What's the Greatest Ever TV Car? Have Your Say in Our World Cup of TV Cars!
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The next set of four is Group C:
Knight Rider - Pontiac Firebird "Knight Industries 2000" (KITT)
The super-intelligent, gadget-packed, high-performance, and self-aware KITT was undoubtedly the star of this classic 1980s show which also starred *checks notes* Zardu Hasselfrau? Helped along by that absolutely iconic sweeping red light at the front (you can hear the noise it makes right now, right?) which every cool kid in the 1980s tried to copy on their Capri before getting pulled over for it, KITT and seemingly superfluous human driver Michael Knight solved crimes across the USA.
The Saint - Volvo P1800
One of the earlier shows on our list, The Saint was a detective/spy show revolving around Simon Templar, a man who would work slightly outside the confines of the law to help those in need. Templar was played by Roger Moore, before he assumed the mantle of James Bond, and arguably had as cool a car as the more famous secret agent (though Moore's Bond never drove the DB5, except in a complicated plot point in The Cannonball Run). The P1800 still rates as one of the prettiest coupes ever made.
Inspector Gadget - Gadgetmobile
At the other end of the scale is the Gadgetmobile. The personal car of Inspector Gadget - a completely unexplained human cyborg police inspector who was part James Bond, part Inspector Clouseau, and wholly voiced by the actor who played Maxwell Smart in Get Smart - the Gadgetmobile would, just like Gadget himself, spew forth whatever tools it needed to fulfil any particular brief at any moment in time. Although usually they worked, unlike Gadget.
The Professionals - Ford Capri
Bodie and Doyle, lead investigators of the fictional CI5 branch of the Home Office, spent much of the late 1970s and early 1980s sliding a Ford Capri around bits of London while beating the crap out of criminals. Known for its car chases, with at least one in every episode usually featuring villains in British Leyland's finest, The Professionals ran for five seasons and was a target for censors throughout its run - with one episode never even making it to UK broadcast channels...
Knight Rider - Pontiac Firebird "Knight Industries 2000" (KITT)
The super-intelligent, gadget-packed, high-performance, and self-aware KITT was undoubtedly the star of this classic 1980s show which also starred *checks notes* Zardu Hasselfrau? Helped along by that absolutely iconic sweeping red light at the front (you can hear the noise it makes right now, right?) which every cool kid in the 1980s tried to copy on their Capri before getting pulled over for it, KITT and seemingly superfluous human driver Michael Knight solved crimes across the USA.
The Saint - Volvo P1800
One of the earlier shows on our list, The Saint was a detective/spy show revolving around Simon Templar, a man who would work slightly outside the confines of the law to help those in need. Templar was played by Roger Moore, before he assumed the mantle of James Bond, and arguably had as cool a car as the more famous secret agent (though Moore's Bond never drove the DB5, except in a complicated plot point in The Cannonball Run). The P1800 still rates as one of the prettiest coupes ever made.
Inspector Gadget - Gadgetmobile
At the other end of the scale is the Gadgetmobile. The personal car of Inspector Gadget - a completely unexplained human cyborg police inspector who was part James Bond, part Inspector Clouseau, and wholly voiced by the actor who played Maxwell Smart in Get Smart - the Gadgetmobile would, just like Gadget himself, spew forth whatever tools it needed to fulfil any particular brief at any moment in time. Although usually they worked, unlike Gadget.
The Professionals - Ford Capri
Bodie and Doyle, lead investigators of the fictional CI5 branch of the Home Office, spent much of the late 1970s and early 1980s sliding a Ford Capri around bits of London while beating the crap out of criminals. Known for its car chases, with at least one in every episode usually featuring villains in British Leyland's finest, The Professionals ran for five seasons and was a target for censors throughout its run - with one episode never even making it to UK broadcast channels...
- 1,998
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- bloodyboyblue
Can’t find the list of nominations anywhere since the thread no longer exists but please tell me the two most iconic cars of the Netflix era are on it.
Really though it’s clearly going to be a battle between KITT, the General Lee and the 86. Wish I could’ve voted for FAB1 and the P1800 but they were up against competition that needs to be in the finals.
Really though it’s clearly going to be a battle between KITT, the General Lee and the 86. Wish I could’ve voted for FAB1 and the P1800 but they were up against competition that needs to be in the finals.
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https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/the-world-cup-of-tv-cars.392705/
Movie cars first. We did it in October 2018.
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The DeLorean isn't in this one, so I'll be rooting for the Mach 5 whenever it crops up. Hooray!
- 1,998
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- bloodyboyblue
Sigh....Hopper’s K5 and Misato’s A310 from Evangelion weren’t even nominated yet we got multiple Top Gear cars on the polls. Now I know why I stay in the GTS part of the forum.
It definitely would’ve helped to advertise the nomination poll on the homepage like the livery editor and photo contests are (sometimes), though, a lot more people would’ve been made aware of it
And hey, if Herbie made the list the Delorean could’ve as well (in animated form)
It definitely would’ve helped to advertise the nomination poll on the homepage like the livery editor and photo contests are (sometimes), though, a lot more people would’ve been made aware of it
And hey, if Herbie made the list the Delorean could’ve as well (in animated form)
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People like different things. They aren't wrong to.
For reference, the Blazer is a three-star car on IMCDB and thus would not have made the cut. Billy's Camaro was nominated, but that too is a three-star car.
The two TG cars that made it to the public vote were one that was in every episode of a globally syndicated show for three years, and one that had a starring role in one of the best "specials" and then made it beyond the show thanks to a presenter becoming smitten with it, bringing it back to the UK (which is very unusual for a TG Specials car), and then having it on a second TV show. I don't really know how either can be considered less significant than a cartoon Renault from a niche genre, one-season Japanese TV show, but then people like different things.
Herbie made the list because someone nominated it. The animated DeLorean did not because nobody did. I guess the 26-episode cartoon series wasn't all that memorable, which is a good exclusionary condition for a car to be the greatest TV car...
If you don't participate in a forum section you don't really have any place complaining that it doesn't do things you'd do - especially when it's because people don't like things that you do and like things that you don't. Be the change you wish to see.
The original nominations and later poll are a forum-only thing, so GTP chooses the cars. Blog articles are for wider public consumption.
I kept updating the threads to keep them in the recent posts lists, and kept reminding people with my own status posts to keep them in the recent status posts lists. The threads both remained open for a full week. There was plenty of opportunity and plenty of chances to be made aware, and the threads pulled in the same numbers of nominations and votes as WCOMC 18 months ago.
We're now in the public Twitter polling stage. Please feel free to continue talking about the cars that are actually in the polls.
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So, moving on, here's Group D - which sees a Ferrari showdown and a car driven by Tom Cruise, Jeff Goldblum and... Mr. Bean?
Miami Vice - Ferrari Testarossa
This. This is peak 1980s. A pair of vice cops taking down drug cartels and prostitution rings on the mean - and primary coloured - streets of Miami, all to the backing of Jan Hammer and a shopping list of 80s music icons: Duran Duran, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, and Phil Collins, among others. What car would lead actor Don Johnson drive? Well it could be nothing other than a stiletto heel-white Ferrari Testarossa, confiscated from a drug baron and requisitioned for personal use. It wasn't the original Crockett car though - it actually came about from Ferrari objecting to the faked Daytona in the first two series.
Magnum, PI - Ferrari 308
Faintly inexplicable cop/spy/PI/Navy/bored rich guy/surfer dude mashup show Magnum PI somehow ran for eight seasons in the 1980s, and also featured a famous screen Ferrari. In essence the plot was that Tom Selleck's Magnum was employed by a random rich guy in Hawaii to test his estate's security, and while he was at it he could live a leisurely life as a private investigator if he felt like it. Baffling plot chasm aside, Magnum gets to drive his boss's Ferrari around Oahu as if it's his own. The boss likes to upgrade too, as the Ferrari moves from 308 GTS to GTSi, and finally 308 QV b the show's end.
Wangan Midnight - Nissan Fairlady Z S30 "Devil Z"
The hero car of the Wangan Midnight anime series, the "Devil Z" is a heavily tuned Fairlady Z that Akio Asakura wants to tame in order to beat the Blackbird Porsche 911 and become the fastest driver on Tokyo's Wangan (bay shore) Expressway. There's a few issues with this plan, in that every single one of the Devil Z's previous owners has also been called Akio Asakura, and every one of them has died in some kind of driving accident...
Top Gear - Kia Cee'd "Reasonably Priced Car"
No car has had more famous drivers than Top Gear's Reasonably Priced Car. Introduced as a celebrity guest segment for the 2002 Top Gear reboot, the SIARPC skit would test how good celebrities were at driving the famed Top Gear test track at Dunsfold. The Kia see-apostrophe-dee wasn't the first such car - that honour went to the Suzuki Liana, with the Chevrolet Lacetti second - but is probably the most memorable. Drivers include Tom Cruise, Jeff Goldblum and Cameron Diaz, with Matt LeBlanc - who later went on to host the show - holding the outright SIARPC lap record in the car.
Miami Vice - Ferrari Testarossa
This. This is peak 1980s. A pair of vice cops taking down drug cartels and prostitution rings on the mean - and primary coloured - streets of Miami, all to the backing of Jan Hammer and a shopping list of 80s music icons: Duran Duran, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, and Phil Collins, among others. What car would lead actor Don Johnson drive? Well it could be nothing other than a stiletto heel-white Ferrari Testarossa, confiscated from a drug baron and requisitioned for personal use. It wasn't the original Crockett car though - it actually came about from Ferrari objecting to the faked Daytona in the first two series.
Magnum, PI - Ferrari 308
Faintly inexplicable cop/spy/PI/Navy/bored rich guy/surfer dude mashup show Magnum PI somehow ran for eight seasons in the 1980s, and also featured a famous screen Ferrari. In essence the plot was that Tom Selleck's Magnum was employed by a random rich guy in Hawaii to test his estate's security, and while he was at it he could live a leisurely life as a private investigator if he felt like it. Baffling plot chasm aside, Magnum gets to drive his boss's Ferrari around Oahu as if it's his own. The boss likes to upgrade too, as the Ferrari moves from 308 GTS to GTSi, and finally 308 QV b the show's end.
Wangan Midnight - Nissan Fairlady Z S30 "Devil Z"
The hero car of the Wangan Midnight anime series, the "Devil Z" is a heavily tuned Fairlady Z that Akio Asakura wants to tame in order to beat the Blackbird Porsche 911 and become the fastest driver on Tokyo's Wangan (bay shore) Expressway. There's a few issues with this plan, in that every single one of the Devil Z's previous owners has also been called Akio Asakura, and every one of them has died in some kind of driving accident...
Top Gear - Kia Cee'd "Reasonably Priced Car"
No car has had more famous drivers than Top Gear's Reasonably Priced Car. Introduced as a celebrity guest segment for the 2002 Top Gear reboot, the SIARPC skit would test how good celebrities were at driving the famed Top Gear test track at Dunsfold. The Kia see-apostrophe-dee wasn't the first such car - that honour went to the Suzuki Liana, with the Chevrolet Lacetti second - but is probably the most memorable. Drivers include Tom Cruise, Jeff Goldblum and Cameron Diaz, with Matt LeBlanc - who later went on to host the show - holding the outright SIARPC lap record in the car.
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- MidNight_VSpec
Gas! gas! gas! im gonna step on the gas!!
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Halfway through the group stages now, and out comes another of the big, big hitters, and an orange muscle car.
Dukes of Hazzard - Dodge Charger "General Lee"
Everything about the General is the stuff of legend. The classic orange paintjob with now-unpopular Southern Cross on the roof, the Dixie horn (historical note: Abraham Lincoln loved the song, and had it played at General Lee's formal surrender), the fact that the show wrote off some 300 Chargers by jumping them over creeks, police cars, trucks, and just because. Dukes lasted some 8 seasons based on little more than moonshine, and the General Lee is an enduring icon of 1970s (and early 1980s) TV.
Scooby Doo - The Mystery Machine
Exactly what kind of van is The Mystery Machine? Well, it's a mystery - it's commonly cited as a VW Typ 2 (though the side-opening rear doors make that unlikely), but could essentially be any 1960s panel van. No matter, it's the vehicle in which Mystery Inc - Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby (we'll have no mention of Scrappy here, thanks) - went from creepy old abandoned fairground to creepy old abandoned house investigating ghost stories and hauntings that were eventually old man Jones trying to scare people away for a bit of peace and quiet.
The Munsters - Munsters Koach
Unlike the similarly macabre-themed Addams Family (which started on TV in the same week), The Munsters was not shy on the automotive front. Famed Hollywood car builder George Barris - you'll have seen a lot of his work in the nominations thread, but also WCOMC - created the Munster Koach for the show, based on two Ford Model Ts. The bizarre hearse-hot-rod was a birthday present for Herman Munster, and became a show regular. The Munsters also featured a coffin-based dragster at one point.
The Bridge - Porsche 911S
Scandi-noir detective drama The Bridge is based on the simple premise of a dead body (kinda...) placed exactly on an international border - the Danish/Swedish border on the Oresund Bridge that connects the two countries across the Oresund straight. As for the car, that's the personal vehicle for lead detective Saga Noren and has become an extension of the character - with the faintly drab paint job echoing the series' general theme, and slightly off-kilter choice of car giving an eye into Noren's psyche.
Dukes of Hazzard - Dodge Charger "General Lee"
Everything about the General is the stuff of legend. The classic orange paintjob with now-unpopular Southern Cross on the roof, the Dixie horn (historical note: Abraham Lincoln loved the song, and had it played at General Lee's formal surrender), the fact that the show wrote off some 300 Chargers by jumping them over creeks, police cars, trucks, and just because. Dukes lasted some 8 seasons based on little more than moonshine, and the General Lee is an enduring icon of 1970s (and early 1980s) TV.
Scooby Doo - The Mystery Machine
Exactly what kind of van is The Mystery Machine? Well, it's a mystery - it's commonly cited as a VW Typ 2 (though the side-opening rear doors make that unlikely), but could essentially be any 1960s panel van. No matter, it's the vehicle in which Mystery Inc - Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby (we'll have no mention of Scrappy here, thanks) - went from creepy old abandoned fairground to creepy old abandoned house investigating ghost stories and hauntings that were eventually old man Jones trying to scare people away for a bit of peace and quiet.
The Munsters - Munsters Koach
Unlike the similarly macabre-themed Addams Family (which started on TV in the same week), The Munsters was not shy on the automotive front. Famed Hollywood car builder George Barris - you'll have seen a lot of his work in the nominations thread, but also WCOMC - created the Munster Koach for the show, based on two Ford Model Ts. The bizarre hearse-hot-rod was a birthday present for Herman Munster, and became a show regular. The Munsters also featured a coffin-based dragster at one point.
The Bridge - Porsche 911S
Scandi-noir detective drama The Bridge is based on the simple premise of a dead body (kinda...) placed exactly on an international border - the Danish/Swedish border on the Oresund Bridge that connects the two countries across the Oresund straight. As for the car, that's the personal vehicle for lead detective Saga Noren and has become an extension of the character - with the faintly drab paint job echoing the series' general theme, and slightly off-kilter choice of car giving an eye into Noren's psyche.
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Group F throws together a couple of animated cars, with a real-but-CGI example, and a television classic that inspired a billion imitators...
Starsky & Hutch - Ford Gran Torino
Straight from the Spelling stable, Starsky & Hutch was the buddy cop TV show of the 1970s. Mixing David Soul with Paul Glaser (who went on to direct the excellent cheesy Schwarzenegger flick The Running Man), and Antonio Fargas's swaggering Huggy Bear, Starsky & Hutch ran for just four seasons, ending in 1979. The other star of the show was, without a doubt, the Striped Tomato - as Glaser referred to the red and white Ford Gran Torino - which spawned endless copies. Even in the UK it was difficult to avoid seeing white-striped, red Ford Capris on slot mags...
Wacky Races - The Mean Machine
Just about any of the car in Wacky Races could have made the final 32, but only The Mean Machine did. Dick Dastardly's ludicrous racer was by far the fastest vehicle in the Wacky Races field yet never won a race - and in fact never even tasted a podium finish, the only car in the series to do so. That's because despite his determination to win, Dastardly is compelled to sabotage and humiliate all the other racers, which almost always results in him finishing last with his snickering hound Muttley.
The Simpsons - Canyonero
Initially a skit in an episode featuring shill-anything-for-cash Krusty the Clown, the Canyonero is - even by Simpsons standards - a paper-thin parody of the US SUV market. The car, and its irritatingly catchy jingle ("Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts, Canyoneroooooooooh!"), pops up throughout the episode, and even after it. Canyonero pops up again in an episode the following season where Homer buys a truck (after being wowed by Krusty's own example) only to discover he bought the "F-Series" for ladies, and gives it to Marge... who then becomes the stereotypical road-raging soccer mom as a result.
Viper - Dodge Viper
What would happen if you tried to make Knight Rider in the late 1990s, but instead made it one long advert for Chrysler? Viper, that's what. The eponymous star of the show, seen above, was the Dodge Viper, which by day looked like an ordinary, red RT/10 (and later a blue GTS, after the first Viper is destroyed), and then turned by a flashy (terrible) snake-skin effect into the bulletproof, high performance Viper Defender. The show somehow ran for four seasons, and also had an early role for Carrie-Anne Moss.
Starsky & Hutch - Ford Gran Torino
Straight from the Spelling stable, Starsky & Hutch was the buddy cop TV show of the 1970s. Mixing David Soul with Paul Glaser (who went on to direct the excellent cheesy Schwarzenegger flick The Running Man), and Antonio Fargas's swaggering Huggy Bear, Starsky & Hutch ran for just four seasons, ending in 1979. The other star of the show was, without a doubt, the Striped Tomato - as Glaser referred to the red and white Ford Gran Torino - which spawned endless copies. Even in the UK it was difficult to avoid seeing white-striped, red Ford Capris on slot mags...
Wacky Races - The Mean Machine
Just about any of the car in Wacky Races could have made the final 32, but only The Mean Machine did. Dick Dastardly's ludicrous racer was by far the fastest vehicle in the Wacky Races field yet never won a race - and in fact never even tasted a podium finish, the only car in the series to do so. That's because despite his determination to win, Dastardly is compelled to sabotage and humiliate all the other racers, which almost always results in him finishing last with his snickering hound Muttley.
The Simpsons - Canyonero
Initially a skit in an episode featuring shill-anything-for-cash Krusty the Clown, the Canyonero is - even by Simpsons standards - a paper-thin parody of the US SUV market. The car, and its irritatingly catchy jingle ("Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts, Canyoneroooooooooh!"), pops up throughout the episode, and even after it. Canyonero pops up again in an episode the following season where Homer buys a truck (after being wowed by Krusty's own example) only to discover he bought the "F-Series" for ladies, and gives it to Marge... who then becomes the stereotypical road-raging soccer mom as a result.
Viper - Dodge Viper
What would happen if you tried to make Knight Rider in the late 1990s, but instead made it one long advert for Chrysler? Viper, that's what. The eponymous star of the show, seen above, was the Dodge Viper, which by day looked like an ordinary, red RT/10 (and later a blue GTS, after the first Viper is destroyed), and then turned by a flashy (terrible) snake-skin effect into the bulletproof, high performance Viper Defender. The show somehow ran for four seasons, and also had an early role for Carrie-Anne Moss.
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- ScottPuss20
- CheetahsMeow
I want to vote in these polls but I don't have a Twitter account...
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Final two group stage polls today, starting with Group G - which mixes some modern-day legends with one true icon. This is the Group of Death for sure...
Batman - Lincoln Future "Batmobile"
Batman has driven any number of pretty extreme vehicles as his own personal crime-fighting car. We had three from the films in WCOMC, with the Nolan Tank and the Burton jet car as particular favorites. However it's the car above that tends to be the mental image formed when someone says "Batmobile", much to the chagrin of bat-fans who regard the 1960s show as too camp and kitsch. As for the car itself, it's a custom model from George Barris (who we mentioned earlier) based on the Lincoln Futura concept car. Like all good comic book cars, its abilities were... whatever they needed to be for that storyline.
Ashes to Ashes - Audi Quattro
Fire up the Quattro! The third star of the Ashes to Ashes TV series - which follows on from Life on Mars and features inadvertent time-traveling cops - the Quattro is the car of loose cannon, wideboy detective Gene Hunt. Instead of the 1970s setting of the original, Ashes takes place in the 1980s, although there's more than a few anachronisms (such as the RHD 1980 Quattro above in a series set in 1981 - the car wouldn't be available until 1983) which hint that physical time travel isn't the explanation for the show's events...
The Simpsons - Plymouth Junkerolla
Not explicitly named until only a couple of years ago, the pink sedan has been Homer Simpson's primary car almost exclusively since the show started back in 1989 - Marge tends to drive the family's unnamed orange station wagon. The Junkerolla is allegedly of Croatian origin, and made from old Soviet tank parts, which may explain how it's crashed so many times - including into a chestnut tree - and yet still keeps on going (with the same crumpled wing). It's even been pulled out of the sea at least once...
Supernatural - Chevrolet Impala
Supernatural is a modern phenomenon. The show has run for 15 years, following brothers Sam and Dean Winchester as they travel around the US in pursuit of urban legends, mainly involving ghosts, monsters, and demons - and occasionally God and Lucifer too. Think Buffy mixed with Scooby Doo and Constantine and you're just about there. The Winchesters' Impala is as much of a star as the brothers themselves - in fact the show was conceived with the idea of the car being as central as KITT or the General Lee, and the Impala was chosen because you can fit a body in the trunk. What more do you need?
Batman - Lincoln Future "Batmobile"
Batman has driven any number of pretty extreme vehicles as his own personal crime-fighting car. We had three from the films in WCOMC, with the Nolan Tank and the Burton jet car as particular favorites. However it's the car above that tends to be the mental image formed when someone says "Batmobile", much to the chagrin of bat-fans who regard the 1960s show as too camp and kitsch. As for the car itself, it's a custom model from George Barris (who we mentioned earlier) based on the Lincoln Futura concept car. Like all good comic book cars, its abilities were... whatever they needed to be for that storyline.
Ashes to Ashes - Audi Quattro
Fire up the Quattro! The third star of the Ashes to Ashes TV series - which follows on from Life on Mars and features inadvertent time-traveling cops - the Quattro is the car of loose cannon, wideboy detective Gene Hunt. Instead of the 1970s setting of the original, Ashes takes place in the 1980s, although there's more than a few anachronisms (such as the RHD 1980 Quattro above in a series set in 1981 - the car wouldn't be available until 1983) which hint that physical time travel isn't the explanation for the show's events...
The Simpsons - Plymouth Junkerolla
Not explicitly named until only a couple of years ago, the pink sedan has been Homer Simpson's primary car almost exclusively since the show started back in 1989 - Marge tends to drive the family's unnamed orange station wagon. The Junkerolla is allegedly of Croatian origin, and made from old Soviet tank parts, which may explain how it's crashed so many times - including into a chestnut tree - and yet still keeps on going (with the same crumpled wing). It's even been pulled out of the sea at least once...
Supernatural - Chevrolet Impala
Supernatural is a modern phenomenon. The show has run for 15 years, following brothers Sam and Dean Winchester as they travel around the US in pursuit of urban legends, mainly involving ghosts, monsters, and demons - and occasionally God and Lucifer too. Think Buffy mixed with Scooby Doo and Constantine and you're just about there. The Winchesters' Impala is as much of a star as the brothers themselves - in fact the show was conceived with the idea of the car being as central as KITT or the General Lee, and the Impala was chosen because you can fit a body in the trunk. What more do you need?
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- 17,115
- United Kingdom
Could always make one 💡
- 36,644
- Scotland
- GTP_daan
...and then delete it afterwards.
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- Seattle-ish
I've been off and on Twitter for several years now. It's easy enough to delete an account. It will only be reactivated if you personally reactivate it. Or don't delete the account, just delete the app. If you find you do want to keep using it, I find my enjoyment is dependent on heavy curation. I block every idiot I come across, and it makes my experience much more enjoyable.
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Last Group stage vote, with three classics of UK television, and something a little more Japanese - but even older...
Mr. Bean - Mini 1000
The verbally non-communicative, accident-prone, creature of habit Mr. Bean is worlds apart from Rowan Atkinson's other famous TV character Edmund Blackadder. Possibly an alien, but definitely not familiar with social norms, Bean somehow muddles through the world without ever coming to serious harm. That includes the public roads, which he gets around in a green Mini 1000 with a black hood. Bean locks the car with a padlock and removes the steering wheel as an anti-theft measure - but also has a long-running feud with a blue Reliant Regal Supervan... It also somehow survived being crushed by a tank.
Speed Racer - Mach 5
Speed Racer, also known as Mach Go Go Go ("go" being Japanese for "five", and driver Go Mifune's first name), first aired in 1967. The show broadly follows the exploits of Go Mifune, a promising young racing driver who drives the Mach 5 race car - a gadget-laden car capable of incredible speeds. Go is trying to follow in the footsteps of his big brother Rex to become the greatest driver of all, using the car his father designed, in a strange open-formula race category that includes a 200-foot long truck made of gold bars.
Only Fools and Horses... - Reliant Regal Supervan
The long, long, long, oh so very long, way too long-running UK comedy show Only Fools and Horses follows a London family of wheeler dealers known as the Trotters. Always with some scheme to get rich, the Trotters cruised about Peckham selling knock-off goods out of the back of a bright yellow Reliant Regal Supervan - a metaphor for their own reliability and trustworthiness. The van almost became synonymous with the highly popular show, and it's difficult to find one not described as "the van from Only Fools", or even modified to look like it.
Life on Mars - Ford Cortina
Life on Mars was the series before Ashes to Ashes, again revolving around a strange time-travel plot that sees a critically injured modern-day police officer transported back to the hard-drinking, hard-smoking, ethically suspect days of 1970s policing. The Cortina - like the Quattro in the earlier poll - is an anachronism of sorts (hinting at the real mechanisms behind the time jump) and belongs to the morally ambiguous DCI Gene Hunt, and symbolises his own bad boy persona - the Cortina was more the car of crooks than cops.
Mr. Bean - Mini 1000
The verbally non-communicative, accident-prone, creature of habit Mr. Bean is worlds apart from Rowan Atkinson's other famous TV character Edmund Blackadder. Possibly an alien, but definitely not familiar with social norms, Bean somehow muddles through the world without ever coming to serious harm. That includes the public roads, which he gets around in a green Mini 1000 with a black hood. Bean locks the car with a padlock and removes the steering wheel as an anti-theft measure - but also has a long-running feud with a blue Reliant Regal Supervan... It also somehow survived being crushed by a tank.
Speed Racer - Mach 5
Speed Racer, also known as Mach Go Go Go ("go" being Japanese for "five", and driver Go Mifune's first name), first aired in 1967. The show broadly follows the exploits of Go Mifune, a promising young racing driver who drives the Mach 5 race car - a gadget-laden car capable of incredible speeds. Go is trying to follow in the footsteps of his big brother Rex to become the greatest driver of all, using the car his father designed, in a strange open-formula race category that includes a 200-foot long truck made of gold bars.
Only Fools and Horses... - Reliant Regal Supervan
The long, long, long, oh so very long, way too long-running UK comedy show Only Fools and Horses follows a London family of wheeler dealers known as the Trotters. Always with some scheme to get rich, the Trotters cruised about Peckham selling knock-off goods out of the back of a bright yellow Reliant Regal Supervan - a metaphor for their own reliability and trustworthiness. The van almost became synonymous with the highly popular show, and it's difficult to find one not described as "the van from Only Fools", or even modified to look like it.
Life on Mars - Ford Cortina
Life on Mars was the series before Ashes to Ashes, again revolving around a strange time-travel plot that sees a critically injured modern-day police officer transported back to the hard-drinking, hard-smoking, ethically suspect days of 1970s policing. The Cortina - like the Quattro in the earlier poll - is an anachronism of sorts (hinting at the real mechanisms behind the time jump) and belongs to the morally ambiguous DCI Gene Hunt, and symbolises his own bad boy persona - the Cortina was more the car of crooks than cops.
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Just for reference, the second-round qualifiers so far are:
1. The A-Team vs Scooby Doo
2. Initial D vs Viper
3. Knight Rider vs Batman
4. Miami Vice vs ?
5. Dukes of Hazzard vs Magnum PI
6. Starsky & Hutch vs The Professionals
7. Ashes to Ashes vs Top Gear (Oliver)
8. ? vs Herbie, The Love Bug
Those are some incredible ties, and it looks like it'll be Miami Vice vs Speed Racer, and Mr Bean vs Herbie too
1. The A-Team vs Scooby Doo
2. Initial D vs Viper
3. Knight Rider vs Batman
4. Miami Vice vs ?
5. Dukes of Hazzard vs Magnum PI
6. Starsky & Hutch vs The Professionals
7. Ashes to Ashes vs Top Gear (Oliver)
8. ? vs Herbie, The Love Bug
Those are some incredible ties, and it looks like it'll be Miami Vice vs Speed Racer, and Mr Bean vs Herbie too
- 86,914
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
So, on to the second round, which is straight head-to-head knockouts. Our first tie, bizarrely, pits the two remaining vans against one another:
The A-Team - GMC Vandura
When you're undercover soldiers of fortune, what do you need to lie low in? Yes, a black and grey van with an enormous red stripe on it. Driven by Bosco "Bad Attitude" Baracus, usually, the A-Team van contained whatever the team needed at that moment in time, handily. That even included a miniature printing press, because obviously it did.
Scooby Doo - The Mystery Machine
Exactly what kind of van is The Mystery Machine? Well, it's a mystery - it's commonly cited as a VW Typ 2 (though the side-opening rear doors make that unlikely), but could essentially be any 1960s panel van. No matter, it's the vehicle in which Mystery Inc - Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby (we'll have no mention of Scrappy here, thanks) - went from creepy old abandoned fairground to creepy old abandoned house investigating ghost stories and hauntings that were eventually old man Jones trying to scare people away for a bit of peace and quiet.
The A-Team - GMC Vandura
When you're undercover soldiers of fortune, what do you need to lie low in? Yes, a black and grey van with an enormous red stripe on it. Driven by Bosco "Bad Attitude" Baracus, usually, the A-Team van contained whatever the team needed at that moment in time, handily. That even included a miniature printing press, because obviously it did.
Scooby Doo - The Mystery Machine
Exactly what kind of van is The Mystery Machine? Well, it's a mystery - it's commonly cited as a VW Typ 2 (though the side-opening rear doors make that unlikely), but could essentially be any 1960s panel van. No matter, it's the vehicle in which Mystery Inc - Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby (we'll have no mention of Scrappy here, thanks) - went from creepy old abandoned fairground to creepy old abandoned house investigating ghost stories and hauntings that were eventually old man Jones trying to scare people away for a bit of peace and quiet.
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- 86,914
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Crazy fool!
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