Internet Movie Car Database

[John Blankenship]

One of my favorite Ferraris of all time is the Lusso Berlinetta. Many years ago, when I owned a Porsche 912, I attended a road rally where I had my first in-person encounter with a Lusso Berlinetta. I had seen pictures of them in various car magazines, and had taken a liking to the vehicle just from that exposure, but I'll never forget my reaction at seeing one up close. There's something about the exact size and proportions of a great sculpture that can never be understood without a personal encounter, and that's true about the Lusso Berlinetta. I immediately fell madly in love.

A while back I did an internet search to see what these magnificent beauties were bringing when offered for sale. Among those I found was the following brown (Marrone Metallizzato) one that had been owned by Steve McQueen and was up for auction. It brought 2.31 mil (2007).

http://stylecrave.co...inetta-lusso-3/

Here's a nice write-up:

http://jalopnik.com/...onterey-auction

For those who have not seen one in person, trust me, a photo does not do it justice.

[Jeff Wexler]

I remember my father brought one of these beautiful cars in from Italy one year but in blue. I think it wound up being sold to James Coburn. It was a true beauty, perfectly proportioned, a site to behold even just standing still.

Steve McQueen’s Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso 3

[Rich Van Dyke]

Michael Regalia, who found and restored the McQueen Ferrari, also found and restored and now drives McQueen's 1976 Porsche turbo Carrera, painted in slate grey McQueen's favorite color for Porsches.

Nice find John,

RVD

[Jim Gilchrist]

I remember my father brought one of these beautiful cars in from Italy one year but in blue. I think it wound up being sold to James Coburn. It was a true beauty, perfectly proportioned, a site to behold even just standing still.

Steve McQueen’s Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso 3

To me this has always been the car I would hope to have one day.

This entire thread has been an excellent read. Thanks, Al, for starting it and Rich and Jeff for fleshing it out.

Best regards,

Jim

[John Blankenship]

It's amazing, among the volumes of equipment and procedures chatter, some of the best threads we've had have been the favorite pets, cars, and music threads.

Along with being sound geeks, we're people, too. Nice.

[old school]

It's amazing, among the volumes of equipment and procedures chatter, some of the best threads we've had have been the favorite pets, cars, and music threads.

Along with being sound geeks, we're people, too. Nice.

Plus 1

[Rich Van Dyke]

Another couple of trivia notes from the movie "Bullitt," Frank Bullitt retraces the path of the victim, with the cab driver that drove him to the various spots, the cab driver, Robert Duval. The beautiful Porsche 356 cabriolet that Jacqueline Bisset's character drives Bullitt in, was owned by the production manager Jack Reddish, a longtime friend of McQueen's.

Too hot here in Los Angeles, for cars of any kind, except maybe at the Petersen Automotive Museum a great way to lose time wandering around.

Cheers,

RVD

[Rich Van Dyke]

In reading Davey Jordan's account of the 1965 Los Angeles Times Grand Prix, at Riverside Raceway, he was there as a support driver and because Haskell had driven the 275 LM to the race, they decided to enter it in the race. In the earlier pictures I posted they should have been in the other order. Jordan said that in turn 5 he ran wide and drove over a tire, and then the photo of him out of the car looking for damage, then he got back in the car and realized that the radiator had been damaged and when he got to turn 7 and 7A the water from the radiator had dumped in front of the rear wheels, thus causing the spin that we see in the other photo.

Another interesting story that Davey Jordan tells is that Haskell took the car to "Nat the fiberglass guy" to have the car repaired, only the car should have been made from aluminium, not fiberglass.

Here's a little sound, allegedly from a 250 LM which had a smaller engine 3.0 litre as opposed to the 3.3 in the 275. For the record, this Ferrari 250/275 was the winner of LeMans 24 hour race in 1965, the last time Ferrari won the race overall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdMSI7vwqhE&feature=related

Let's hope that this Ferrari 275 LM in Ralph Lauren's collection, is Haskell's old car. Lauren is a true collector and I've seen many specials about the extensive work he does in the restoration of his cars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_m0pG96FUw&NR=1

I think one thing was for sure, you could really "hear" Haskell coming and going, much like when my family sat down for dinner, and we could hear my brother coming home from work riding his Honda SL-350 with the "TT" pipes he put on it.

Cheers,

Rich Van Dyke

[Richard Lightstone, CAS]

This thread is getting to the point of it's own site! Go RVD and Jeff!

[Rich Van Dyke]

Thanks for the encouragement Richard, okay here's my Ferrari connection. I worked on the Sammy Hagar video, "I Can't Drive 55."

The Ferrari 512 BB, berlinetta boxer the type of body style and engine configuration, was Hagar's own Ferrari. At the top of the video Hagar pulls in to the "pits" and asks Claudio what he did to it, Claudio was a very famous Ferrari technician in San Francisco who drove the car down for the shoot, getting a ticket going 150 MPH. Also, another "insider" was the hanging judge, this is John Kalodner a very famous A&R man back in the day. Kalodner was a good friend of Hagar's and along with signing Hagar he was also responsible for signing Peter Gabriel, AC/DC. Foriegner, and Phil Collins to name a few to then Atlantic Records.

Funny looking at the video now, how about those stage outfits for Hagar and his bandmates!! This was the days of 24 hour music video shoots for a flat fee and equipment. All of the shots of Hagar singing in the car were done on an insert trailer, the company had forgotten to tell me of this when I was hired, so while the car is being towed by a camera car I'm sitting next to Sammy with my Nagra and a small portable set of speakers I just happened to have with me.

My brother who is now retired, was a paramedic firefighter for Los Angeles, and this was the first and only time he ever worked on a movie set as a medic, didn't like it.

I now take you back to the 1980's

[Rich Van Dyke]

This is one of my favorite "car" moments in a movie. This is a clip from a Walter Hill directed film, "The Driver," originally intended as a starring vehicle for Steve McQueen to capitalize on his association with cars. McQueen sat the film out, and Ryan O'Neal replaced him unfortunately, they did use one of McQueen's acting "techniques" to say as little as possible. In the film, Bruce Dern plays a cop out to get the driver.

Not a great film by any stretch, but this "audition" scene is one that I'm sure McQueen would have loved to do. Notes, the color of the Mercedes is not a "factory" offered color, this would indicate that numerous cars were used, you can see primer on the rear of the car as the bumper comes off, and the next cut the primer is gone. Trivia, this sequence was shot in Century City, California in the underground parking garage that was under the ABC Entertainment Complex, now long gone, this underground parking garage was also were a young student, George Lucas, shot the driving shots for his thesis, "THX-1138."

I hope this video loads?

My ears tell me that all the dialogue was replaced in this sequence, possibly due to the echo of the garage. In this film at the end sequence we find Ryan O'Neal and Isabella Rossellini in a truck having caused some bad guys to "ditch" their car. Again, it would appear that the dialogue was cut out, and when the bad guys run away you see the flapping radio mic transmitter waving back to the audience. This was filmmed long before video assist was present on film sets, so no one probably noticed the transmitter until dailies the next day.

Cheers,

Rich Van Dyke

[old school]

Great clip RVD. Where was Steve McQueen when this movie needed him? I worked for Walter Hill on "Streets of Fire" and Walter is a director who likes few words on screen. He was a wonderful guy to work for and a historian of film and a lover of myth making. He told me about being a 2nd AD on Bullet and Thomas Crown Affair as a young man and how it inspired him to become a director himself. Good memories.

CrewC

[Paul Graff]

What a thoroughly enjoyable thread. I have delighted in every tale told. Cars had already been on my brain lately as I am in the market for a new (or used) one.... Then I had a job with Jay Leno in his garage yesterday and it stirred up many dormant automotive passions. (Brings new meaning to the word "garage", btw. It even has a website, jaylenosgarage.com). We scouted there Friday and I was naturally reticent to explore very much until encouraged by Jay's friendly and welcoming employees. What a treasure trove. Now practicality and pleasure and power and efficiency and convertibility and cargo-ability, etc., etc., etc. have been battling it out in my brain as I decide what to buy.

Thanks to that experience and this thread it's getting harder to commit to my original plan of a Ford Transit Connect. I have always had practical cars; import wagons, mostly, but that thing is REALLY utilitarian. But REALLY practical. Damn. Maybe a used Astro van AND a bitchin' convertible.

Sigh... Anyway, thanks again for the amazing stories and pictures.

Paul

[Jeff Wexler]

Rich is right on all of this. I used to hang out at Dean Jefferies all the time with my father. Dean built, or highly modified/customized, 2 cars for my father and even did a set of custom seats for my MGA. I was always fascinated by what he had in the shop that they were working on for movies and TV shows. There was a real rivalry between George Barris and Dean, and probably a whole lot of competitive business negotiating for contracts behind the scenes.

Thank you once again, Rich, for providing such interesting and vibrant history here on JWSOUND.

[ccsnd]

I love this so much.

I just sold a 77 trans am a few months ago. One of my favorite tv cars of all time. It was my dream car to have, I just didn't have the time for it that it deserved.

[ccsnd]

The second one is almost exactly the conversation I had with my family after bringing home my firebird.

[old school]

Hey RVD, even though I'm not really a car guy, I've been around them and hotrods my whole life. I even worked at OCIR from 67 to 72 and got to know many of the players and I like the sport but not enough to do any racing myself. That said, I really enjoy this topic and all your posts. Great history. I wish you could of been w me when I recorded Seinfelds Acura commercial. He came to work in a different Porsche everyday that the real car guys were drooling over. The best day was when Leno did his part. What a pissing contest. A very funny one at that. Keep up the good work.

CrewC

[chriskellett]

I am with you RVD, I am stuck on Porsches as well. I went to the Amelia Island show this year partly to see the Drendel collection together in person before they were sold. This 917-30 was an interesting car because it really had no race history, it was a back up car that was not finished before the sister car ( 003 ) killed the class off 1973. I spoke to Jeff Zwart at the auction and he used a a bunch of the Drendel collection in his Porsche "Family Tree" spot a few years ago. Here are a few photos from the show, which was the best collection of cars I have ever seen in person in a single place. As a sound person, it was great because all of the cars must be driven on and off of the field. One of the high points of the show was a moment when we got stuck on a river ferry with $150 million dollars worth of Ferrari GTO's that were out for a drive.