My Dad was a cop in a small town like this back in the early 80's. I used to actually ride up front in the police car sometimes when he worked, he was an old Plymouth Gran Fury and we used to get a lot of brush fires in the spring and summer. I can remember going over the hills in that old Plymouth with the siren wailing and that V8 warmed up. It was a tiny town, 1,500 at best. Everyone knew everyone else and we all talked to each other and got along. Sadly I think those times are gone now.
Love these films where drifting was a thing before anyone even knew what "drifting" was. Was just called "driving" back then. Kind of funny how in the end the cops didn't know there was a quarry over that hill, despite it being their locality. They only were chasing him around it for a few minutes 😂
My dad took us to the drive in to watch this movie. He said he wanted a car like that, No matter how many times it ran into something it never go a scratch on it, he was joking.
I love how, Burt Reynolds posters of this movie have him carrying a Shotgun! But some how it not that kind of a movie, It a none stop Car Chase movie. I love it. R.I.P Burt Reynolds. You know how to make a Car Chase insane.
The chases are awesome, but here they edited out some of the best Ned Beatty moments in the chase scenes. Also my favorite Burt Reynolds flick. Love watching those ‘71 Ford Customs tear it up.
@@twoeightythreez I kinda figured that, but did one Helluva job makin' everyone think that Gator's Ford was a 4speed, still a great movie!!! The car's soundtrack was used in other TV shows and movies!!!
While the production typically had multiple vehicles to use for chases, it's not uncommon to have the chrome side strips to be torn off during filming as well.
One of my favorite movies. I read years ago that the interior shots of Burt shifting a T handle Hurst were actually him driving a 4 speed Boss Mustang. The scene when he first gets the Custom 500 and he looks under the hood is the Mustang's Boss engine. They obviously dubbed in the wicked 4 barrel big block sound from the Mustang too. They slipped up a few times in the movie and you could see the auto transmission shifter on the steering column. Burt's buddy, stuntman Hal Needham, was his stunt double in the movie and did some of the driving including the barge jump. Classic scene that should have been included was the Courthouse scene when he makes Dude talk to the Sheriff while he repeatedly revs up that sweet sounding engine. Great movie!
Not a BOSS Mustang but yeah, a '71 model with a big 429. Funny thing is, you could get the Customs with 429s too and a 4 speed conversion would all be possible, just get a clutch pedal from a three on the tree and a top loader that fits
This is a great movie Burt Reynolds is always running from somebody and he's always driving the best cars and I just love this movie I wish I could find it on DVD but I guess I can't❤❤❤❤
The part of the chase scene through the lumber yard was filmed at the old WR Wrape Stave ( Dixie Culvert Mfg.) lumber company on 6th street in Little Rock, Arkansas My grandpa was the foreman of the engine room there for over 45 years. I used to go to work with him when I was a little boy and I was there the day this scene was filmed…. The scenes near the water and the white, sandy looking gravel are the old bauxite strip pits in Bauxite, Arkansas . There was a swimming hole there in the 60’s called the Blue Hole ( you can see it briefly in the footage) I used ti go there with my mom and her friends to swim. Lot of people drowned there. I don’t believe anyone knew how deep it was… but It was DEEP!
This movie was actually well researched as far as the technical direction of the moonshine sequences. I've heard people wonder why they gave Gator a nerdy looking 4-door Ford for his souped up car (instead of a sportier car like a Mustang), but no moonshine runner would have a car that didn't have a lot of hauling capacity, and they didn't like cars that attracted attention. I liked how they did this in the movie.
1972 LTD with a big block and 4 speed, not hard to find the good stuff in 73. Muscle car motors where good and plenty then, but good luck finding them now
Good luck finding one in a 4 speed even in 1972. It would have been special ordered...and since the movie was made in 1973....not gonna be able to special order one. Most likely they were all automatics except for possibly the "hero" (closeup/interior shot) car. For all we know they just used a 4 speed mustang for the "shifty" shots :) All I can say is I would love to have one. Only be cooler if it were a Country Squire with a 4 speed.
I bought that Ford for 200 bucks because it had a tick on the top end which was probably a bent push rod but I drove the snot out of that thing and It was a good car until my cousin drove it into a big elm tree. One night shortly after I bought it, that same cousin and I pulled up beside an old cutlass on Portage ave and we went off the light. That old Cutlass spanked me real good! I'll never forget that. Hahaha. That still makes me smile 40 years later! It was a great car, baby blue, dark blue vinyl top and interior and she rode like a dream at 70 mph. Those were real cars back in a real world.
That is correct this was the base model,Galaixie was the next then the LTD and the LTD Brougham, actually pretty good cars from ford . I tell ya,it must have been fun to install a 4 speed floor shift into a car that never came with one, im not shure you could even get this car with a 3 on the tree 3 speed, If so im thinkin 99% were automatics i bet
@@jbncnow They did not "install a 4 speed floor shift"; if you look close at the shots of the gear shifting you will see that they were done in a Mustang, not the Custom 500.
For those of use who grew up with these older cars, the new stuff can't compete. You can't slide or do this with the newer cars between the traction control and the ABS brakes. I had a 1971 Dodge Dart Swinger with a 318 V8 when I was 18 in 1994 and that car would slide through and around corners. You could also take them out, beat on them, take them on old back country dirt roads, bang them around and then drive home with little to no effect at all. New cars will crumble or fall apart. As far as how long those old cars last compared to the new stuff, I had a 79 Dodge Aspen that I could do this stuff with, I had it when it had 175,000 miles on it, I sold it to some girl whose boyfriend used to beat on it and drive it harder than I did, last time I saw it the thing was still going at 230,000 miles on it. I lease a 2018 Ford Focus I've maybe broken the speed limit with a half dozen times. At 24,000 miles the computer went, the brakes delaminated at 20,000 miles and the transmission is starting to go at 29,000 miles.
I thought it was a deep film, and burt gave such a wonderful sensitive performance along with all the macho stuff. Don't think this like the rest of the franchise, which was just meant for the junior high school crowd. This was a serious film disguised as dukes of hazard like. I know dukes of hazard was after this film.
Aussie Ford Falcon and Fairmont of that period had similar shape to these Galaxies. The influence is very obvious. They appear to share the same doors and door handles as well as the steering wheel with the crest in the centre.
This was all filmed in south Little Rock and Benton Arkansas. Love Ned Beatty's character as the crooked murdering Sheriff....."right now my boat ain't rigged for fishin".........lol This movie is a classic. great story, plenty of action, humorous characters.
Long story short; stunt coordinator Hal Needham did a couple of trial runs with different approach speeds in the car and all went well, then he told the tug boat captain they were going for a take and to give the boat full throttle. Hal hadn’t checked but the captain had so far only been giving the tug half throttle, now he did what he was told and opened it up. Hal couldn’t see over the ramp so he was committed once he hit the ramp and terrified to see the tug much further out than before. He just made it but reckoned if the car had sunk into the deep mud at the bottom of the river he’d have drowned before anyone could reach him.
Yeah, I caught that VERY quick glimpse of the column auto shifter as well. You must have really quick eyes to pick up on that 1/100th of a second screen detail!! Unless I miss my guess, I believe that the "in car" 4-speed shifter camera shots are from a Mustang/Cougar from '71-'73. I f your look REAL close in front the the shifter handle (with a quick pause, of course), you can see possibly a radio knob of some sort, maybe. My memory is that larger mid-size Fords of that era had the radio controls much further up on the dashboard. But then again, that's only my semi-educated guess... I wish I could confirm that it was a 4-speed car. I couldn't even to begin to imagine the rarity of such a beast!!
😂 you figure even of they built one 4 speed car for the movie, most likely the actual stunt cars were the much more common automatics. I read that they typically budgeted for one car for each stunt which means they probably had at least 6 cosmetically identical shit-brown LTD cars plus the "hero" car.
I can actually feel myself swinging those corners in that big ford bastard! Anyone whose ever driven an ol skool high powered car KNOWS what im talkin about!
If anyone else can tell me this Is the same car uncle Jesse drove in “The Dukes of Hazzard” s1,e5. High Octane. Just with a quick paint job. Burt never could do a bad chase.
The good ole days when you didn't need no god damn seatbealts or airbags and still was ok after a major crash lol. The car chases were great and real, not like the cgi shit we have to endure now.
Lot of Ford died making this movie😂, these 1971 LTD's aren't that bad looking but from 1970 on Chevys & Ford full-size cars got uglier by the year. My great uncle bought a 69 LTD 2dr with a 429 new, instead of trading it in when he got a newer one he parked it. After a few yrs he gave it to me when I was 15 it wasnt the best looking model but I loved it especially the flip up lights. I wouldve keep & fixed it up for my 1st car but he had stored all kinds of stuff in the trunk including fertilizer.I couldn't (at that time) repair the pan and 1 floor pan behind driver seat so I ended up selling & retreated it every since. I had no idea what I had a 429 car before smog heads no telling what it would be worth. If you read this entire comment sorry dor the novel I got to thinking about that LTD & lost track.
Can it be stressed out how much personalities Cars scream on screen by their just their design alone? Certainly more so than modern chase movies, that for sure. Edit: Also - that jump onto the barge, the stunt driver must've broke a few disks landing like that.
