AN ALTERNATIVE POP CULTURE CAR HISTORY

It's a little known fact that a number of famous cars featured on film were originally intended to be another brand of vehicle, such as Batman's Batmobile, Herbie the Love Bug, as well as James Bond's classic Aston Martin DB5. Want to know more? Then please feel free to check out the following article I co-wrote with Bristol Street Motors, which explains the alternatives.

JAMES BOND: In the original series of novels written by Ian Fleming, James Bond was considered a bit of a car enthusiast because he bought a Blower Bentley and treasured it as his own personal hobby. But all of that began to change when Fleming received a letter from a fan who encouraged him to “have the decency to fix 007 up with a decent bit of machinery”. Which he did, after a while, first in the 1959 novel, 'Goldfinger', and then when his movies hit the silver screen with the Aston Martin DB5.

BATMAN: Before George Barris was hired to design the now-famous sixties version of the Batmobile, Dean Jeffries was hired to do exactly the same thing. Although, in his case, Dean's version of the Batmobile turned out to be a 1959 Cadillac, not a Lincoln Futura, which unfortunately wasn't fast enough and led him to drop out of the project. 

THE LOVE BUG:  When the first Herbie movie went into pre-production, circa 1968, a casting call was held in order to select which car should take center stage in this action-packed comedy. Now some of the cars in attendance, included, a couple of Toyotas, a handful of Volvos, and of course, The Volkswagen Beetle, which only won out because it was the only car to elicit an emotional reaction from the cast and crew.

THE ITALIAN JOB: According to the producer, Michael Deeley, he was originally going to use Fiat 500s for the final chase scene featured in his now-classic heist film, 'The Italian Job', because Gianni Agnelli (the then boss of Fiat) offered to supply them free of charge. But, after some careful consideration, he decided to turndown Gianni's offer as he couldn't justify why a gang of patriotic British crooks would want to drive Italian cars instead of their homegrown Mini Coopers.

MAGNUM P.I.: In a book written by Preston Lerner, entitled, 'Speed Read Ferrari: The History, Technology and Design Behind Italy’s Legendary Automaker', Magnum's original car was supposed to be a Porsche 928 because it was the producers preferred choice. However, Tom Selleck's 6-foot-4-inch frame wasn't able to comfortably fit inside this car and Porsche refused to adapt it to his size. So, after a process of elimination, Tom ended up with a Ferrari 308 GTS instead, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

BACK TO THE FUTURE: Believe it or not, in the original script for 'Back To The Future', Marty McFly and Doc Brown were initially going to travel back in time inside a lead-lined refrigerator and not a DeLorean fitted with a flux capacitor. Heck, the only reason Bob Zemeckis (the film's director) decided to switch it from a fridge to a car, was because in his mind it made a bit more sense and it was more visually stimulating.

So there you have it, folks. An alternative look at some of the cars which might have one day become famous. Now please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below, and don't forget to check out Bristol Street Motors via their official Website, Facebook, and Twitter pages.