During the late 1970s an article titled "Thunder Road" appeared in New West Magazine. The article detailed some of what was going on in the canyon and made specific reference to two particular drivers- Chris Banning, who owned and raced a heavily modified Porsche 911 and... Charles "Crazy Charlie" Woit, who owned and raced a vintage, 427 cubic-inch Big-Block powered Chevrolet Corvette. This provided the inspiration for the film, and its two main characters, who were based on Banning&Woit.
I remember seeing this movie when i was 8 or 9 years old and i watched it with my step dad on cable tv at home. I could've been the poster child for HOT WHEELS back then because my whole world was about street rods ,hot rods, electric racecar tracks, building model cars, I had the most HOT WHEELS out of anyone, you name it! But anyway this movie and "Smokey and The Bandit" really set it off for me as a boy!
When this movie came out i went to the theater and watched it and i was completely hooked on fast driving cars,bought a 240Z and had my brother in law drop a 327 under the hood,it was quick but the handling was never perfect. Later bought a new Corvette in the mid 1980s moved to California and actualy got to drive on Mulholland drive which was full of crotch rockets at the time. Fun memories!
At the risk of insulting your car (which I'm not trying to do,) I'd suggest the handling was never right because of the larger engine up front. But I bet it went like a bat outta hell in a straight line, compared to the original straight 6.
@@musewolfman Very true,it had so much torque the wheels would spin inside the tires and throw the wheel weights off all the time affecting tire balance,but fun times when your young and crazy! be safe out there.
As a kid after watching this movie that one day I would own a Porsche. No, hard to find a Roadster but settled for 88' 944 turbo. Ironic, my wife purchased her dream car, 64 Stingray. Maybe one day she'll drive off a cliff.
You just described exactly how i watched it, on HBO! I remember seeing this movie when i was 8 or 9 years old and i watched it with my step dad on cable tv at home. I could've been the poster child for HOT WHEELS back then because my whole world was about street rods ,hot rods, electric racecar tracks, building model cars, I had the most HOT WHEELS out of anyone, you name it! But anyway this movie and "Smokey and The Bandit" really set it off for me as a boy!
That old Sun tach 2 is period correct , brings back memories , I sure do miss those days. Now I know what my grandpa was talking about when he talked about the good ole days. Nice post.👍👍🏁
Always loved this movie, used to do some hill racing back in the day, nothing like the length of Mulholland about 6 miles. (late 70's early 80's) In a 77 Trans Am with a 71 455 H.O. motor in it. Yep, I'm old. Great movie! Thanks for posting!
CGI is for pussies...THIS is how you film a street race scene! I remember seeing this movie back in the day when I was like 13 yrs old..I was mesmerized! I still can't decide which car I like better, the slick clean as hell Porsche or the rough and tough Corvette beater. Both cars are beautiful in their own way. And the sounds! Nothing like the sound of a high strung performance engine spittin n sputtering at low speed...I miss those days.The aerial shots of that Speedster are stunning, Porsche doesn't currently make anything remotely that gorgeous.
Yeah, great movie, i have it full. i wasn't even born then, but i love those times so much...RIP Dennis..he was one of my most beloved screen people..so much great roles...damn.. i would trade every piece of nowaday to those good ol' beautiful days...
Chris Banning, who owned and raced a heavily modified Porsche 911 and Charles "Crazy Charlie" Woit, who owned and raced a vintage, 427 cubic-inch Big-Block powered Chevrolet Corvette. They were the inspiration for the film…
Love the film, watched it back in 83 and was hooked on muscle and V8's from there on in ( well till I got married the the V8 was a deposit for the house !!). Styx - renegade how many times have i nearly gone deaf listening to that !!! lol superb film
Lets be dangerous strangers! I love this movie. It was my inspiration for going to LA and going to college there. I drove Mulholland drive from one end to the other till they closed it down in 1989. Soo many cars went off that mountain back in the day.....
I watched this movie when it came out. I seen it on HBO when I was a kid. I agree, this was a great movie for it's time. I'd watch it again just for the memories of that time long passed.
man i remember watching this on tv when I was kid in the 80's truly a classic most people my age never even heard of this movie sad world we leave in, post more please
I remember seeing this movie when i was 8 or 9 years old and i watched it with my step dad on cable tv at home. I could've been the poster child for HOT WHEELS back then because my whole world was about street rods ,hot rods, electric racecar tracks, building model cars, I had the most HOT WHEELS out of anyone, you name it! But anyway this movie and "Smokey and The Bandit" really set it off for me as a boy!
Yes I too would love to see more clips because it's almost never shown on TV any more. I first saw this movie WAY back when not too long after it was first released. I still consider it to be one of THE best car/street racing movies ever made.
Yeah I remember watching this on HBO in 82. Harry Hamlin did this movie right after Clash of the Titans. I read an article once that said Dennis Hopper was really drunk in his scenes. Lol
Someone start a petition to get this released on DVD and I'll sign, doesn't even need to be remastered but it would be nice to have a clear, crisp version with commentary.
This movie has impressive car audio clips, a lot of it sounds like was saved and put toward more recent films, specifically from 1:43 to 1:50 (approx) sounds like the engine ambience from the drag race between the Supra and the Charger toward the end of The Fast and the Furious. Also the same thing occurs at 2:13 to about 2:20
I read that he drove the vehicle himself for parts of the final race scenes, and that he did so while drunk off his ass despite the film crew's protests.
DJBoLtZ He was crazy period there is a rumor that Peter Fonda had a pistol on him while filming Easy Rider because Hopper was a crazy dude, idk if it was actually true but he was awesome in Blue Velvet
I remember seeing this movie when i was 8 or 9 years old and i watched it with my step dad on cable tv at home. I could've been the poster child for HOT WHEELS back then because my whole world was about street rods ,hot rods, electric racecar tracks, building model cars, I had the most HOT WHEELS out of anyone, you name it! But anyway this movie and "Smokey and The Bandit" really set it off for me as a boy! BTW I was born in 1972 so I'm about to be 50 years old in January.
They are hard to find now. It was never released on DVD, you can still find them occasionally on Ebay in VHS, but you never know what your getting as most of the copies I've seen are ex- movie store rentals. I wish they would rerelease it on DVD. It is a good road race movie!!!
Looks like when my cousin Terry and I would race Dragoon Trail Mishawaka, Indiana back in the sixties. Difference was we never crashed. From Ironwood to Osceola and Apple Road His girl friend lived there. I never lost.
When this movie first came out, I remember reading it was based on some actual events/people (Very loosely based, this was Hollywood, after all). That there really was a guy like Cal racing through the hills of Mulholland Drive, humiliating other racers by beating them with his tricked-out but ratty-looking '56 Ford pick-up truck ( like the one Cal drove for most of the rest of this movie). If you could beat him in that, then you earned the right to race him for real money in his Gran Sport Corvette. The Vette in this movie isn't a real GS, but was modified to look a lot like one.
Only 5 Grand Sports were made and they werent for sale until maybe the 70s when some were beat to death. originally had a 377 small block in I think aluminum. Roger Penske modded one into a roadster and Jim Hall had an early white one. All 5 are now show cars although when Zora Duntov built them GM wanted them scrapped. And no they were not even close to being stock.
Rear wheel drive :) the only way to go. No ECU, Traction Control, Injection Just a Big 4 Barrel Carb and you had forearm muscles like steel to hold it ;) those were the days
Classic Porsche vs Corvette Stingray rivalry. Pure muscle engine in that Vette. Totally epic race dude!!!! Dig those classic mag wheels on the Stingray dude!!!!! 👍👍👍👍
Good movie! Sadly they never released it on DVD, only place you can get it now is on now is old VHS movie rentals off Ebay or sometimes they show it on TV. Would love to see some more clips! Especially the Mustang and Dennis Hopper's 55 Ford Big Block truck race scene!!
Exactly right Chris. As far as Ryan's comment, "Power Sliding" is the exact same thing as "Drifting" You are abusing the vehicles power to push the vehicle to the edge of control. A power slide is, under road racing conditions, a method of hanging onto the car in a turn when the rear axle has lost traction, with the exception being you are not deliberately breaking traction in the process. It is a flashy and abusive way around a corner and much slower than actually driving the car properly through the turn. But it is a hell of a lot of fun!!! LOL
That's right man....Power Sliding! Everything has been reworded...made PC.Just like when I played Dodgeball when I was kid....Now?...they call it "soccer".
This based on an article in a car magazine. In real life these guys existed… kind of. The Dennis Hopper character was good at anything he drove and used to run it in an old pick up ( Cal was in an f100 in one of the scenes iirc) and then got a big block vette, the other guy had a 68 camaro or 67 then graduated to a 911 with 930 upgrades. So it’s kind of close. Vette vs. Porsche. I love that Vette in the movie, just angry and all business.
Wondering which was the worst choice? Racing a guy who just polished off a bottle of whiskey right in front of you? Or putting on that ' Members Only ' jacket? Gotta love the 80's!
If you want to know the real story of the real racers that this movie is based on . Please look up Charlie Woit ( who had a 65 vette and Chris Bannon who still has a 1 off Porsche 911 RSR and still lives on Mulholland drive . I think the real story is better then the movie,... but then again , they usually are .
The speedster is a porsche 356 speedeter replica. They didn't use a real one because of hoe rare the car is and the didn't want to risk damaging one. Plus they had to highly modify it for speed. If I remember correctly it was a 3.3 porcshe engine weber carburated with some ungodly camshaft. The vette was a 327 ci obviously built. Dennis Hopper actually drove it drunk in some of the shots you see on here. I think this movie should be remade. Fast and Furious 5? would be cool to see Vin in a vet
I found a copy at a car show. Some guy had a huge stand full of car movies on DVD. It was a bootleg of a vhs tape. No chance of this getting a legit dvd release though, the company that owns the rights went out of business.
03/22 Great cars, with REAL POWER....The sideways at every burp of the throttle really tajes me back to my big block, four speed Comaro. I never got on it, on wet, It would have killed me. Second gear woukd put my 'twista flex" watch band on my elbo. One night, I almost ended up in the back seat, when the seat broke. So fast.
The speedster was a modified Volkswagen Beetle based kit car wearing a replica body with flared fenders, not really a Porsche who could sound like it does.
I was thinking about watching this movie until I watched the trailer. If I wanted to watch car action in the dark I’d turn the tv brightness down and watch nascar
My friend raced Steve McQueen on Mulholland drive and beat him with his hopped up mg against his bug with a Carrera engine in it. It was a race to the death just like this flick .my friend beat him in the corners and won .he said mr McQueen was not happy about it at all .my friend said he was lucky to be alive much less the winner 🏆.he quit racing after that race .he new he could never race better than that . His name was lee hug and he was a surfer from Malibu . He said it's like mountain climbing once you reach the pinnacle there's nowhere to go but down . He had nothing left to prove. He was done .
