Miata Mailing List: March 1999, Message #308

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John Freas wrote:
> > Of course, the only tough part of The Italian Job is all of the exotica
> > cars that they wreck...starting with the Lamborghini Miura, a couple of
> > Jaguar E-types, and an Aston-Martin convertible...along wtih the three
> > Coopers in the end too.  I shed a tear every time I watch it.
>
> Could they be replicas?  The only reason I ask is that these days the movie
> studios often substitute a good replica for a real car when it's time to
> destroy it (Ferris Bueller's friend Cameron did /not/ kick a 1961 Ferrari
> California out the back window of the garage), so for now I'm living with the
> perhaps naive belief that they don't just go around trashing irreplaceable
> vintage cars.
>
>    -John

Well, at the time the movie was made they weren't irreplaceable vintage cars,
they were current production cars.  As far as I could tell, the Miura may have
been a Lamborghini test or styling dummy mock-up (for some reason I questioned
it when it was pushed off the cliff, although it was definitely authentic before
it drove into the tunnel), but I was quite certain the Jags, Aston, and Minis
were unfortunately real.

I recall watching an episode of the TV show Vegas many, many years ago where Dan
was chasing a deTomaso Pantera (a mid-engine Ford V8 powered Italian exotic car
that was imported to the US during the early '70s , for you youngsters) in his
vintage T-Bird (and keeping up, of course, in classic Hollywood style).  At some
point, the Pantera driver eventually screwed up and drove off a cliff.  The
camera shot from below showing the underside of the car as it flew off the cliff
was revealing in showing the exhaust system running from the front of the car to
the back ...

Regards,
Gordon Choate
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
96 BRG/tan