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Automotive Lifestyle
AUTOS: Hollywood’s Hottest Car Chases - Cannonball Run (1981)
Cannonball Run had a host of well know Stars with Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Jackie Chan, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dom DeLuise all played prominent roles.
The Lamborghini Countach drove from the screen into everyone's dream car garage after the appearance in Cannonball Run. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)
You know who you are. Somewhere on your bedroom wall was a picture of a mid-1980s Lamborghini Countach. Oddly wedge shaped, wickedly fast and beautifully symphonic. That car was in every teenage boy’s dream garage.
Nothing epitomized why people loved that car more than the opening scene from director Hal Needham’s original 1981 comedy, Cannonball Run. Stars were aplenty in this film as Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Jackie Chan, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dom DeLuise all played prominent roles. Written by former SPEED on-air personality Brock Yates, and based on his real life, cross-country outlaw road race which started in Connecticut and ended at SoCal’s Redondo Beach Pier, this movie became a big hit – the sixth highest grossing film of 1981 – and has a special place in every car junkie’s heart.
Back to the opening scene, Jill Rivers (Tara Buckman) and Marcie Thatcher (Adrienne Barbeau) are driving a black 1982 Lamborghini LP500 Countach. This was the first time Lamborghini had built a U.S. legal version of the 80s super car. It’s a simple chase that mainly features a humorous cat-and-mouse game between the Lamborghini and an early 80s Pontiac Trans Am chase vehicle of a befuddled Nevada Highway Patrol officer. The funny dialogue, catch music and engine set the tone for a fun 95 minutes.
What to look for… Pay attention to the dialogue, and where the officer tells dispatch he thinks he can pursue the Lamborghini to. Also note the presumptive nature of the officer about who’s actually driving the car.
Watch the Chase
Nothing epitomized why people loved that car more than the opening scene from director Hal Needham’s original 1981 comedy, Cannonball Run. Stars were aplenty in this film as Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Jackie Chan, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dom DeLuise all played prominent roles. Written by former SPEED on-air personality Brock Yates, and based on his real life, cross-country outlaw road race which started in Connecticut and ended at SoCal’s Redondo Beach Pier, this movie became a big hit – the sixth highest grossing film of 1981 – and has a special place in every car junkie’s heart.
Back to the opening scene, Jill Rivers (Tara Buckman) and Marcie Thatcher (Adrienne Barbeau) are driving a black 1982 Lamborghini LP500 Countach. This was the first time Lamborghini had built a U.S. legal version of the 80s super car. It’s a simple chase that mainly features a humorous cat-and-mouse game between the Lamborghini and an early 80s Pontiac Trans Am chase vehicle of a befuddled Nevada Highway Patrol officer. The funny dialogue, catch music and engine set the tone for a fun 95 minutes.
What to look for… Pay attention to the dialogue, and where the officer tells dispatch he thinks he can pursue the Lamborghini to. Also note the presumptive nature of the officer about who’s actually driving the car.
Watch the Chase
Goodwood Festival Of Speed
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