It’s me, Mark Stone, and in this episode of the Backseat Driver Podcast, I dive into the golden age of cinematic car chases from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s with Joe Pep.

We begin with the legendary pursuit in Bullitt, starring Steve McQueen, a sequence widely regarded as the benchmark for every car chase that followed. We explore why that scene became so influential and how it changed the way action was filmed on screen.

The conversation then widens to examine how these high-octane moments drew audiences into cinemas, from the raw, practical stunt work of earlier decades to the increasing reliance on digital effects and artificial intelligence in modern filmmaking. Along the way, I reflect on the cultural significance of icons like the Ford Mustang and the Dodge Charger, cars that became characters in their own right and symbols of their era.

This episode celebrates the craft, the adrenaline, and the lasting cultural impact of the car chase, a cinematic art form that still gets pulses racing today.

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If you're anything like me, you will have enjoyed the films of the 60s, 70s and 80s, which in many ways gives my age away.

But the one thing about films of that era, a lot of them had a good car chase in them, unlike today, where it's all AI, where a car barrel rolls 10 times.

And by the way, it has been tried.

The most anybody ever got a car to roll was four.

Generated tremendous interest, which was a reason a lot of people actually went to see these films.

Long gone over the days of the back projection and everything else.

But I think it's safe to say the car chase, without exception, the one that launched the ball, was the one from bullet with Steve McQueen and his friend Bill Hickman driving the two cars.

10 minutes, just over 10 minutes worth.

So the subject of this evening's backseat driver is car chases of the 60s, 70s and maybe the 80s, which means I'm joined once again by Mr. Joseph Peppertone, better known as Joe Pep, or as I call him since he's from New Jersey, Joe the Pencils.

Joe, welcome back again to the backseat driver.

I feel honored and so you should.

To my new friends over in England, it's an honor to be here.

And if I could be knighted, well, I would be super honored.

But hey, listen, thank God, dreaming is for free.

And away we go.

Take it away, Mark.

68 bullet.

And the interesting thing was that film should have been filmed in Boston, but since Boston didn't have the ups and downs and the road systems of San Francisco, it was shifted there, which is where not so much Steve McQueen and his friend Bill Hickman, who was actually a stunt driver, he appeared in one or two films and Steve said, we'll get you an acting part, but you'll be driving a car.

I think the true stars of the show was the green.

I think it was forest green Ford Mustang coupe that Steve McQueen drove and the Dodge Charger RT that Bill Hickman drove.

And the interesting thing was, I said it lasted just over 10 minutes.

The overtook a green Volkswagen Beetle about six times of the Dodge, lost seven hubcaps, some going.

But that was in the days when the Coys, okay, the Mustangs, there were actually two of them.

There was a hero car, the one that was shiny and kept straight.

Then there was the one that got busted up a little bit.

Plus also another interesting if useless fact where McQueen overshoots a right hand turn.

Because McQueen drove a lot of the chase.

He didn't drive all it, but he drove some and he stopped.

There was axle tramp, monumental axle trump out of that Mustang.

And then he set off.

A lot of the smoke and tire smoke actually came from a small box in the car.

But I mean, that had to be the film.

And did he do anything for the sales of Mustangs and Dodgies?

I contacted a friend of mine who worked for Young and Rubicon Advertising.

And at the time he worked with Mercury.

Yeah.

Mercury, Ford line.

So I asked him, I said, roy, does something like this increase sales tremendously?

And he goes, it's ups and downs.

Yeah.

It's.

It can't hurt.

Yeah.

To do this because it's.

That car is out in the public eye.

And with the Bullet, yes, it did increase sales for the time period.

It wasn't something that was overwhelming.

Yeah.

Now if anybody has information like that that is contradictory to what I say, please.

That's the only way you learn is by knowing the actual facts.

Okay.

I mean, the interesting thing was the Dodge Charge was actually the more powerful of the two cars.

Although for the sake of the, the sake of the film, the Mustang was the most powerful car.

I think it' safe to say the Mustang was the better looking car, was it not?

And it's, you know, that's the Charger, a beautifully designed car, totally different looking from the Ford Mustang.

But it's.

It's preference.

Yeah.

What's that old song?

You say tomato, I say tomato.

And to me it's.

I always like the Ford Mustang.

Yeah.

It's a matter of preference.

Yeah.

Now where the Charger has more power, you could have someone that can have a powerful car, but they really don't know how to drive that car.

So I could see it being, always being in the chase part of the movie, the Ford Mustang.

My father had taken me to that movie and it was like action pack.

You know, you're flying over the streets of San Francisco and making those turns and something that.

Mom and dad never drove that away.

God.

But it was something where it just glued you to your seat.

Yeah.

And for a lot of young people that were of age of driving, you know, they're in their 20s and their 30s and it was very, very exciting.

Yeah.

And it was a different way of motion to motion pictures.

Yeah.

And I think the other thing about Bullet, on the build up to the car chase, there was that fantastic piece of music by Lalo Schifferin changing gears with some of the best brass work you will ever hear.

Trombones and saxophones.

I think that was what I know when I was taking to see it My father had already seen it once, and all of a sudden he said to me, it's going to happen.

It's going to happen.

And I think a lot of people in the cinema that night, apart from the fact it's a film I have on DVD.

Yes.

Some of us still watch DVDs, and it's actually a good film.

It's a good film.

But I think that night a lot of people have gone to the cinema to see the car chase.

This car chase had become legendary.

Oh, big time.

Big time.

Mark, can I tell the story of when I interviewed the man that owned the car when I had my radio show.

Yeah.

What I found out was that, as you had mentioned, the.

When the car peels out, there was smoke coming out of the tire.

Yeah.

How they found the original bullet, because, you know, you have all these imposters saying, yes, I have the actual car.

I just putting in one moment.

When I was in Retromobile the other week in Paris, on a Ford stand, there was a green Mustang coupe with the sign, this is the original car.

And I said to my friend Mary Katharine, no, it isn't.

I said, it looks like it, but it ain't.

Sorry about that.

No, absolutely.

There were two things that distinguished this car, and one was, like, right under your nose.

Yeah.

But many people never saw it.

There was a decal.

Yeah.

At the Motion Picture Studio.

Put on the.

I called them wing windows.

Yeah.

Okay.

Looks like a triangle.

Yeah.

Quarter.

Like a quarter light.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that was placed on the driver's side of the car.

Yeah.

Plain as day, you know.

And that was.

That was put on back in the day when people.

You would really have to make an effort to make a decal.

Yeah.

And the second thing that gave away everything was there were holes in the trunk where they had the smoke machine.

Yeah.

And, you know, as a movie go over moviegoer, you never.

It's not like nowadays where it's like you're always looking for something that's, like, wrong with the movie or something like that.

Back then, it was like you saw a car peeling out with all that smoke coming out.

And, you know, you didn't think, oh, there's a smoke machine in the trunk.

You know, you actually thought it was the car tires.

Yeah.

And sound effects that bring out the thunder of the automobile.

Yeah.

Out to the viewer.

Nowadays, we're all educated and where these things can be in it just like in the old.

Like in the old movies, the very old movies, where if they had A horse going down the street.

You would have a sound effects man with shaved off coconuts.

Yeah.

Or as they call them, Foley engineers only.

Okay.

Dalet Garnes.

But it was a tremendous movie.

And the thing is, is that I think for people who are God's Charger fans.

Yeah.

Back in the day, they wanted to see Revenge.

Yeah.

And it's just like here in the States, it still continues.

People who have Ford automobiles and people have Chevrolets.

Yeah.

And do you know what Ford stands for?

This is the joke.

Go on, fix it.

Was it?

No, that's for you.

Go on.

It'll be something to do with fixing.

No, you know it.

You know, it's called fix or repair daily.

Yeah.

Or another one is found on the road dead.

Yeah.

I mean, to me it's.

It's a matter of preference.

What you like?

That battle with Chevy and Ford still continues with life.

I know.

We're moving a Fiat.

Fix it again tomorrow.

Or Lotus.

Loads of trouble.

Usually serious.

Oh, Mark, you're so polite.

With English, you gotta be rough and tough American, you know what I mean?

It's.

We're bigger, we're better, you know?

Well, I mean, like the Mustang also featured very heavily in the original.

It featured in both of them.

The original gone in 60 seconds.

I mean, the original must.

In the original 74 film that the driver was a guy called Tony Halicki.

And the only modification they did to that, they chained the gearbox in and gave it nitrous in.

And like nitrous the thing which they also did to the Nicholas Cage version.

Both the Mustangs were Eleanors and both ended up somewhat tatty.

But in the 74 one, the guy who drove it, Toby Alicki, he'd already been injured in making another movie and he more or less drove this car for an incredible period of time over curbs.

I mean, the car was a complete wreck by the time he'd finished.

And he did it with a.

Like a.

An arm in plaster.

But nobody thought anything about this.

Did.

The health and safety didn't exist.

The director wanted his car chase and he got his car chase.

And the guys who drove them just went out there and did it, didn't they?

It was Mark.

It was a different.

A different type.

You know, now it's.

You can't do this because it's an insurance liability.

You can't do that because you'll offend some group.

Back then it was like behind the wheel and drive.

Yeah.

You have a busted arm.

The director would say, amok.

Listen, you okay?

And Mark says, why of course, not a problem.

And you would go and you would drive the car.

Now it's like you gotta sign waivers and this and that.

And it's me.

People say to me, Joe, you're 72 years old.

Your mom and dad had these cars back in the day that there was no seat belts and no safety glass and a metal dashboard.

How'd you survive?

And it was like you just did it.

And if you got hurt, you brushed it off and you got up and you went back at it again.

I mean, another, I mean another film switching makes one of the.

Another great car chase.

1971 was French Connection with Gene Hackman.

And he drove, if memory serves, it was a Pontiac Le Mans.

Now the one thing was the producers of the film and the directors struggled to get permission off New York to film the car chase.

So the only thing they did is they went and found a little beforehand some off duty policemen and said, look, if we slide you a few dollars, can you like keep the roads a bit quiet, direct people the other way?

Which they did.

And the famous scene as he's bouncing the thing underneath the, the elevated railway, he hits another car.

Nobody ever realized the car he hit was a member of the public.

He just happened to be unfortunate enough to get in front of Gene Eichmann.

But I mean, if you think about it, that Pontiac Le Mans was in a terrible state by the time they finished scrapping it in this chase.

A very unusual choice of it's Pontiac.

Was always, and I'm going by what my dad would always say, it's like Pontiac, Chevrolet was the working man's car.

Pontiac.

And Oldsmobile was the sports car.

Yeah.

Okay.

So Oldsmobile was more of a sports car than the Pontiac.

Yeah.

Okay.

And Pontiac was what I recall was like losing ground.

It was like started to be forgotten.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then, you know, they started in the 70s, they started changing the design of the Koniak.

Yeah.

And the why they chose that car, I have no clue.

But it would be great if any of our audience members know something about this and nature, contact your mark.

Because these are the little hidden things.

Yeah.

Because when you watch a movie, you know, oh, this is great.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

We had a neighbor down the street that had a, A four door Pontiac.

Yeah.

Of mind.

And which was the same as used in the film because, I mean, not being funny, a four door Saloon does not immediately bring to mind the great 24 hour race of Le Mans.

Four doors.

I grew up in a two door family.

Yeah.

Now you look at all the cars out there and they're all four doors.

Yeah.

Which to me is.

That's a family car.

Yeah.

A station wagon back in the day was the family car.

If you wanted to be a cool kid on campus, you didn't have a station wagon, you didn't have a four door.

You had a two door.

Yeah.

Okay.

But that's, you know, everything's.

Look at Cadillac.

Cadillac.

Cadillac was like the crown jewel of General Motors and all their models are four door automobiles, you know, so why they chose that, I, I really don't know.

But you know, there is one thing.

Yeah.

Two door, 392 bar.

And Jay Leno came out and he was talking about the, the bullet car.

And that had a 390.

Yeah.

He didn't say if it was a two barrel or a four barrel, but it was a very powerful engine.

That was my first car.

Yeah.

And that car.

Oh my God.

You put the air conditioning on and everything else and you're flying down the highway.

Yeah.

Not that I did, But those were the quarry days.

But anyway, you know, it's.

Why?

Good question.

Yeah, good question.

So what else you got on your list?

I mean, the other one.

Once again, Dodge made its, its appearance once again with, I think it's Dirty Mary Crazy Larry.

They use a Dodge Charger RT and a Chevy Impala.

Then of course there was the great one, Vanishing Point.

There was Vanishing Point and the other one was Fear is the Key, both with Barry Newman.

Well, Vanishing Point was the car chase beginning to end, where it's rumoured, of course, he drove into a pair of bulldozers in Fear is the Key.

And it.

Once again, and I've mentioned this to you before, and you said they probably used it because it hadn't really been out very long and they were trying to promote it and theoretically it survived the chase.

And that was the Ford car, Gran Torino Sport.

Now it's like we said, Dodge did very well in car chases, didn't they?

They featured a lot in them and I conclude it's because of the size of the engine and like we're saying, sound effects.

The sound effect they used was the sound of the cars at the actual car's engine and I get the feeling the dodgy sounded good engines.

But the Ford Gran Torino, Sport, it's not a car that springs readily to mind at all.

Anything.

I conclude Ford would have wanted that car used to promote it because it had just come out.

Sure.

The.

They were a nice looking car.

Yeah.

Okay.

The Torinos.

But it was, you know, you're getting into the 70s and the manufacturing wasn't, how can I say, of, to me, quality.

Yeah.

As cars from the 60s, I mean, you're only talking, you know, maybe a 10 year difference.

Five year difference.

Okay.

Now, where the Torino became very popular was in a TV show here in the United States called Starsky and Hutch.

Yes.

Okay.

Candy apple red with a white stripe around it.

Yes.

Yes.

And here, here in Wilmington, North Carolina, there's a gentleman that owns a car that was used for publicity.

Yeah.

For the grant for the Torino.

And he has one of the sweaters that was it.

Starsky Hutch Hush.

Would wear.

Yeah.

Okay.

And you know, you sit in it and it's like, this is a really nice car.

Yeah.

But as the 70s went on, it was like these cars weren't built very well.

Yeah.

I had my first brand new car, I was 20 years old and I bought a.

A Mustang.

1974 Mustang too.

Yeah.

Full, fully loaded for $3,275.

Yeah.

And it had a V6 in it.

Yeah.

And when I had the air conditioning on and I was going up an upgrade, I would have to shut the air conditioning off, get the engine more power.

Now, these smaller engines are, to me, are very powerful.

Yeah.

But that was like one of the drawbacks.

Yeah.

A lot of Mustang people did not like the 74s because the sizes just went tremendously small.

Yeah.

And I said, well, you know, you may not like it, but the ladies like it.

So, you know, it's always a smart 20 year old then.

But, you know, getting back to the cars, it was like the Dodges that gave were a powerful car.

Yeah.

Everybody liked it, A lot of people liked it.

But you always had to have that hero car.

Yeah.

In the background.

But.

But, yeah, the Dodge seemed, I mean, like to just keep on with the Dodge.

I mean, once again, I think the most famous TV series that the Dodge appeared in or a Dodge appeared in, and they got through hundreds of them, was of course, the infamous Dukes of Hazzard, where they just wrote them off for fun.

And of course, after it had just bananaed after it landed over a big bridge that wasn't there, the hero car made an appearance.

It Was perfectly straight.

That must have done wonders for Dodge's image.

Must the Dukes have Hazard?

I mean, okay, we all watched it for Daisy Duke, of course, but I mean, that car, the General Lee, achieved legendary status, didn't it?

Oh, yeah.

And, and the thing is, again, the, the organization that I belong to, Antique Automobile Club of America, they're a nationwide chapter.

I believe they're going coming over to Europe.

We had a member that owned a Dukes of Hazard car.

Yeah.

But it was, it was never, not that I know of, but it was never used in TV productions.

It was a car that was made to look like.

Yeah, generally.

But I mean, you know, it's like you look inside the car, you look around the car and it brings back all these memories as a kid.

But you know, with the things going on with the states and the pandemic and the Confederate flag, that's a touchy thing over here in the United states.

Yeah.

Whereas 50 years ago a lot of state flags down south had a Confederate flag on it.

Yeah.

Having that flag, now, how would we say it's not in good taste?

Well, I mean, did the replica, did the promo car have its doors, well, welded up like the real General Lee?

What?

Because, I mean, they had to get into it through the windows because it never had any glass in because it would be based on somebody on a car that was used to run moonshine, wasn't it?

Yes.

You know, you got to figure down south, I mean, when we're finished with this product areas, we're going to be going to be with my friends and we're going to run some motor strikes and we'll go up Interstate I40.

It's.

It's that romance of the south, you know, it's.

That's how NASCAR started.

I was going to say from, from running shine.

The cars that were used heavily modified Fords and things like Chevys, Buicks, everything from illegal driving at high speed to shift a little bit of booze around the place came what is America's probably greatest motorsport?

I mean, they are fixated with it, which is nascar.

And I still don't understand how it works at times.

How did you describe it?

Those who like to watch cars turn left.

You stole that from me.

You stole that from me.

But you know, it's.

That's like America and apple pie.

You know, it's NASCAR races.

You know, you have the people that are glued to it.

Yeah.

And then you have people that, they see it on television and they switch you off to the cooking channel, you know, which is my wife, Mrs. Pepperton.

I'll watch it first to you.

But then, you know, the thing, the most important thing is it's.

And you go to an event like that, it's family fun for everyone.

Yeah.

It's to bring your kids to see this.

And the excitement.

The only thing I can compare it to is when I, My father would take me to Yankee Stadium.

Yeah.

And you're seeing the warm ups and you're seeing the television crew and everything, you know, and to me, that was like, wow, this is great.

You know, and the same thing with kids, you know, you take them away from the home environment to a very loud, noisy spectator sport.

Yeah.

And you think it's like, you know, the cars are loaded with sponsor decals and that is a driving positive economy to me.

And back, back in the day, it was all men.

Yeah.

But then women were like, hey, you know, we can drive these cars too.

Yeah.

And now you have a lot.

You have men and women driving these cars.

But to me, it's.

It's a dangerous sport.

But it's automotive.

Yeah.

And I would say that if you ever have a chance to watch it across the pond, I would take it in.

I mean, it's mandatory because I think they once said it's the.

During NASCAR at the races, Bud Visor.

That's when they sell beer.

I mean, they always say other beers are available, but I get the feeling at nascar, other beers aren't available.

You drink Bud Visor.

You don't drink anything at all, but they drink it.

They drink it by the tanker load.

Oh, yeah.

You know, you think about it, it's like Budweiser's sponsoring the program and better.

You better have Budweiser at every concession stand at the stadium.

Budweiser, they've been around for many a year.

Yeah.

And it's.

You see the Clydesdales and all those other.

It's the romance of the past and Budweiser wagon and stuff like that.

So what other automobiles do you want to talk about to our friends across the pond?

It's like I said, the.

I mean, the, the other.

Another one that did incredibly well.

And I think they made three ver.

Three films out of the.

Out of the Franchi, Smokey and the Bandit and the Trans Am.

I once drove a Trans Am.

I was asked.

When I was working for one of the classic car magazines, I was asked to attend an American car event and I was lent this white Trans Am with blue edging.

I don't know whether it was an Indy car.

It was based On a pace car.

It had a 7 1/2 liter V8.

And I've never driven such a slow car in my life.

And it had tremendous horsepower, this huge engine, but it just didn't do anything with it.

But I mean, the Burt Reynolds, Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am, that was the bedroom poster alongside a Lamborghini Countach for hundreds of kids.

I mean, that had to be like the Dukes of Hazard car.

That had to be another legend that crossed America, didn't it?

When that came out?

Yeah.

The United States was.

Let me give you the mood of the country back then.

Vietnam was over.

Okay.

Yeah.

The mood of the country was getting into good times.

I was 22 years old.

Yeah.

I was in college.

And the Smoking the Bandit comes out.

And of course, you had the adorable Sally Fields.

Yep.

And beloved interest.

And it was all.

It was a good time movie.

Yeah.

You know, where you can.

Hey, you can break the law and have a great time and have a fantastic woman on your side and a.

Car that everybody wants to own.

I mean, all Trans Ams, no matter what color they were, nearly all had a big gold eagle on their bonnet, didn't they?

Yes.

Yeah.

My cousin owned one, was white.

And the Firebird on the hood had, like.

It was a black emblem with blue trim.

Dark blue trim.

Yeah.

It was a TV show in the United States, which is becoming very popular again.

The rocker Rockford File.

Oh, yeah.

Now, he drove a commit.

He drove a Camaro, didn't he?

I thought it was a Firebird.

I thought many having said that over the.

As the series progressed, the cars did change.

They became slightly more modern.

But Smoking the Bandit, you know, you had the trailer.

Yeah.

That went with it.

That just.

When Burt Reynolds passed away, that was auctioned off with the Firebird.

Yeah.

You know, that still exists.

The.

It wasn't common.

When you got out of the movies that you had, you had these kids that would peel out.

Yeah.

In the part a lot, you know, in all different types of cars and stuff.

And that was a time where country music was becoming American.

Country music was going very popular.

And everybody was wearing cowboy hats.

I know somewhere in the archives I have a photo of me with a cowboy.

But that's the way things were.

And they were the good times in the United States.

But, you know, it's like my old radio show.

Every car has a story.

This has a very good story.

And from time to time, I'll watch that movie when, you know, it's.

You just get tired of Watching the television and these movies where 50 people get killed by one man in guns.

That you never bother reloading.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

But it would be great for people in England.

What are their thoughts, your listeners?

What are their thoughts of these big powerhouse cars from the United States?

Yeah.

And it'd be interesting to hear what they think would have them contact you.

Yeah.

But to me, this was something that you just grew up with.

Yeah.

You know, the cars back then, they were going through a design change.

Yeah.

Chevrolet.

If you had an impala in the 60s.

Yeah, that was a.

That was a great looking car.

But the impala of the 70s, I just, I was not a fan of it.

Yeah.

As a, as a kid around, man.

I mean, the cars that.

I mean, the cars in the car chase is.

Okay.

Many times they were more than one.

It's like they said, there's the main car, the hero car.

But I mean, the amount of abuse these cars were able to take before they came to a halt was incredible.

And somebody said, well, since a lot of the major running gear was set within this vast body, I conclude that's why these cars could do well in a car chase.

With some of them did get a roll cage.

Somebody did decide, well, we might.

We might try and look after the driver a little bit.

But the cars were able to take incredible amounts of abuse, weren't they, in these car chases?

They were built for the.

What they had available at the time.

But you have to think about this, Mark.

It's.

You're doing production, right.

So you got your.

You got all your actors and actresses that are going to be in the film.

Yeah.

All right.

And if you only have one car and that car, you're flying over a hill and you're coming down 10ft.

Yeah.

You know, you're smashing all the.

The gearbox and the oil pan and everything else.

And then it's like, well, we got to put production on sold.

Yeah.

Because we got to get the car fixed.

They got a lot.

It's like, okay, how many cars do you think we're gonna destroy in making this movie?

And I suppose the other thing was if the production company was buying the cars, because it's like you said a while ago, the manufacturers weren't too keen on giving cars because they knew what would happen to them.

So they go out a bit like maybe to use Gene Hackman's car from the Pontiac Le Mans.

If we go out to a few used car lots, we can out and buy about 10 of them for about $500 a piece.

We can probably get them all identical if we put the same number plate on them all the continuity is no problem.

So I conclude a lot of the time it could have been down to production companies buying cheap cars or the same make a model of car from six or seven used car lots.

I would say, mark that they bought stripped down versions.

You know, it's like what I.

No cigarette lighter.

No.

It was just a stripped down.

Yeah.

Mod.

And it had to be that color that they needed.

Okay.

And if I had a vinyl roof or if it was non vinyl.

And it's.

Back then was a lot of telephone calls.

Yeah.

So I would say different dealerships.

Yeah.

Back then, you think about it in business, it's.

You got to make money.

Yeah.

You know, you can't be, you know, you figure, okay, here's how many production companies are going to be buying or needing a particular brand of automobile.

Yeah.

They will go broke giving away things.

Yeah.

It's like as an automotive illustrator, from time to time I get approached and it's like, could you donate a piece of work?

Yeah.

Well, if I did it for everybody, I'd be working out of a cardboard box.

Yeah.

So maybe there was a deal that they made.

I don't know.

Yeah.

If anybody out there knows, please, I mean, you could.

I mean, I suppose they could contact a chain like there is in England.

Many dealerships are part of a franchise.

So there can be 10 dealerships within that franchise.

So it's a case of.

Well, we'll contact one of the big ones and find out what they've got the most of on.

They use coil lots and if somebody comes back and says, we've got 12 Buick Rivieras, we'll be using a Buick Riviera for that then.

Yeah, yeah.

It's, you know, a lot of times.

And here's something interesting now for new listeners.

I was an art director 20 years at Archie Comic book.

Yeah.

So Archie and Marvel and DC comics, they would put in automobiles.

Yeah.

To get the kids attention.

Yeah.

And I mean, there's this one Archie comic where the character in the comics is driving a Studebaker Avante.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

But it was to get.

It was to get people really into it.

Yeah.

The.

Oh, God, I wish I could remember the name, but they used a Tucker.

Yeah.

And this was like a.

Almost like a.

A horror film.

Yeah.

But I'll have to get the name of that.

But it was to get people to draw people in.

Yeah.

And to me, why not?

Yeah.

You know, but Very interesting.

All the cars that are used and things.

Things in that nature.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't think you'll ever see that in a chase movie now.

I mean, one car, one make.

A model of the.

Of car that has featured in more car chases, be it as a police car or a taxi.

And they must have been written off by their thousands.

But I get the feeling they must have been a good car because there's so many of them.

Was the famous Ford Crown Victoria a bit of an unsung hero?

I mean, what is it about the.

As they were described in one program, the Crown Vic.

I mean, what, what is it about the Crown Vic that made it such a good car chase car or a good car in general?

It was, it was a family car.

Yeah.

It was a car that.

Can you imagine being the account executive at Ford and makes a deal with the United States somehow with every, Almost every police car.

Yeah.

You know, when I lived in Connecticut, they had the Crown Vicks and they had the first song I ever saw, a police car that had blue lights.

Yeah.

And down in New Jersey they had them you would bury like in Smokey the Bandit.

Jackie Gleason had a.

Had a Pontiac.

Yeah.

I never, not that I can recall, never seen a Pontiac police car.

Yeah.

And there's an old television show called Highway Patrol.

Yeah.

With Brawford Crawford.

Yeah.

Who was actually the Lone Ranger on the radio.

And they had these gigantic.

I think was a Buick special.

Yeah.

I mean, if you looked at the car was a gigantic tank.

Yeah.

But why I would have to say it goes to engine power.

Yeah.

Not by the looks of a car now like here in North Carolina.

And thank you for all our police force.

Thank you for your service.

But they drive Mustangs.

Yeah.

And they drive the Ford, not the Broncos.

But it's like an suv.

Yeah.

I. I can't remember that offhand, but the.

It's a powerful car.

And sometimes what kids look for was these police cars that have been retired.

Yeah.

They got those pursuit engines.

Yeah.

Now they know, you know, they don't take them out and you see them from time to time.

And I conclude it's like we were saying, if you're going to buy a car, if you.

You're going to write off 22 cop cars in a movie then, and they're using for Crown Vics, Crown Victorias, then they are going to be easy to find, easy to buy cheap to buy.

And you won't have to look very far for about 20 of them, will you?

Now the Internet helps.

You know where you can find automobiles like this.

Yeah.

And my mentality back.

I just wanted to fix the car up.

It was an old car.

Yeah.

And you think about it, it was only 20 years old.

Yeah.

But to find parts I would have to go to swap meets.

Yeah.

And that was like you may find something, you may not.

And it would take a real long time.

Yeah.

If you wanted to restore that car.

So with the Crown Vix, I would have to say it's engine power.

Yeah.

Now towered big car.

Yeah.

They were a big car.

Out of all the cars we've discussed, from the Ford Crown Victoria, Steve McQueen's Mustang, the Dodge Chargers, the Dodge Challengers, the Ford Gran Torino Sport, the Pontiac Le mans, maybe the two Mustangs from gone in 60 seconds for the old Mustang to the modern one that Nicholas Cage drove.

Which one did you lust after the most?

And which one would you.

I'm a Mustang guy.

I like Mustangs.

I like Mustangs.

It's.

And I'm gonna say something and I hope I don't get any Dodge Charger people mad at me.

But the.

And I told you this when we were.

We were chatting the other day.

It was like.

I thought it was the interior.

Yeah.

Look cheap.

Yeah.

Manufacturers were starting.

You know, the metal was disappearing in the interior of the cars.

Yeah.

But it was all.

To me it was a cheefully made not.

I can't say it just look like everything was plastic.

Yeah.

And every time I see the steering wheel which looks like a bunch of rubber tires put together.

Yeah.

Okay.

I remember when my dad went to.

We went to.

From Dodge time we would go to a car dealership and that was a thrill.

But there was a Dodge dealership in our town.

Yeah.

In Jersey.

And the.

I remember the part where this rib that was around the steering column was separated.

Yeah.

Well, how can you sell something that looks damaged?

Yeah.

What.

I mean I didn't think that way but as a kid at age 15, I thought it was cheap.

Yeah.

Compared to a Ford.

And again back then was dad had that 66 mercury and I thought it was a very well built car.

Yeah.

It was a family car.

But the.

Yeah.

Mustang.

Sorry for rambling but yeah.

Mustang gets my vote.

But I think one thing is like we said, late 60s, 70s, 80s.

I think that was the era of the genuine car chase.

They were genuine cars.

There were real locations.

In the case of McQueen and Clint Eastwood, the actors did drive them or ride them themselves to a degree.

It's like we all know in the Great Escape, Bud Eakin rode the bike over the jump.

And Eakin was involved with Bullitt as well.

There was a degree, there was a line where the production companies used to say to the actors, that's it, you aren't doing that.

We'll get in a stunt driver.

But I think.

I think that was the golden era of proper car chases, wasn't it?

I mean, they just, like we said, they just bribe a few off duty copies, keep them Rolls quiet for a little while, and off they went and they did it.

And the end result was absolutely phenomenal.

Unlike today, which I think all this artificial intelligence, in fact, normal intelligence would be much appreciated at times.

But artificial intelligence is all well and good, but you just look at it and you think that's farcical.

So I think if you haven't seen these Films, Bullet, the 7 Ups, Vanishing Point, Fear is the Key, Gone in 60 Seconds, the original one, French Connection, Smokey and the Bandit.

And you've got to watch Dukes of Hazard, even if it's only for Barbara Bock.

We enjoyed the best of the car chases, I think, to say, Joel, didn't we?

Absolutely, absolutely.

And the thing is, is that I'm big with family.

Yeah.

And if you can watch a movie with your family and you make it special.

Yeah.

I would say that this weekend of good families family movies.

Smokey and the Band.

Yeah.

Here's one.

This is not a.

Not a car chase movie, but Gitty Bang.

Yeah.

You're looking at a brassier automobile.

And I don't want to go off left field on this, but I would feel that it's like a good family movie to start off with is Smoking the Bandit.

Yeah.

And it's just thing I like to say, living in the south, going on 16 years, southern people are.

If you have a conversation with a Southerner, it's like you have a friend for life.

Yeah.

And that's the mentality of it.

But I would.

And take that for what it's worth.

But to watch Smoking the Bandit family movie, great.

You know, other movies, I would say for parents, watch a trailer and then you decide if this is a good movie to have the kids in and stuff like that.

As always, Joe Pep, it's been a pleasure chatting to my colonial friend over in the deep south of America.

That's right.

As we would say in the South.

Y' all come back now, as it.

Says on Beverly Hillbillies, to enjoy a heaping helping of our hospitality.

Well, as they would say in England, it's time for tea and crumpets.

Or as they would say in the United States.

Hey pal, you want a cup of coffee with that donut?

Once again, Joe Pep, it's been a pleasure and I shall no doubt welcome you back in a few weeks time.

Thank you so much and great to have my new friends over in England and keep the faith and have a happy motoring day.