If you’re a petrol head then you can’t beat watching a movie full of gorgeous cars and some decent chase scenes. There are so many fantastic car movies it’s hard to whittle it down to just ten, but here are what we think might just be the top ten best car movies of all time, in no particular order:
ndercover cop Brian O’Connor infiltrates the street racing world and falls in love; both with the scene and with Mia, the sister of Dominic Toretto, the guy he’s there to convict. The Fast and the Furious is full of fast cars to drool over and there’s a great soundtrack to match, featuring the likes of Limp Bizkit, Ja Rule and Ludacris. The popularity of this movie spawned a whole franchise, with seven Fast and Furious films made so far.
In this remake of the 1974 film, Nicolas Cage plays Memphis Raines, a retired car thief who must steal 50 cars in one night if he’s going to save his brother’s life. The most famous car in Gone in Sixty Seconds is a customised 1967 Shelby GT 500 called “Eleanor”. Eleven Mustangs were built for the film, but five were written off during stunts!
This classic caper starring Michael Caine follows a gang attempting to steal gold bars from a convoy in Turin by creating a traffic jam. The movie’s other stars are its three iconic Minis. There are fantastic car chase sequences, with the Minis escaping down narrow streets and even sewers. This movie was remade in 2003 with Mark Wahlberg, but nothing beats the original.
This super film depicts the rivalry between Formula One racing drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda in the 1970s, back in the day when professional racing was extremey dangerous. Both drivers were willing to risk everything, and it nearly cost Lauda his life. The fierce competition between the two drivers resulted in the 1976 German Grand Prix going ahead even though most of the drivers voted for it to be cancelled due to the wet weather. Lauda’s crash left him in hospital with third-degree burns and toxic fumes in his lungs. Despite this, he returned to the race track.
Taxi is a comedy caper directed by Luc Besson. The main protagonist, Daniel, races around the streets of Marseille in his modified Peugeot 406. It looks like a regular car until he presses buttons that change the wheels and flip out a body kit, and he swaps the normal steering wheel for a race wheel. The newly qualified taxi driver is at risk of losing his licence due to getting caught speeding. He has to help police officer Emilien, who can’t drive, by chauffeuring him around on the trail of German bank robbers.
This movie is the supernatural story of an evil 1958 Plymouth Fury, named “Christine” by its new owner, teenager Arnie Cunningham. The geeky teen restores the car from junkyard scrap to its original condition, but as he spends more time with his car, Arnie’s personality starts to change. Christine has a mind of her own and starts to destroy anyone that threatens her and Arnie.
In this Disney classic a Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own, named Herbie, enables a down-on-his-luck racing driver to start winning races. Herbie helps Jim to become a successful racing driver, but then the car dealer who owned Herbie wants him back. They end up having to race the cheat in the big El Dorado race to try and keep Herbie.
Set in the Australian desert, this post-apocalyptic movie starring a young Mel Gibson sees his character, Max Rockatansky, turn from a policeman into a road warrior known as ‘Mad Max’ as he seeks revenge for the death of his wife and child. The film features the “Pursuit Special”, a 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT.
In the film that introduced Tom Cruise to Nicole Kidman, Cruise plays Nascar hot shot Cole Trickle whose attitude gets him in trouble both off and on the speedway track. The score was written by famous movie composer Hans Zimmer, and Days of Thunder received an Oscar nomination for best sound.
Who doesn’t love a Disney film? Disney Pixar’s Cars features a collection of cars as it’s main characters. Lightning McQueen is a hot racing car with stickers for headlights that ends up in a small town repairing the road as punishment for accidentally damaging it. He starts off wanting to leave Radiator Springs as quickly as possible, but he learns to love the simple locals and changes his values in true Disney style.
Do you agree with our selection? Let us know what your favourite car movie is!
