HOLLYWOOD CARS MUSEUM
5115 DEAN MARTIN DR #905
LAS VEGAS, NV 89118
(702) 331.6400
http://hollywoodcarsmuseum.com/
The Hollywood Cars Museum Las Vegas, is close to the strip, but a world away. It is in a business park, with all the normal business park stuff, delivery trucks, trash bins, and a little seedy. Inside is much the same, but there is a simple truth about movie cars. They are also not slick, then it occurred to me, these are not “cars” – these are movie props and are finished to the degree they need to be for the film.
There are a lot of James Bond cars and Liberace cars and a lot more, As you see these cars one realizes these are a different type of museum.
The Starsky & Hutch 1976 Ford Gran Torino is famous. There were a number of these cars, about 10. At the end of the series Ford took them back. They were sold at auction. The show ran from 1975 to 1979. The series drove sales of these. Starsky and Hutch were cool and so was the Gran Torino. The “Striped Tomato” was a 351-cu.in. Windsor V-8 with a 152 hp merger.
You can see this car lacks door cards and has a rough interior. These were not needed for the show
Back to the Future DeLorean Time Machine
The DeLorean was not a fast car, it was not a reliable car, the economics of the car failed, but it is iconic, for one reason. It was the “Back to the Future” car. It is a car everybody knows.
The builder, John DeLorean, was nothing if not controversial. The whole feeling was a little outside the rules, a little dangerous, Close up you can see the parts. They are movie props.
This car has been copies many times. Seeing the original it was a collection of the parts they could find, it is not refined, it is not slick, it did not need to be.
There were 3 built. They were built for exterior, interior and running shots. The 88 mph was shown in a mocked up fake speedo controlled by the movie techs. It reads 95mph, the real DeLorean complied with Federal requirements and reads only 85 mph.
This is an interesting car.
James bond always has Gadgets and a few of them are “cars” or planes or……whatever Q can come up with. These are props, but the image created is that science and engineering are there, well they are not actually there, but it is fun to imagine.
An Aston Martin that equipped with Skis for use on snow. A car that converts to a sub in the form of a Lotus Esprit, a compact jet place
Interesting departure from reality
