Sunday, November 24, 2013

Top 10 iconic screen cars

by +Brad Naylor

It was a tough task but we have managed to whittle down the list of cars from TV and film to a list of just 10. It took weeks of study and performance measurement to narrow it down and then to place them in order of bestness. We judged the cars on looks, popularity and where they would finish in a race against the other cars. Those numbers were plugged into our secret formula and out popped our top 10.

Top 10 iconic screen cars
It says - Top 10 iconic screen cars
10. The A-Team - 1983 GMC G-Series
The A-Team van, driven my B.A. Baracus, scored very poorly on the looks rating. I pity the fool who thinks they are cool driving one of these. This is the only van in our top 10 and was helped in the popularity listings by the 2010 movie 'The A-Team'. It would finish 8th in the race because B.A. would drink some drugged milk and then Hannibal would have everyone build a flame thrower out of oil drums and garden hose.

9. Gone in 60 seconds (1974) - 1973 Mustang Mach One
The original Eleanor is certainly less well known than the Nicholas Cage one but the 73 Mustang scored higher with our judges than the 67 used in the remake. Even though Eleanor would finish fourth in the race, she scored much lower points on popularity because it was not instantly recognizable as a screen car to our sample group, most of whom are younger than this classic car.



8. Assorted Herbie Movies - 1963 VW Beetle
Herbie was quickly recognized by most of our sample group, but lost a lot of points because of his sadly dated looks and his links to Lindsay Lohan from the 2005 movie, 'Herbie - Fully Loaded'. A disappointing 7th place finish in the race cost Herbie, but not as much as losing a whole bunch of popularity points thanks to LiLo. This leaves the Love Bug at the lower end of this list.



7. The Blues Brothers - 1984 Dodge Monaco
The Bluesmobile was not as widely recognized as we thought it would be by our test audience, which cost it a few places in this list. Even though this car has got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks and it's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas, the lack of a working cigarette lighter cost it dearly. It finished 6th in the race and promptly fell apart after crossing the finish line.


6. The Dukes of Hazard - 1969 Dodge Charger
The General Lee was one of the most recognizable vehicles in our list, it was also the most polarizing with respect to coolness, with the Mason-Dixon line being the pivot point of opinion. This cost The General Lee a few points and left it languishing in mid-table. Even a recent movie version couldn't help The General Lee climb any higher. A fifth place finish in the virtual race is a fair result for this car. 



5. Knight Rider - 1982 Pontiac Trans AM
The Knight Industries Two Thousand known as K.I.T.T or KITT was very well received overall by our focus group. However, the younger members found the 80's icon less impressive than the Dodge version from the 21st century remake. KITT's self driving talents and Turbo Boost helped it to an impressive 3rd place finish in the STP virtual race, but it's looks were left way behind in 1986. It didn't help that KITT's voice sounded like that of a Principal from a kids TV show.


4. Wacky Races - The Double Zero
Dick Dastardly undoubtedly had the fastest car in Wacky Races, but how would he fare against the other iconic cars of our time? The double zero looks awesome with multiple rocket boosters on the back and huge bubble cockpit. Many people recognize this beast instantly and it scored well. Unfortunately this car finished 9th because DD kept stopping while in the lead to booby trap the trailing cars and losing ground when they evaded his efforts.

3. The Wraith - 1984 Dodge M4S prototype
The Turbo Interceptor was the winner of our virtual race, and even though it scored highly on the cool points, many people did not recognize the car or know what movie it was from. That definitely kept the M4S out of the top spot, and even though it is my personal favorite, I have to remain objective and Charlie Sheen's revenge movie car gets bronze medal overall.



2. Back to the Future - 1981 Delorean DMC-12
This car tops many of the other less scientific Top Ten car lists and it would have been top of ours too, if it wasn't for the fact that Marty cheated during the virtual race and used time travel to finish first. He actually finished the race before it started and was disqualified. The Delorean scored very highly on the popularity and looks scale thanks to 3 box office breaking movies plus TV and video game exposure.


1. Batman (1960's series) - 1955 Lincoln Futura Concept
The Batmobile in most of it's incarnations is instantly recognizable by most of the known universe, but the Adam West version just has a kitschy coolness about it. Some younger members of our panel didn't appreciate it's sleek 50's styling of the oldest car in our list, so it did lose a few points, but speed, maneuverability and the speeded up film trick helped the Batmobile to second place in the race and the top of our list.



There you go. You may not agree with this us, but this is the most accurate and scientific Top Ten Car list ever published. Which car do you think should have won? Which car shouldn't be on our list? Share your opinion using the comments section below.





1 comment :

randykw said...

My man, Golf pro Bubba Watson owns the General Lee.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/golf-devil-ball-golf/yee-haw-bubba-watson-buys-dukes-hazzard-car-161745523.html

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