Simple: take turns naming a car from a movie, TV show or other media article that you want to feature for any particular reason.
Just to pitch deep left, I’m going to start with the van from the star-studded HK Jacky Chan et al. flick, Meals on Wheels
Most of Jacky Chan’s films showcase his multiple talents beyond jumping off buildings and kicking people in the face. Accordingly, his films tend to also contain tricked out vehicles (mostly Mitsubishis*, it’s a Jacky Chan thing).
This heavily modified 2nd gen Mitsubishi Delica might not be what you would consider first line in a showcase, but just like in most of his other movies, it’s seriously tricked out. This one, apparently modified by a friend of their frenemy, Moby (played by the great Sammo Hung), hilariously screams RICE over a decade before The Fast and the Furious introduced obnoxious JDM to the West. But that’s not all, it contains an automated folding out self-contained fast food kitchen controlled by one of those 80s futuristic computer 3D interfaces and drives like no Delica has any business driving (not to mention it catches some pretty sick air). Basically, a Jacky Chan movie take on a Bond car. I won’t lie when I say I think they’re great.
*consider that Meals on Wheels also featured one of the most obnoxious product placements ads for the Starion even to this day, Armor of God featured a one-off convertible Colt with a TWIN TURBO button and a hidden pod car. Thunderbolt was pretty much 100% Ralliart everything, including a Lancer Evo III RS, Who Am I had a Mitsubishi Paris-Dakar truck and an Evo V, Police Story had the legendary scene of a Cordia destroying an entire hillside shanty town hurtling down a hill in a scene too dangerous to do more than a single take, and so on and so forth…
Something along the lines of this. Not the clean fresh one from Mad Max, not the dying rattling box from Fury Road. This in particular, the battle hardened and survival oriented machine from the Road Warrior.
This radio station was named Kowalski, in honour of the last American hero to whom speed means freedom of the soul. The question is not when’s he gonna stop, but who is gonna stop him.
No idea how it hasn’t been mentioned yet (besides it being so bloody obvious) but a love of crap cars and this being one of my favourite films means I’ve always said, if I ever won the lottery this would be the first thing I’d buy.
Some other more obvious things you’d expect from me like the Initial D AE86 etc, but if I had to pick one TV car that really cemented itself in my head, for me it would absolutely be this:
I was already growing up as a Toyota mentalist, and this was on when I was 11. In pretty much any product, be it cars, computers or otherwise, nothing is more important to me or gains my respect more than durability and dependability, and I defy anyone to say they thought it would drive away from that tower block demolition. I remember sitting shouting “Come oooon!” at the TV at the same time as James May when it started to fire up.
The picture above is one I took a couple of months back after I finally got to see it up close, and my god it is so much worse than it looks on TV when you see it in the metal. It really does look like it could just collapse into a heap at any minute, but no, it’s still standing, rustier than ever, and I’m assured is still able to work. It certainly still has all the added switches in after it was set on fire to start it, complete with attached piece of paper telling you which one does the glow plugs etc.
Those two episodes with this on pretty much got me stuck on Toyotas entirely. To this day it is still the one thing responsible for my complete trust in anything that says Toyota on it.
God I loved that chase scene when I was a kid, I still love the fact they made a limited run Jackie Chan edition Evo for a couple of versions in his honour.
