Our friends across the pond, TheCarPeople, recently conducted a survey to find out what the United Kingdom’s ten favorite (er, “favourite”) driving films are. They’ve also given us this nifty gif, which features an iconic vehicle from each carsploitation flick that was chosen.
Can you match each car to the movie it came from? Make your guesses and then scroll down to see the answers…
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The first vehicle you see is the 1973 Chevy Malibu that Ryan Gosling used as his getaway car in the film Drive. A tense neo noir drama released in 2011, Drive was directed by acclaimed Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, who has since put his considerable talents to use making those Matthew McConaughey Lincoln commercials.
Next, it’s the 70s-era Formula 1 racecar that Chris Hemsworth drove as British racing legend James Hunt in the biopic Rush. (Although technically, Hemsworth wasn’t allowed to drive a real Formula 1 car during filming—instead, he drove a Formula 3 car with F1 bodywork.)
Placing eighth is another racecar—the #46 City Chevy car that Tom Cruise cruised in as fictional NASCAR racer Cole Trickle in Days of Thunder. That’s followed by the white 1997 Peugeot 406 from Taxi (the original 1998 French version, not the awful Jimmy Fallon remake from 2004).
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Speeding into sixth place is the 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback that Steve McQueen drove through the streets of San Francisco in the classic 1968 cop drama Bullit. Somehow, Steve McQueen’s iconic ride actually finished below Lightning McQueen, the sentient stock car from the 2006 Pixar cartoon Cars.
That big bus? Welp, that’s the big bus from the 1994 thriller Speed (AKA, “Die Hard, but on a Big Bus”). Somehow, that wacky boat from Speed 2: Cruise Control didn’t make the cut.
And now we reach the final three most popular driving films in Britain, beginning with The Fast and the Furious series. Okay, it’s clearly cheating to use the whole franchise instead of a single movie, but we get it—it’s hard to pick a favorite. (Although for the record, we liked Furious 7 the best). TheCarPeople chose the green 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse that Paul Walker’s character street races in the first movie, which was released in 2001.
Finishing second is the titular flying jalopy from the 1968 musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It’s no surprise that the movie is so beloved in the UK, considering that it was based on a novel by James Bond creator Ian Fleming and adapted for the screen by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory author Roald Dahl, both of whom are British legends. (The film’s star, Dick Van Dyke, not so much…)
Finishing in first place are the red, white, and blue Mini Coopers from The Italian Job (again, we’re talking about the original version, not the early 2000s Hollywood remake). This 1969 caper film features a who’s who of famous Brits, from Noel Coward to Benny Hill, and stars a young Michael Caine as Cockney gangster Charlie Croker.
So, how many did you know off the top of your head?
Source: TheCarPeople
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