car Association is gearing up for our summer season of charity events and special appearances, and I get asked many times, how did I come up with the idea for the group?
Well when I was tinkering away on my bat-car for years, I never thought about it. I just wanted to drive the “coolest car in the world” on the streets, and in the early 90’s there weren’t any street legal 66 tv style batmobiles being sold at the auction houses, so I had to make my own.
After it was all finished, I went to a few car shows, and discovered that my car didn’t really fit.
It wasn’t a hot rod, not a custom, not a ford, not really any category at any car show. I never wanted trophys (still don’t) but I DID want a group to hang with at the shows that shared my interests (kinda the point!). I had kept tabs over the years on the few <strong>Batmobile replica</strong> owners but they are spread out across the country, and getting together was unlikely for many reasons.
So then I went to plan “B”… look for other Famous Movie and TV cars. Also a very small group of owners and spread all over, but I figured that would increase my chances. I searched the internet, posted on KITT Knight Rider build boards, Herbie boards, sent emails to any listing that might be in California, and after much work, I had gotten no where.
Then at Cruisin for a Cure car show, I parked my bat, answered the 6 questions for a few hours (Every star car has about 4-6 questions practically every person asks over and over, that’s a whole topic for another blog) and decided to walk around and see if I could spy another TV-movie star car. I saw a General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard drive by, gave them my card, but didn’t get their info, and never heard from them again. Then I saw a “exterior” KITT (That means no dash or cool steering wheel, just the nose with the light and blacked out tail lights) left my info on the windshield, but he never got back to me either. Checked back several times to see if I could catch the owner next to his car but never saw him. Then it happened! I was walking down a row of Deloreans and met Dan, proud owner of a Back to the Future Delorean conversion, with flux capacitors and time machine extras!
I told him he should ditch the Delorean owners and come park next to my Bat! Well, we never parked next to each other that day, but that was the start of the SCA and StarCarCentral.com We were just two guys with similar passions that made us do seemingly strange things to the outside world, but we “got” each other on the spot!
I now had TWO cars in the SCA, with a few leads, my vision of a Star Car Association was one big step closer to a reality! After all, I had doubled the membership!
Television and Movie cars batmobile, Delorean, Ghostbusters exto-1, Knight Rider KITT, General Lee, Herbie, the love bug, scooby doo, the A-Team and many more all gather here!
Star Car Central - Famous Movie & TV car news! 
