OT: Best Movie Car Chases

[BMWDriver]

I watched Bullit yet again (1968, starring Steve McQueen) and am still amazed at the car chase scene.

A green Mustang pitted against a mean looking Dodge Charger in the streets of San Francisco. There is no intrusive music but that of the engines singing their low pitched high revs tunes accompanied by tire screams, and the rubbing of metal on metal.

I thought the camera work to be awesome. It feels and looks so real. There's no useless pizzazz.

What a thrill. I heard the French Connection also has one hell of a chase scene too and that Blues Brothers wrecks alot of cars. Gotta rent those soon.

So, which is your favourite?

[Sidney Rough-Diamond]

Ronin. The Italian Job ( orginal ). Check Youtube.

[Barney Paull-Edwards]

Ronin. The Italian Job ( orginal ). Check Youtube.
Has to be Ronin,Jean Ragnotti and Remy Julienne(bloody french!) Anybody who can drive from Paris to Lyon on two wheels has got to be good.

[Sam-Son]

Ronin obviously I had an E34 in it. Next I'd say Vanishing Point and Bullit

[Dr. evil]

some good bimmer shots in TAXI

[Turbo Ready]

Ronin. The Italian Job ( orginal ). Check Youtube.

^^^^^^^ X 10000000000000000000

[Turbo Ready]

Ronin obviously I had an E34 in it. Next I'd say Vanishing Point and Bullit

It actually had several e34's in it :) The complete one that drove, one rolling chassis towed from the front, rear half of another towed from the front, rear half towed from the front, and then the one that took the plunge which might be the same rolling chassis.

All the sound clips were recorded from the complete e34 on a race track with no computer enhancement.

All the stunts were done by a French stunt driver except when the e34 plunged to it's death, other than that no dummies were involved.

I have the DVD and looked at the movie with and without narration, quite a few times, I love it.
You would be amazed at how that movie was made if you looked at it with the narration.

[choccibicci]

Ronin is excellent, quite like some of the scenes from the Bourne series too

[infurno]

last 20 or so min of Gone in 60 Seconds. I especially liked how they interacted with the the environment. They went a little over the top with the flying car but other then that I think its great.

I cant recall the model but the cops chasing had a black BMW.

[Ross]

Oh Yes! Fantastic chase.
The unobtrusive music is by Lalo Schifrin, lots more where that came from.
Seven hubcaps fly off from the Charger as I recall.
DONT miss French Connection. Blues Bros. also excellent in a different way.
After those two watch Vanishing Point.

[Rick L]

+1 Awesome chase and with E34. Someone told me it was M5 but watching it again, I don't think so...


Ronin. The Italian Job ( orginal ). Check Youtube.

[repenttokyo]

Ronin and Bullit top the list for me. 3 other very solid car chase movies are To Live and Die in L.A., vanishing point, and the Seven-Ups.

It's "supposed" to be an M5 in Ronin, yes.

[Bin_jammin]

I watched Bullit yet again (1968, starring Steve McQueen) and am still amazed at the car chase scene.

A green Mustang pitted against a mean looking Dodge Charger in the streets of San Francisco. There is no intrusive music but that of the engines singing their low pitched high revs tunes accompanied by tire screams, and the rubbing of metal on metal.

I thought the camera work to be awesome. It feels and looks so real. There's no useless pizzazz.

What a thrill. I heard the French Connection also has one hell of a chase scene too and that Blues Brothers wrecks alot of cars. Gotta rent those soon.

So, which is your favourite?



A great movie for driving in general is Two Lane Blacktop. A young James Taylor (yes, the singer) plays the driver of a 55 chevy that just roams america looking for drag races. Check it on IMDB, the whole movie is bizarre and then some, but the chevy in that movie is one serious machine, it's one of those legendary cars that actually made it into a movie.

Another great driving movie is C'etait un Rendezvous. Google Rendezvous and look under video, I suggest EVERYONE watch it right now, then read the story of it.

Not really car chase movies, but driving movies for sure. Also a fan of the Getaway in Stockholm series.

[gale]

Borne Identity, Paris, Austin Mini. Cameo appearances of an e39 about 1/3 into the clip, numerous e23's, & an e39 toward the end. What brand bike were the cops riding?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv9BEwvoDoY

Another classic San Francisco chase scene was "Foul Play" late 70's, Chevy Chase & Goldie Hawn.

[Ross]

A great movie for driving in general is Two Lane Blacktop. A young James Taylor (yes, the singer) plays the driver of a 55 chevy that just roams america looking for drag races. Check it on IMDB, the whole movie is bizarre and then some, but the chevy in that movie is one serious machine, it's one of those legendary cars that actually made it into a movie.

Another great driving movie is C'etait un Rendezvous. Google Rendezvous and look under video, I suggest EVERYONE watch it right now, then read the story of it.

Not really car chase movies, but driving movies for sure. Also a fan of the Getaway in Stockholm series.

The '55 was a tunnel rammed rat motor and is supposedly the same one later driven in American Grafitti by Harrison Ford.

[Bin_jammin]

From wikipedia: Two of the '55 Chevys used in the filming of Two-Lane Blacktop were later used in the filming of American Graffiti. In the early 2000s, Chevy High Performance magazine ran an article about the 1955 Chevrolets used in the film, where a third car exists (this is the car seen at the gas station) - the builder of the car (Richard Ruth) confirmed that the third car (located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) does exist.

I remember reading that article, and from what I can recall the car was actually seriously more bad-ass than was let on. Full tube frame type bad-ass. The third car is the one that's fully built,and was built by Competition Engineering, a race engineering company. I don't know who the guy the article names as the builder is, or what his connection to CompE is, but I got that info from a friend that worked for the company about 10 years ago, so it must be true :)

[repenttokyo]

A great movie for driving in general is Two Lane Blacktop. A young James Taylor (yes, the singer) plays the driver of a 55 chevy that just roams america looking for drag races. Check it on IMDB, the whole movie is bizarre and then some, but the chevy in that movie is one serious machine, it's one of those legendary cars that actually made it into a movie.


james taylor AND one of the beach boys.

[Sam-Son]

It actually had several e34's in it :) The complete one that drove, one rolling chassis towed from the front, rear half of another towed from the front, rear half towed from the front, and then the one that took the plunge which might be the same rolling chassis.

All the sound clips were recorded from the complete e34 on a race track with no computer enhancement.

All the stunts were done by a French stunt driver except when the e34 plunged to it's death, other than that no dummies were involved.

I have the DVD and looked at the movie with and without narration, quite a few times, I love it.
You would be amazed at how that movie was made if you looked at it with the narration.
I've done the same thing I think I watched the movie back to back about 3 or 4 times(I love that movie) they put a blonde wig on the french F1 driver who was in the E34... lot of debate as to whether it was an M5 or a 535, I'm pretty sure they used a combo of different E34's

Infurno the cops in gone in 60 secs used an E39 540 w/o a sport pack.

also Two lane Blacktop is a great one I can't seem to find a copy for sale or rent. and the '55 chevy was also used in American Graffiti. Another fun fact is that the director of smokey and the bandit didn't car for the sound of the firebird so he dubbed in the sound of the 55's 454 V8.

Bin_jammin
Do you know the story behind Rendevous? What car was actually used?
It's not what everyone thinks it is.

BMWDriver
Bullit would have to get the nod for alltime greatest chase scene eventhough Ronin features an E34, Bullit is the one which set the bench mark. like you said no intrusive music just the glorious sound of a Ford V8


OK there must be a way to multi-quote people on a thread

[Turbo Ready]

OK there must be a way to multi-quote people on a thread

Of course there is. Hit "reply" one each for every person you want to respond to, copy and paste their reply into your reply, then type your text in between the individual replies accordingly.

Sounds confusing, but it's easy.

[Sam-Son]

Of course there is. Hit "reply" one each for every person you want to respond to, copy and paste their reply into your reply, then type your text in between the individual replies accordingly.

Sounds confusing, but it's easy.
Damn I wish I had klnown that before hand...oh well

[LunatiC]

No one mentioned The Transporter with the tricked-out E38???

Ronin and Bullitt are my favs, but that has been mentioned like a gazillion times already.

[Ross]

You forgot Warren Oates. "I'm a factory test driver"

[Ross]

Sam-Son,
My understanding was a 275GTB piloted by an un-named F1 driver of the day.
What's your story?

[winfred]

loved the mini chase, the chase in the 2nd movie was a little lacking, can't wait for the 3rd movie, i think the cops were riding beemers, atleast one or two


Borne Identity, Paris, Austin Mini. Cameo appearances of an e39 about 1/3 into the clip, numerous e23's, & an e39 toward the end. What brand bike were the cops riding?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv9BEwvoDoY

Another classic San Francisco chase scene was "Foul Play" late 70's, Chevy Chase & Goldie Hawn.

[Ross]

Hey, I almost forgot "The Italian Job". Not the remake but the original with Michael Cain. The beginning with the Lambo and E-Jag are enough to make me cry now. The stuff done with the Minis is great too.

[Sam-Son]

Sam-Son,
My understanding was a 275GTB piloted by an un-named F1 driver of the day.
What's your story?
That's what is what I was originally told but recently I found out the claude lelouch, the director straped a camera to the front of his mercedes s class and drove around himself and then dubbed in the 275 sounds...well that's what Fifth Gear says...I still like to think it's an F1 driver and a Ferrari

[whiskychaser]

1. Italian job (with the proper MKII minis)
2. Bullit (it started it all)
3. Duel (Dennis Weaver with an iffy head gasket?)
In no particular order. All brilliant

[ber55ber55]

Also what about the Borne Supremacy. when they are in Russia going through the freeway tunnels with the little yellow taxi. The camera angles on that were pretty hard core

[Chris'91'525i]

I remember when Bullit first came out at the movies. It really (really) took your breath away. Even to those of us, that grew up in and around in the SF bay area, 1960-70's street racing culture.
As mentioned the sounds of just the chase were mesmerizing. The high Revs of the 390-GT, to the low rumbling torque MOPAR 440.
It was amusing to us though, that those of us who knew the area where they shoot the scenes, one cut to an other could be miles away from the the last one shot.
Never the less, It still holds up very well, IMO !

Watched Ronin again last week.
The movie and again with the Frankenheimer commentary (did the same thing with Frankenheimer's "Grand Prix", what a great director he was !)first lazy weekend in a looong time :) ).
Those stunt drivers were amazing. Like when Deniro's "Sam" shot that LAW rocket from the sunroof, the driver in the shot car triggered the explosive that flipped the car over as he was driving it. He also did the the cop car flip in the tunnel scene.
I did not realize my cars exhaust was supposed to be as raspy as it is at high Revs, until I saw Ronin. They recorded the actual cars in movie at the race track to dub the movie.

BTW, the bikes in Damon's first BI movie look like 1990's Euro BMW K1100 RTP's

[repenttokyo]

That's what is what I was originally told but recently I found out the claude lelouch, the director straped a camera to the front of his mercedes s class and drove around himself and then dubbed in the 275 sounds...well that's what Fifth Gear says...I still like to think it's an F1 driver and a Ferrari


I don't believe the story that it was a 6.9 - I think they are just blowing smoke up our asses.

[Ross]

That certainly is something made up. The sounds are DEFINATELY Ferrari V-12, I have one I know. It's not so inconceivable someone would do this. If it was Lelouch he missed his calling.
As for speculation the whole thing is bogus, all I can say is if so it's the most convincing fake I've ever seen. This was done in '73 without the aid of all the computer hoo-ha that might be able to pull it off today.
Regardless, it's a thrilling spectacle that no car nut should miss.

[JoshsE34-M50]

Yeah, The Transporter was awesome with the 7 Series.

[Herb]

I don't recall the name of the movie, but it stared the hollogram guy from the Quantum Leap series in the ninties. The chase involved a Pantera De'Tomaso and I think a 911 (the Pantera was the focus), the plot was an undercover cop's brother was run off the road by a crooked car collector/drug dealer, the chase seen took place at night and ended in the bad guy going off a cliff.

My absolute favorite chase seen is my drive to/from work every weekend (e30
), three 90* turns, an "s" with elevation change, and all types of fun, my best time is 2min 55sec on the way to work and 3min even on the way home. I'll clock milage tomorrow on the way to work in the e34 (odo works in the e34).... 3.8 miles.

[Sam-Son]

I don't believe the story that it was a 6.9 - I think they are just blowing smoke up our asses.
I think so also and even if it was true I'd still like to believe it's a Ferrari

Ross-Did you say you had a V12 Ferrari? Which one?

[we_call_him_doher]

Ronin is great. I own that dvd just for the 2.5 car chases. The transporter and bourne identity and bourne supremacy were also great.

No one has mentioned James bond "tommorow never dies" a nice tricked out 7 series racing around a parking garage. mmmmmmm

Finally if you havent seen bourne ultimatum in theatre, GO! non-stop action and some pretty sweet car chases that completely destroy some of the cars like a chevy cop car (thank god).

I love a great car chase.

[Bin_jammin]

Bin_jammin
Do you know the story behind Rendevous? What car was actually used?
It's not what everyone thinks it is.


Actually, I've known it was a Mercedes for a few years. If you go to google video and search for rendezvous there's a making of movie that's a few minutes long, even though it's in french it's pretty easy to figure out what they're talking about.

There are also quite a few web pages devoted to the movie debunking the overall speed of the car, which if you follow the route and time it it's really not that fast at all. Granted there are plenty of red lights run and whatnot, but it's nothing I haven't done myself personally living in Boston for 10 years. In fact, if you check this link to google maps, I made this trip in 12 minutes, including going over the tobin bridge at over 100mph. It was a Sunday morning in June (coincidence, I swear) and I had to be at the Home Depot on Rt 1 to fire one of our employees. I woke up with about 15 minutes to get there on time, I got dressed and was 5 minutes late, caught 3 red lights on the way. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=21+custer+st+jamaica+plain+ma&daddr=42.477055,+-71.020775&sll=42.394635,-71.067365&sspn=0.233773,0.466919&ie=UTF8&ll=42.39253,-71.069183&spn=0.23378,0.466919&t=h&z=11&om=1

Point being, if you're willing to drive like a madman in a city with no traffic, covering a lot of distance quickly is more a matter of maintaining a high average speed, not having ridiculously high top speeds.

[Ross]

400i, sadly unused lately.

[Sam-Son]

400i, sadly unused lately.
Nice does that only come witrh an auto or is that the 412? My father just got rid of a Mondial 8

[Ross]

The 400i is available auto or five speed. The vast majority are automatics, GM's T400 mated to a torque tube.

[winfred]

i liked golden eye better where he is handling up on that f355 in the old db5, you tell whoever is driving the asten is flogging it hard from the gas belching out the exhaust on the shifts



No one has mentioned James bond "tommorow never dies" a nice tricked out 7 series racing around a parking garage. mmmmmmm