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
If you are in the San Diego area and want to see some movie and TV star cars, then tomorrow is your chance at the “Cajon Classic Cruise” STARZ CARZ NIGHT!
Downtown El Cajon
FREE – Trophies! Food! Fun! Nearly 200 cars! This has become an annual event organized by Charger Steve, who runs the Star Car Central.com chapter since 2005. Hope some of you “LA FOLK” will make the trip! Everybody that comes enjoys it!! Scheduled to appear are:
Steve – in his Scooby Doo Mystery Machine!
Diane – in her Roscoe police car from the Dukes of Hazzard!
Mark – will bring his Gran Torino from Starsky and Hutch!
Victor – with his version of the Black Beauty, from the Green Hornet!
Tyler – WAS going to bring his Bandit, but it was TOTALED while he was in it just this last week!
Tyler is on the road to recovery, but the Bandit is no more. Look for Tyler in the future with a new replacement Trans Am!
Obishawn – will be bringing not one but 2 Star Wars cars to the event!
Ari – is bringing his ever popular Jurassic Park Jeep!
Lee – Will be rolling in his pristine General Lee Charger!
Jennifer – is also attending in her Super Persuit Mode KITT!
Special Guest star? Rumour has it that NATE TRUMAN may actually appear south of Los Angeles in his Shaguar, but Adam West is doing an Autograph signing in Temecula at the same time… stay tuned, the best is yet to come!
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.
I am getting lots of request to give out a “heads up” on when we will be appearing at events!
So here’s a short list just for this month, of a few that are open to the general public. Come by and say “HEY” to the SCC members! See you there!
Nate Truman
Founder/Owner StarCarCentral.com
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SEPT SEPT SEPT SEPT SEPT SEPT SEPT
SEPT 8 ROUTE 66 SHOW back by the gazebo in the back
18730 Soledad Canyon Rd
Canyon Country, CA 91351
(between White’s Canyon and Sierra Hwy) 5-9 pm., you can show up earlier if you want.
NATE SHAGUAR DAVE GENERAL LEE JASON TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLE CLIFF HERBIE PAUL BTTF DELOREAN LOU STARSKY
JASON HERBIE THE LOVE BUG
CHARLIE BULLIT MUSTANG
OSCAR MAGNUM PI
SEPT. 16 SOUTH PASADENA POLICE SHOW
The South Pasadena Police Department is located at 1422 Mission Street, South Pasadena, CA. All activities and tables will be to the rear of the station, located off of Hope Street.
ROAD CLOSURES: Mission Street west of Fair Oaks Avenue to Orange Grove Avenue will be CLOSED to traffic from 5:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
NATE SHAGUAR (TO GO WITH THE BOND CARS!)
JASON TMNT VAN OSCAR MAGNUM JERRY HERBIE PAUL BTTF (FIREBALL?) DAVE GENERAL LEE BRIAN BOND MARK ADAM-12
GARY HIGHWAY PATROL
PAUL W “Goldfinger” ASTON MARTIN!!!!
SATURDAY SEPT. 22 2012 CRUSIN FOR A CURE
JERRY HERBIE
CHARLIE BULITT
NATE BATMOBILE
JASON TMNT VAN
STEVE SCOOBY
LEE GENERAL LEE
LOU STARSKY
BRIAN BOND
MARK SD STARSKY AND HORNET
GARY HIGHWAY PATROL
TONY BANDIT
The 13th Annual Cruisin’ For A Cure Car Show
The World’s Largest One Day Charity Car Show
Orange County Fair & Event Center, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa, CA (714) 708-1500
Supporting the City of Hope Prostate Cancer Program
Gates for spectators open at 7:00 AM
Spectator entry is $15 ($13 with AAA card)
Kids under 12 are free
Star Car Central’s resident “Q Branch”, Brian Uiga, built this replica
of the “Tomorrow Never Dies” radio-controlled rocket firing BMW two
years ago for SCC charity events starting with the Boys and Girls club
fundraiser in Santa Paula on New Year’s Eve 2009! Little did Brian know back then,
the adventures it was going to take him on!
Q-Branch BMW with rockets and chain cutter deployed ready for action!
About to jump off the top of the garage and land in an Avis booth.
After many StarCarCentral.com appearances with his new James Bond Car, Brian was invited to a speical “Bond Cars Only” event!
Of course the BMW had to be there! Along with director Martin
Campbell (director of “Goldeneye” and “Casino Royale”), Brian’s BMW
was special guest at the screening – parked out front with all of the
weapons deployed in case any SPECTRE agents show up!
Ready to fend off any attack with his screen used foam rubber stunt gun from “Tomorrow Never Dies”
Weapons out and ready!
The crowds started lining up an hour before the show…
Don’t turn your back on the rocket car…
When the other “special guest” director Martin Campbell arrived, he
and Brian shared a few jokes about how much better “Goldeneye” and
“Casino Royale” were than “Tomorrow Never Dies”, and he signed the
dashboard of the BMW.
“This movie wasn’t quite as good as “Goldeneye”, but you have to admit the car was better than your Z3!”
James Bond Director,signing the dashboard of the BMW
Between the two shows there was a Q&A with Martin Campbell where he
talked about his experiences filming two Bond films. Best line of the
night: When asked whether he’d do another Bond, he said “Probably
not… there’s only so many ways you can blow up an underground lair!”
Director Martin Campbell sharing a joke with the Bond fans
Footage from the evening will be included with the BMW’s episode of
the CRAVE Online series “Star Cars” (Check back often, the BOND episode premiers soon!)(http://craveonline.com/starcars),
which has lots of SCC guys and gals showing off their TV and Movie
cars! The premiere is on July 5th with Jason Ybarra’s Ninja Turtle
Van, but you can see a few sneak peaks on the “Star Cars” Facebook
page (http://www.facebook.com/starcarscrave)
STAR CARS Assemble! Nate Truman’s StarCarCentral.com members get profiled on Crave!Online through out July through Sept new episode every two weeks!
STAR CARS promo shot of the James Bond BMW
The screening ended at 1:30am and Brian was home at 3am, but there was
no time to rest as ROBO-Herbie was at a show the next morning at
7:30am with the Ninja Turtle Van! No rest for the Star Cars! Somehow
he managed to keep from falling asleep long enough to shoot an
interview with “April O’Neal” showing some of the tricks that Herbie
can do:
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!!!!
It’s always fun to “discover” another star car show for me, and while youtubing I saw a video of Roger Moore being “reunited” with a yellow Aston Martin. That lead to several hours of “finding” the 1970’s series called many things, but it was mainly known as “The Persuaders”. If you just want a look at the two signature cars, just watch the top video.
Here are the facts ala Wikipedia: It starred Tony Curtis as Danny Wilde, and Roger Moore as Brett Rupert George Robert Andrew Sinclair, 15th Earl of Marnock, referred to through most of the series by his courtesy title of Lord Brett Sinclair, two international playboys.[5] Sinclair is an English aristocrat who attended Harrow and Oxford before serving as an officer in a Guards regiment and then becoming a Grand Prix driver and race horse owner. Wilde is an American who grew up in poverty in the Bronx before serving as an ordinary seaman in the US navy and then making (and losing) several fortunes on Wall Street, at least one of them in the oil industry.[6] Both are jet-setting, London-based multi-millionaires at the time of the series.
Much of the humour of the show derived from playful observations about the differences between British and American customs. The show ended after one season, in consequence of failing to make an impact on US TV, thereby releasing Roger Moore to star in the popular Bond films.
The cars (and the reason the show caught my attention!)
The protagonists drive signature cars: Danny Wilde drives a Red left-hand-drive Ferrari Dino 246 GT, Brett Sinclair drives a UK-registered Bahama Yellow right-hand-drive Aston Martin DBS with V8 wheels and markings. As with Simon Templar (Roger Moore’s character from The Saint television series), Lord Brett Sinclair’s car has personalised number plates of his initials; Templar’s were “ST 1”, Sinclair’s are “BS 1” (Except for one scene in the episode “The Gold Napoleon” where the car had its original UK registration number PPP 6H instead). In fact, the true owner of the plates at the time, Billy Smart, Jr permitted their fictional use.[10] The Aston Martin from the show was sold by the factory after filming ended, via HR Owen in London, to its first private owner. It was restored to a very high standard in recent years by the Aston Martin factory and is still in private ownership in the UK. Danny Wilde’s car bears Italian registration plates, 221400.MO (the ‘MO’ component represents the city of Modena, which happens to be the headquarters and manufacturing base of Ferrari). The exact whereabouts of the Dino today is unknown but it is reliably believed to be alive and well in Italy with a private owner.[11]
Here’s the video of the reunion of the Yellow Aston Martin and Sir Roger Moore. Fan boys are the same around the world, putting together events to relive their favorite shows!
This clip I added just because of the fun and jousting in several languages Curtis and Moore are having with trying to
perform and promote their show while struggling with French, Italian, German etc. Even a funny out take where Roger Moore shows his English stripes when it comes to Germans! Take a look!
This scene is the classic “American roughing it” vs the “British with class” bit.
The series creator wanted to sell the show in the United States, and to try and help that sale, he wanted an American star.
Even though it’s a fun concept and did very well in Europe – the Persuaders went head to head with “MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE” and only lasted one season. As all TV from this period watching it seems like everything is moving at half speed but there is a fun chemistry between the two stars. Below is a fun fight scene that gives you a taste of the show. Enjoy!
Before star cars, there were the cars of the stars!
by Nate Truman
Often times at auto events I am approached with owners of a different type of “CarStar”, cars that were
once owned by a famous person. As cars and stars have long been connected even before the “golden age” of movie and TV
customs (60’s through the 80’s) still the link between a memorable face from the films and a unique or special car started long before that.
Below is just a sample of press photos taken of the famous stars from the start of the film industry up to the 1940’s.
No commentary needed, if you don’t know who they are you can Google them! So here’s a walk through the start of the Stars and their cars,
that later Hollywood and TV land finally figured out was a winning combination and took it a step further, and made the cars “Stars” in their own right! Enjoy!
Paulette Goddard, getting into her husband’s (Charlie Chaplin) Rolls-Royce Phantom II
Some 20s glamour:
Fatty Arbuckle and his 1919 Pierce Arrow
Erich Von Stroheim and his Cadillac
Harold Lloyd and wife Mildred Davis with their Buick
Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry aka Stepin Fetchit with his Cadillac Phaeton
Joan Crawfordwith her 1929 Ford Town Car
Babe Ruth receiving a 1926 Auburn Roadster as a gift
And now – to 30s and 40s!
Lilian Harvey and her Mercedes
Johnny Weissmuller with his 1932 Chevrolet
Clark Gable with his 1932 Packard
Laurel and Hardy in their Buick 1930 Series 30 Model 30-45 phaeton
Joan Crawford (again) and her 1930 (or 1931) Cadillac Fleetwood
Carl Brisson behind the wheel of his 1934 Isotta Fraschini
Al Jolson with his Mercedes
Jean Harlow with her Cadillac
William Powell admires Gary Cooper’s Duesy
Buck Jones with his 1933 Packard Special
Errol Flynn driving his Packard…
… and Auburn Roadster
Tyrone Power with his Duesenberg…
… and post-war Jaguar
Robert Montgomery with his Cadillac Sport Phaeton
Joan Crawford (yes, again!) driving her 1933 Ford roadster
James Stewart with his Plymouth
Ginger Rogers and her 1937 Dodge
Norwegian Olympic figure-skating champion, and Hollywood star Sonja Henie, posing with her Cord 810
Cecil B deMille with his 1937 Cord
Rita Hayworth with her 1941 Lincoln Continental
Bing Crosby giving rides around the studio lot in his 1939 Olds coupe convertible
Cary Grant parked on the fender of his 1941 Buick Century
And finally, some double-retro:
John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara in a 1914 Stutz Bear Cat. Which later got it’s own series “The Bearcats”!
I am always glad to see that an original star car has been kept and loved by a fan or fans over the years, no matter how obscure. I was at the right age when the bugaloos came on to have a crush on the pretty british girl on the show, and sit through the silly antics of Sid and Marty Kroft shows, so even though you may have never heard of the bugaloos or their buggy, I thought it deserved a mention in my star car blogs! I knew the show was awful, but hey, she was cute, and there was nothing else on. And she was cute.
The only reason to watch the Bugallos!
We only had a few channels way back then, and kids shows you took what you could find on Saturday mornings, then it went to golf around 11am!
I have gathered together some photos below as well as “official” write ups about the car from my star car books (the ones made with paper) for those who want to learn more! Its disappeared and changed hands over the years, but it’s back in the light and up for sale next month in Europe! It could definitely roll with StarcarCentral.com members, but not sure without the fairies in the car, it would be recognized any more, as the show was on for such a short time. Now as for the cute british girl, she lives in Spain and has a daughter. I Think it was just that cute accent…. After sitting through a few videos,, I still think she’s a cutie pie, but the show is even worse than I remembered! Yikes! What was Sid and Marty smoking back then? 🙂
Mercedes-Benz World will soon host the sale of some of the wackiest cars ever made, including the Bugaloos Buggy from the children’s TV show of the ’70s.
The Bugaloos Buggy was used on The Bugaloos tv show between 1970 and 1972.
This was from the era of the fiberglass dune buggies, and all the custom car makers were doing big business selling and customizing these drop on bodies during the late 60-s and 70’s.
the Bugaloos Buggy was purchased by a collector from a Barris Auction in 1983. The car is said to have come directly from L.A., and spent some time in a Spanish museum. After that, the buggy was sold to another collector in 1990, and was placed in underground storage in 1993 where it remained for at least a decade.
Buggy with current owner, Gary Hillman (r), and creator, George Barris
Buggy
Seen in public for the first time since being sold at auction in 1983, the Bugaloo Buggy is pictured above featured in a car show in Sweden, April 10-12.
The Bugaloo Buggy has been found – AGAIN! The last we knew of the whereabouts of the Buggy was in France in dark, underground storage. Well, I am happy to say the Buggy is back in the light and has a new owner, Gary Hillman!
The Bugaloos buggy was another television show car constructed especially at the Barris Kustom shop for Krofft Productions. The producers desired a small, wild-looking, fun buggy to incorporate into their new NBC-TV series. To supply an automotive interest for the series, Barris built the buggy in late 1969 to be used in the 1970-71 TV season. His motivation: the vehicle was to possess all of the fun characteristics that made the Meyers Manx dune buggy famous – yet push the concept beyond the envelope with attention-getting color and design elements. The goal was a completely different and vibrant look. Using a four-passenger body mounted on a Volkswagen floorpan, the buggy actually looked just like a bug – mixing well with the show characters who could fly and walk on water like little flying insects. The design featured a T-shaped rollbar set over the rear wheels with a pair of “wings” that gave the effect of an airborne bug yet allowed plenty of space for television camera maneuvers. The chassis rolled on Ansen Spring alloy wheels, highlighted with orange spoked centers. The fully fendered four-wheeler featured oversized headlights that looked just like bug eyes. On the outside, the paint scheme was a wild combination of green, yellow and orange applied to copy the markings found on a butterfly’s wing. There was much more. The interior was fitted with four custom bucket seats with leaf-like design elements that continued the buggy’s nature theme. Four Capitol Communications telephones and four Muntz stereo tape cartridge players were also installed. A four-tone horn was on board as well, offering a distinct tone for each one of the characters. Fully street legal, The Bugaloos buggy was used extensively in the show. When the series was introduced to the airwaves, Barris contracted with model kit manufacturer MPC to design a plastic model kit based on the program vehicle (which never saw production. See MCP catalog in Collectibles).
– Barris TV & Movie Cars, 1996.
The Bugaloo Buggy was sold at the Cars of the Stars collector car auction at the Sheraton-Universal Hotel on Sept. 25, 1983. The auction catalog featured this write up:
Bugaloo
Another most creative TV show by SID & MARTY KROFFT, the Bugaloos, starred Caroline Ellis, Wayne Laryea, John Philpott, John McIndoe, and Martha Raye. BARRIS was given the challenge to make the group’s fantasy rod with BUTTERFLY WINGS mounted on the sides of a BOOMERAND fiberglass bodied dune buggy. This buggy was powered by a VW engine. The buggy is equipped with four bucket seats and four telephones for the stars. Multi-colors were sprayed and combined with contrasting pin stripes by BOB BOND. Quad KRACO units were installed for music backup with the singing group. This feature toured the HOT ROD SHOW WORLD and ROD & CUSTOM EXHIBITS.
Below are two other cars for sale that are not starcars, but sure could roll with us as well! Snake Pit and Bunk bed car!
But if speed is more your thing than nostalgia, the Snake Pit (above), also built by Barris, will be a better fit. Made specifically to break speed records, the huge Snake Pit has an estimated 2,000bhp from six Ford Cobra V8 engines.
This inordinately complicated caricature of a car has 48 exhausts, two Ford automatic transmissions, 12 four-barrel carburetors and two Pontiac rear axles.
The bright orange car will be difficult to park for two reasons: it’s 23-foot long, and it doesn’t work, so the buyer will have to employ someone with the taste and skills for the extraordinary to start having a go at land speed records again.
There’s not reserve, but fully functional it’s reportedly worth around $100,000 (£65,000). The Bunkbeds is another star turn that doesn’t work, though when it does it has a Ferrari-matching 600bhp from an, erm, headboard-mounted V8 engine. It promises to be the best handling bunk bed ever made, thanks to Formula One-wide Goodyear tyres and disc brakes on all four wheels; it can be steered from either the top or bottom bunk.
It’s worth around £15,000 – around the same price as all manner of family cars guaranteed to send their occupants to sleep.
All the cars will be sold at the Historics at Brooklands sale at Mercedes-Benz World, Surrey, on Saturday February 18.
So you have a dream to put together the most famous van this side of the Scooby Doo van? But it’s just a rainy day fuzzy dream? Here’s the steps I took to put together the coolest van known to man, and don’t say different because Mr.T will find you and bust you up!
Well to start off, I wasn’t looking to own or make an A-team van! As founder and creator of starcarcentral.com I always have my eyes out for finished real or replica movie and TV cars at all the car events I attend, and I have discovered that it’s WAY cheaper and more fun to find a fan who has put in the detail work and money to get his or her dream movie car, than to try to own them all myself. Besides, if I did that, who would drive all the cars? So just like my Knight Rider KITT car that sort of fell into my lap (that’s another story!) the A-Team van sort of “found me” as my new project.
While looking for some cheap transportation for my son, I found myself at an auction looking at beat up Government cars. They were all going for too much money and I felt I had wasted a morning. But then I saw it. A 1983 GMC solid panel van! Well, being a star car fan, I knew my A-Team facts, and after finding out it was a LAUSD van that had been maintained unlike a privately owned delivery van, I knew I had a “deal”. $600 later and some fees to the auction house, and I had the keys to my new full-scale model kit!
No rust, solid door, right year and $600! SOLD!
I got the keys!
True Love! Mounting roof foglights!
As Star cars go, the A-Team is not the easiest one to put together, but it is not the hardest by a long shot! Any Batmobile is up at the top, then the back to the future Delorean and the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters would be next in line as some of the hardest, most expensive and detail oriented to recreate. The A-Team is a lot less complex than just the wiring of a Knight Rider car. It just needs time, money and attention to details – and not giving up! The first step in any star car build is research, and thanks to the internet, that is easier than ever. Having done a Batmobile at the dawning of the internet, if you are building something now, you have it SOOOOO EASY! After a lot of searching I finally found the guys I was looking for, A-team fans in England who had done a lot of the research all ready and were happy to help “educate” me. I was the pioneer in the bat world doing all the leg work, so this was nice to have some fans who knew their way around the A-Team van. (BTW A-team show? HUGE in England. Like Beatles/Rockstars … I don’t know why.)
After the van came home, and all the paperwork was done I started doing prep body work, banging out dents, drilling holes where I would need them, and filling in or marking holes that needed to go away. A long drive out to a van store got all the exterior pieces that needed to be bolted on, and I cleaned out two pepboys stores of their fog lights! 8 yes EIGHT fog lights in addition to the low and high beams on the front of the van! 4 white, 4 amber.
Now here’s were the “model kit” stuff comes in. The Fog lights were not quite right, so I had to modify all of them, cut off stone guards, and then find glass paint to make 4 of the lights yellow. I painted the inside of the glass as yellow lights are difficult to find and to get 8 matching lights in two colors even harder! Sometimes you have to improvise! Anyway, the biggest transformation was obviously the paint. I did my research, and explained to the paint shop what I wanted, and provided them with a pile of photos of the original van to use as a guide. They did great, and it came home all new and shiny!
In 20-20 hindsight, I should have had them paint the insides, but I was trying to keep this project cost as low as possible. I had to put in a lot of extra time and cans of paint but the end result was fine. The main difference between a “Oh, that’s supposed to be that van from the show” and “Oh my Gawd, is that the original A-Team van?” is really in the details. I could have slapped some cool wheels on it at this point and been done. But like most star car fans, the fun is getting the details right. “Is that handle chrome or grey?” “Are the wipers black or chrome?” Does the red stripe go into the door frames?” Details like that about 20 people in the world would care about or even know about. But I believe that people can tell something is just “off”, they don’t know what it is, but once all the parts are in place the over all effect is “WOW! IS that THE one Mr. T drove?”
Besides, just like scale modelers, you are doing the details your way, and you want them to be right for YOU, otherwise it’s just gonna bug you forever. But that’s later in the build!
So there are phases in every star car build, prep, exterior, interior. I was working on getting the exterior right first. One of the big elements of the A-Team van was the super big bull bar and brush guard combo on the front of the van that Mr.T’s character B.A. put on the van. Now, if you scroll up and look at the photo of the van without a bull bar, it looks like the van. Most people when I told them it was missing, said “it had a big bar on the front?” but for me to be happy, it needed that detail. Only one problem, the ones they used that were everywhere and in every catalog in 1983 are all gone and not for sale. After scouring Craigslist and eBay for months for the right bull bar I gave up and made my own.
I took a Craigslist suburban bull bar and tossed the center sections, then welded on a section to make them longer. Next I went to a muffler shop and had them bend the brush guards to my specifications. Then two pals helped with the welding and grinding. A little more money to the powder-coater and it was ready to go!
Trying it on for size, after powder coating!
A long process but the bull bar finally is welded onto the front of the van!
Now there were lots of other details that I am skipping over, but mainly it went like this “Hey, I need a part for a 1983 GMC Vandura that looks like this!”
and the answer was “Oh yeah, those were everywhere in 1983, but I haven’t seen one in 20 years!” SO again I had to find it on eBay, or make one to keep the project moving ahead.
In front of the Batman steps at Warner Bros. studios, a little crossgeeking at work!
Throughout the build I was always searching for parts, but for the most part to the untrained eye, it’s was done. However I needed three different antennas for the roof, and more importantly specific 8 lug ribbed wheels and tires! I was also buying stuff for the interior, police scanners, reel to reel tape players, CB radios, and lots of guns but that all went into a box for when I got to the interior.
Not one, but TWO police scanners!
In every projects story, there comes a stumbling block and for me and my van it was the wheels. The series used all sizes of vanduras both 5 lug and the heavy duty 8 lug full ton vans. (They didn’t break as much when you jumped them through buildings!) but finding the original rims was a daunting task. I would find one rim, but it was in montana, and it was $300 to ship it. Would I find a set of three? pass. Found a set in Alaska, again, the shipping was prohibitive. Then a set of “almost right wheels” came up a few miles from my house. $200 for 4! So I grabbed them knowing that I would rather have “The exact ones” but knowing now after a years search that the perfect ones may never appear so these were better than nothing. So I got the only red paint designed for wheels, and started blasting and sanding and painting and masking all four over a few weeks. Once they were done they sat and sat as I finished the exterior and started on the interior.
I figured “Hey, when I have some cash for tires, I will run down to the tire store and get my BF Goodrich tires and slap them on the van!”
Well that day came, and after telling the clerk the tires I wanted and asked how much his reply was “You can’t buy those size tires anymore, they stopped making them in 2005.” WHAT!!!!@#$@!@ Back to Craigslist, to find 31 inch BF Goodrich tires that will fit on my 16.5 (yes, point 5!) rims.
At that point blowing the car up and smoking a cigar was a brief option! But I still wanted to drive it all put together!
Weeks later I had a set of 6 tires from two sources, shipped two, drove for 2 hours for the other 4, and took my rims and tires to the tire shop to finally get some rims on my van! Well sort of!
No lug nuts, and no way will these fit!
So I got my 6 tires, and 4 rims. I thought I was good to go, but the rims needed special hard to find lug nuts! So back to eBay and I return with the lug nuts. I GET TWO ON THE BACK! Yeah!!! Then as they try mounting the front tires, we find out the tires will rub and are too big. Grr. I know they are too big, but that is the smallest 16.5 tire they made!!!! 31,35,37 for all the big trucks. So I have to cut the front flares to get them to fit. I take my other two tires home. I also notice, that the red doesn’t match the red stripe on the van. It starts to bug me and I know I will have to repaint them.
Blacking out rear windows -frames – tail light frames – handle and keyhole and a few bullet holes for style!
I planned to cut the wheel wells and mount the other two front tires, but in the morning one of my tires has a sidewall leak. I will have to go to the tire shop to swap tires now, so no way of me getting them on at home. I give up on the tires for now and decide to start work on the interior of the van.
As most modelers and fanboys realize, no one other than the other super fans know or care about the details like they do. No one will notice or even care after you point it out that you put in so much research time and freeze framed every episode and discussed on fan chat boards what that thing is in the corner or what brand Reel to Reel tape machine is that behind Mr. T. Again, that’s the fun part! SO knowing full well that even I didn’t know what the interior of the A-team van looked like I had to do the work. That ment scouring the show for glimpses of interior shots and noticing changes over the seasons and picking the interior that I wanted to emulate. (For Knight Rider owners this can be down to an Episode as the interior dash details changed from show to show!)
Once the research was done, it was time to BUILD!
Notice the reference photos taped to the front!
Behind the back set of seats in the van were two sort of matching cabinets. One was well seen on screen and used in several episodes. It had a reel to reel tape recorder and a police scanner in it, so they could listen in on the bad guys they had bugged. Correct scanner and tape recorder found (gotta love eBay!) and measurements taken, so the first cabinet came together pretty quickly.
In the back was an ammo box where they kept their guns and ammo. Sometimes the back row bench seat was in the van, often it wasn’t so they could jump out or carry stuff. My thought was the van was changed based on the mission, so things could change around just like it did on the show. My ammo box got an “A-Team” logo that was not on the show, but just for some flash and name recognition. I also added speakers for the reel to reel so I could make it all work and build those into the sides of the cabinet. Correct details and actual function often collide, and you have to decide what is more important to you. I like electronics and gadgets to be operational, even if they never did work in the “reel” world! An example of funciton vs screen correct is on the screen used vans they had tiny little side custom mirrors and after driving this monster in traffic I opted to use larger mirrors and custom paint them. When it comes to safety or accuracy for a starcar you want to drive, choose safety!
Once they cabinets and ammo box were finished and painted, interior installation was next. All along small details are being improved or corrected, and parts and bits are being searched for and tossed in a box so that I have them when I get to that point of the build. I tried to get “MR.T” for the licence, but someone all ready had it! There are companies that make fake licence plates and for display often star car owners will take off their plates and put on the “show correct” ones. The A-Team van had several blue and gold California plates that changed depending on which version of the van they used on the show that week!
The final interior upgrades, carpet, upholstery etc. should always be saved until the end, so you don’t damage it, and you are free to climb all over the car and set tools etc. without worrying about leaving a mark. I just painted the floor black and grey as a temporary look, while all the work was being done. Plus, you have to take into account your bank book and sometimes projects have to sit for a while until funds are available!
Guns in a box don't look as cool as guns all over the walls!
Less seen right side cabinets that had a desk and makeup kit inside for disguises!
Well after months of putting off the wheel and tire situation, I got more lug nuts, and found a better set of rims for cheap, cheap enough to make me buy a second set and sell off the first set that didn’t have enough “ribs”. I figured I was going to repaint anyway, so if I was going to re do all that work, I would rather use more accurate rims! So several Craigslist ads of buying and selling and trading, along with taking a saws-all to the underside of the van’s front wheel wells, I finally got 4 tires and rims on the van! Also it’s hard to see in this photo, but there are three antenna along the top, a CB radio, Car phone antenna, and police scanner antenna.
Is it done? Well one thing that any custom car owner will tell you, is that it’s never done! There are always details to do and I am continuing to tweak, replace and improve items when I feel the urge to do some more upgrades. Final upholstery, DVD player for the roof, finding old style “square” speaker covers, running boards with fake exhausts ports – upgrading the walls to the “correct” coin top gray rubber are all on the list. But now Star Car Central.com has an A-team van for appearances for charity events, and more importantly a place to get out of the elements and haul stuff to events in style! As Hannibal always said, “I love it when a VAN comes together!”
Great stunt with a replica van, but you won’t see me doing this EVER!!!!
The A-Team was the original Wild boys in the 80’s! Why was it popular? Comedy, action, car crashes, blowing stuff up and shooting guns! What’s not to like?
Now I have to go tear around in my van and look for a damsel in distress who needs to hire…. THE A-TEAM!
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!
Buggy
But if speed is more your thing than nostalgia, the Snake Pit (above), also built by Barris, will be a better fit. Made specifically to break speed records, the huge Snake Pit has an estimated 2,000bhp from six Ford Cobra V8 engines.
The Bunkbeds is another star turn that doesn’t work, though when it does it has a Ferrari-matching 600bhp from an, erm, headboard-mounted V8 engine. It promises to be the best handling bunk bed ever made, thanks to Formula One-wide Goodyear tyres and disc brakes on all four wheels; it can be steered from either the top or bottom bunk.
At that point blowing the car up and smoking a cigar was a brief option! But I still wanted to drive it all put together! 
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