American Graffiti Cars

[bluestringer]

After filming American Graffiti, transportation manager Henry Travers sold Steve’s '58 Impala via a classified ad in the San Francisco Chronicle. A local teenager bought it for $285, and on the way home, the brakes failed, and one of the taillights fell off. The owner kept the car until 2015, when it went to auction and was purchased by NASCAR personality and racing commentator Ray Evernham. Evernham had the car restored to its as-filmed appearance, and the renewed Impala made its public debut at the 2016 SEMA show.

The character Bob Falfa, played by Harrison Ford, drove a '55 Chevy in the film, challenging reigning drag racer Milner. Three black ’55 Chevys were used, including a junkyard find for the crash scene and two others. These cars had previously appeared in the film Two Lane Blacktop. One had a 454-cu.in. V-8 and a Turbo Hydra-Matic 400, while the other was powered by a 427 cu.in. V-8 paired with a Muncie M-22 transmission. During the race scene, the car’s axle broke, and in a second take, the replacement axle broke as well. Only one of the ’55 Chevys remains, and for a time was owned by the same Kansas collector who had the ’32 Deuce coupe. It later went to an owner in Maryland, who restored the car to show condition, though it was extensively changed from its appearance in the film.

In total, some 300 cars were used in filming American Graffiti. Local vintage-car owners were paid $20 to $25 per night (reports vary), plus food, to lend their vehicles to the production.

[StevenGuthmiller]

Fun stuff.

 

 

 

Steve

[NOBLNG]

My all time favourite movie!?

[The Junkman]

All this Detroit iron talk is so much pish-posh.  Now to the REAL star of the movie:  Seen at the 2016 Peggy Sue Car Show in Petaluma, CA that along with San Rafael were the two main filming locations.

And right next to that testament to Italian motorized transportation there was this:

There also was Milner Duece Coupe and a 58 Impala but I was never able to determine if they were the original cars or reproductions.

[Force]

On 8/17/2024 at 10:02 PM, bluestringer said:

After filming American Graffiti, transportation manager Henry Travers sold Steve’s '58 Impala via a classified ad in the San Francisco Chronicle. A local teenager bought it for $285, and on the way home, the brakes failed, and one of the taillights fell off. The owner kept the car until 2015, when it went to auction and was purchased by NASCAR personality and racing commentator Ray Evernham. Evernham had the car restored to its as-filmed appearance, and the renewed Impala made its public debut at the 2016 SEMA show.

The character Bob Falfa, played by Harrison Ford, drove a '55 Chevy in the film, challenging reigning drag racer Milner. Three black ’55 Chevys were used, including a junkyard find for the crash scene and two others. These cars had previously appeared in the film Two Lane Blacktop. One had a 454-cu.in. V-8 and a Turbo Hydra-Matic 400, while the other was powered by a 427 cu.in. V-8 paired with a Muncie M-22 transmission. During the race scene, the car’s axle broke, and in a second take, the replacement axle broke as well. Only one of the ’55 Chevys remains, and for a time was owned by the same Kansas collector who had the ’32 Deuce coupe. It later went to an owner in Maryland, who restored the car to show condition, though it was extensively changed from its appearance in the film.

In total, some 300 cars were used in filming American Graffiti. Local vintage-car owners were paid $20 to $25 per night (reports vary), plus food, to lend their vehicles to the production.

Richard Ruth built three cars for Two Lane Blacktop, two were identical (except for the engine) and one stunt car, and as far as I know two are still with us, the one converted to Bob Falfas car in American Grafitti wich had the 427 L88 and was used for outside shots in TLB, and the one used for interior shots in TLB wich is restored back to former TLB glory some years back with all correct parts and Ruth built a new front end with axle and all, Ruth even built a new set of correct looking headers for it, these parts had disappeared over the years.
The rear axles in the cars was 4:88 geared 1957 Oldsmobile/Pontiac axles wich was about the strongest available at the time, but they appearently broke anyway.
I have the whole story and buildup pictures from the restoration of this car and here is a picure when it was done.

The missing car is the stunt car with separate rear brakes Ruth built for the planned crash scene in Two Lane Blacktop but it was never used as they did a different end for that movie where the film burns up, but it was used in American Grafitti crash scene.

Edited August 19 by Force