10 Muscle Cars Hollywood Made Famous Now Chased By Real Collectors
Back when NASCAR was still stock car racing, there was a saying that went to the effect of “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” because fans wanted to own the car their favorite driver took the checkered flag in. In the late 1960s, automakers discovered another important promotional tool and that was product placement in film and TV. Much like how people ran out and adopted huskies because they looked like the dire wolves from Game of Thrones, fans genuinely wanted a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T after it was cast as the bad guy car in the Steve McQueen action/thriller Bullitt. There have been plenty of iconic muscle cars that have graced both the big and small screens, which helped drive sales, and today some of those set-used cars are driving collectors crazy, because they want the ultimate souvenir from their favorite movie or TV show.
10
1978 Pontiac Firebird Esprit
Rockford Files
The Rockford Files ran on NBC from 1974–1980 and starred James Garner as the quick-witted private investigator known for pulling J-turns in a Copper Mist Pontiac Firebird Esprit. Each season Jim Rockford would get a new Firebird Esprit, but as the series wore on, the production would often use a different trim like a Trans Am or Formula and transform it into an Esprit. Normally, a ’74 and beyond Firebird Esprit isn’t all that valuable, with a J.D. Power average retail price of just $16,900, but if it has some provenance like being used in The Rockford Files, it becomes infinitely more expensive. A 1978 Pontiac Firebird Formula that was definitely on set sold for $105,000 at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale 2019. Another ’78 Firebird that was also used in the show sold more modestly at Mecum Kissimmee 2015 for $44,000, but that’s still far more than one that James Garner never drove.
9
1976 Ford Gran Torino
Starsky & Hutch
The premise for the ’70s buddy cop drama Starsky & Hutch was basically two undercover detectives driving around town in the most conspicuous vehicle possible, solving crimes. That undercover set of wheels was a 1975-1976 Ford Gran Torino in red with big white vector stripes and is one of the most iconic TV muscle cars ever. It was such a hit that Ford actually built 1,000 or so special editions to feed the public’s appetite. Neither Hagerty nor J.D. Power have a price on a ’76 Starsky & Hutch Gran Torino, which doesn’t bode well for its value. As for the authentic “Striped Tomato,” it turns out they are surprisingly affordable too, with one used for static shots selling for $50,900 on Bring a Trailer in 2024. While not a ton of money for such a cool piece of memorabilia, it’s still loads more than replicas go for, including one built by George Barris that was used as a promotional vehicle which only fetched $27,500 at auction.
8
1970 Dodge Challenger R/T
Vanishing Point
The 1971 car chase film Vanishing Point has an almost non-existent plot and a preposterous ending in which the hero chooses to blow himself up rather than face a few moving violation tickets. That being said, the car he drives for the entire film is a white 1970 Dodge Challenger 440 R/T, and watching that beauty outrun the law for 90 minutes straight never gets old. Here’s the irony of this one, because collectors are chasing a real movie car from a car chase movie and there’s almost no chance that they will ever catch one. There were five cars used in the movie that were on loan from Chrysler, and when filming wrapped, they were returned where they were allegedly crushed. Still, there is a slim chance that maybe some of them avoided the crusher and are sitting in someone’s garage right now. While we can’t give a price on a movie car, a ’70 440 R/T has a Concours condition value of $155,333, while the only white one we found at auction sold for only $52,000 on Bring a Trailer.
7
1967 Ford Mustang
Gone in 60 Seconds
The “Eleanor” car from the original 1974 Gone in 60 Seconds was a 1971 Ford Mustang that was made to look like a ’73 Mach 1 and is a top five movie car icon. Unfortunately, both of the cars used in the filming are unavailable as the glamor car was crushed and the stunt car, which is a heap of twisted metal, is in a museum. On the other hand, the Eleanor car from the former 2000 remake, which is a 1967 Mustang fastback with GT500 styling is all kinds of available. The production used 11 cars, with seven surviving, and at least three that have hit the auction scene. A Gone in 60 Seconds “hero” car went up for auction at Mecum Kissimmee in 2016, reaching a bid of $400,000 but failed to sell. One that was used for glamor interior shots actually did bring the hammer down at Mecum Kissimmee 2020 for $775,000, but that’s chump change compared to the high-seller. At Mecum’s 2013 Spring Classic auction, a different hero car blew up the block, selling for a cool $1 million.
6
1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am
Knight Rider
The Knight Industry Two Thousand (K.I.T.T.) car from the Knight Rider TV series was actually a modified 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. The series, which only ran from 1982–1986, has become a cult classic, which means everyone would love to get their hands on a real K.I.T.T., and luckily, that’s possible. They used around 25 cars for the show, most of which were totaled in stunt work, but there are as many as four still in existence. One described as a hero car was offered at a 2015 Julian’s auction, with an estimated value of $200,000–$300,000, but no record of if it actually sold or for how much. Then, there is David Hasselhoff’s K.I.T.T., which is a working replica that was fraudulently bid up to nearly a million dollars before selling for $300,000 in 2021. There are quite a few replicas, showing just how much people love K.I.T.T. with the highest-selling one we could find going for $66,000, which about $50,000 more than a plain ’82 Trans Am is worth.
5
1971 Plymouth Duster
Married With Children
Through eleven seasons, the running gag on the Married… With Children sitcom was that patriarch Al Bundy was such a loser he was still driving the beat-up old Dodge he had since high school, but the actual joke is that his car was a Plymouth Duster. Also, it was a pretty cool one, at least at first when it was a blue 1971 Duster with a gold stripe, indicating it was a Gold Duster, and possibly had a 340 V8. The car would change over the series’ run to different years and colors, but Al Bundy’s Dodge was always a Plymouth Duster. Nobody really knows whatever became of the “Mighty Dodge,” but a poster on Reddit claimed to have bought Al’s “Testica,” which was a modified Fox Body Mustang GT in one episode, so there is a glimmer of hope. Somewhere somebody has a Bundy Dodge, and they just don’t know it, but hopefully it will emerge with a way to authenticate it. For what it’s worth, Duster 340s are now selling in the six-figure range, which is hardly a loser’s set of wheels.
4
1969 Dodge Charger
The Dukes of Hazzard
When it comes to TV cars, there is no bigger icon than the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard which, despite the wholesome family vibe of the show, was the most formidable moonshine runner in the county. The car was a 1969 Dodge Charger, but because the production destroyed so many, with estimates as big as 325 cars, sometimes they would take a ’68 and alter it to resemble a ’69. LEE 1, which was the first General Lee and the one that jumps over Roscoe P. Coltrane’s sheriff’s car in the open, was totaled and sent to the junkyard. It was found and restored, selling at a Barrett-Jackson auction in 2012 to golfer Bubba Watson for $121,000. It is believed that 17 show General Lees still exist and there is a Bo Duke portrayer John Schneider-owned replica car that reportedly sold for $450,000. There are also several general Lees from the 2005 movie, including that stunt car pictured above that sold for $88,000 in 2019.
3
1968 Ford Mustang GT
Bullitt
The Steve McQueen classic film Bullitt gave us two iconic movie cars that everyone had to own: the aforementioned 1968 Dodge Charger R/T bad guy car and the hero 1968 Highland Green Ford Mustang GT. Never mind that the 390-powered GT would have never outrun the 440 R/T, because this is a movie in which the good guy wins, and it delivered the greatest car chase scene in cinematic history. The actual movie hero car was sold to a dude in 1974 for $6,000, and it went largely neglected until it was cleaned up a bit and sold for $3.4 Million in 2020. Even more amazing, the stunt car which was thought to be gone was discovered at a junkyard in Mexico, and it has undergone an extensive restoration before making its way to the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California. A ’68 Mustang GT 390 has a top-condition value of $102,167, which is a lot, but getting Steve McQueens keister in the driver’s seat increases the value tremendously.
2
1970 Dodge Charger R/T
The Fast and the Furious
Getting cast as the bad guy car in Bullitt put the second-gen Charger on the map and led to a prolific Hollywood career, but when the 1970 Hemi R/T landed the role of Dominic Toretto’s ride of choice in The Fast and the Furious, it cemented its status as a superstar. Dom’s black 900-horsepower, supercharged Hemi R/T is a staple of the entire Fast & Furious franchise, with some supernatural abilities, because, no matter how trashed it gets, it comes back in the next movie looking pristine. In the real world, however, there is no Hollywood magic and most of Dom’s Chargers were annihilated during filming, so there are not a lot of genuine cars available. One stunt car from the original film, which presumably was the one that flipped a dozen times in the movie climax, did show up at Mecum Indy 2015, where it sold for $96,800. This is considerably less than a ’70 Charger Hemi R/T’s $122,000 Concours condition value, but it was pretty jacked and actually shows how much collectors are willing to pay for an authentic movie car.
1
1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am
Smokey and the Bandit
No other movie car has done more to promote its brand than Burt Reynolds’ “Screaming Chicken” from Smokey and the Bandit. The black-with-gold trim 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am looked so striking back then, and still looks stunning today, that people had to have one for themselves. Pontiac sold 46,704 Trans Ams in 1976, then the movie came out in 1977 and by 1978 sales exploded to 93,341 units and continued to rise to 117,108 in 1979. Not much has changed since then, and people still want a black and gold ’77 Trans Am, which has a high value of $158,100 and a top sale of $198,000. As for an actual movie car, that’s kind of tricky because there is no evidence that one has ever been sold. There was a Universal Studios promo car that sold for $550,000 in 2016, but it was never actually used in the film. Then, there are some 1977 Trans Am SEs that were personally owned by Reynolds, one which sold for $450,000 and another that went for the bargain-basement price of $172,000 on BaT in 2020. There are rumors that three of the movie cars survived, but the fact they’ve never shown up makes it seem unlikely.
Sources: Bring a Trailer, Hagerty, J.D. Power, Mecum, Dodge, Pontiac, Ford, Plymouth
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