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This week stays grounded in the real stuff — practical stunts, real engines (and the fake ones dressed up to look real), and the actual production history behind the chases and builds car people argue about at every cruise night. Bullitt. The French Connection. Le Mans '66. Vanishing Point. The cars that built the enthusiast canon.
Fair warning: this round skews harder than usual. If you know why Ken Miles didn't officially win Le Mans, or what was really under the hood of Dom's Charger, you're in the right place.
Tap an answer to see instantly if you're right, then check your final score below.
Let's see what you've got.
Score
QUESTION 1
A
Carroll Shelby's shop
B
Max Balchowsky
C
Holman-Moody
D
George Barris
Correct!
Not quite — the answer is: Max Balchowsky, the Hollywood car builder and racer behind the "Old Yeller" specials. He fitted heavy-duty front springs, reinforced shock towers, a stronger front anti-roll bar, and Konis, then had both 390 V8s freshened up with ported heads. Only one of the two original cars survives today — the other was deemed too rough to save and crushed.
QUESTION 2
A
The city issued a full production permit after a safety review
B
They reportedly bribed a transit official with cash and a one-way plane ticket
C
They filmed secretly at 4 a.m. with no one on set aware of the plan
D
The NYPD shut the line down officially for the production
Correct!
Not quite — the answer is: the production reportedly paid a transit official roughly $40,000 and a one-way ticket to Jamaica for access. Off-duty cops helped with what street closures they could manage, but they couldn't fully clear the 26-block route. Stunt driver Bill Hickman (also behind the wheel in Bullitt) did the most dangerous shots in the maroon 1971 Pontiac LeMans, with Gene Hackman reportedly doing 50-60% of the on-camera driving himself. One crash — a real driver plowing into the shot — wasn't scripted at all.
QUESTION 3
A
His car failed a post-race technical inspection
B
Le Mans breaks a tie by total distance covered, and the other car (which started behind him) had technically gone farther
C
Miles was given a time penalty for an earlier pit lane violation
D
Ford's contract with Ferrari required a tie to go to a non-American driver
Correct!
Not quite — the answer is: Le Mans' dead-heat rule awards a tie to whichever car covered the greater distance. Miles had pole position, so the McLaren/Amon GT40 — which started roughly 8 meters behind him — had technically traveled farther across the race and was declared the winner. Ford only learned a tie wouldn't be allowed after already ordering Miles to slow down for the photo. Had he won, Miles would have become the first driver to sweep Daytona, Sebring, and Le Mans in a single year; he died in a testing crash about two months later.
QUESTION 4
A
It's CGI — no physical engine was ever installed
B
It was a non-functional prop motor, borrowed for the shot — the Charger that actually drove used a completely different engine
C
It was a genuine 426 Hemi, but detuned for safety
D
It was borrowed from the production's camera car and swapped back out after filming
Correct!
Not quite — the answer is: the supercharged Hemi on camera was a prop, borrowed from Chuck Taylor Racing Engines and used only for that garage close-up — it never actually ran in the car. The Charger that drove on screen was motivated by a vintage 1957-58 392ci Hemi, bored and stroked out to 445ci, with the engine sound dubbed in from an entirely different big-block. Watch the final drag race closely and the "supercharger" fan on the stunt cars doesn't even spin while Dom revs it.
QUESTION 5
A
A single Holley four-barrel on a tunnel-ram
B
A Man-A-Fre intake feeding four Rochester two-barrel carburetors
C
A Hilborn mechanical fuel-injection setup
D
A single-plane manifold with one Rochester Quadrajet
Correct!
Not quite — the answer is: a Man-A-Fre intake topped with four Rochester 2G two-barrel carburetors — a quad-carb setup that looked as wild as it sounded. George Lucas and Gary Kurtz bought the coupe for $1,300; a chopped top, 10.5:1 compression fuelie heads, and sprint-car-style headers rounded out the build before Bob Hamilton's shop and painter Orlandi finished it in a custom-mixed Vette Yellow.
QUESTION 6
A
Zero
B
One
C
Three
D
All five
Correct!
Not quite — the answer is: zero. Despite the car's legend, four of the five white R/T Challengers ran a 440ci V8 with a 4-speed manual, and the fifth — used for the hardest stunts, so the driver could focus on steering instead of shifting — had a 383ci V8 and an automatic. None of the five appear in the final crash, either: that's the shell of a 1967 Camaro, packed with explosives, towed into the bulldozers by the 383 car.
QUESTION 7
A
A 1969 Mustang Boss 302
B
A 1971 Mustang Sportsroof, blacked-out and badged to pass for a Mach 1
C
A real 1967 Shelby GT500, just repainted
D
A 1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator
Correct!
Not quite — the answer is: a 1971 Ford Mustang Sportsroof, not a Mach 1 at all. Writer/director/stuntman H.B. "Toby" Halicki painted two of them School Bus Yellow, blacked out the hood, and bolted on a 1973 grille to look current for the film's 1974 release — but they never had the Mach 1's signature hood scoops. The "Eleanor" most people picture is really a Hollywood costume job, decades before the 2000 remake's Shelby-bodied version existed.
QUESTION 8
A
The original had been sold before the sequel was greenlit
B
So the real hero car could survive — the duplicate, not the original, was the one destroyed in the rollover stunt
C
Australian customs wouldn't let the original cross state lines for filming
D
They needed a right-hand and left-hand drive version for different markets
Correct!
Not quite — the answer is: so the real hero car didn't have to die on camera. The duplicate was the one sent rolling down an embankment for the sequel's climax; the original 1973 Falcon XB GT survived, was later restored, and now sits in the Dezer Car Museum in Miami. Its menacing bonnet-mounted supercharger wasn't even functional in the first film — despite the movie showing it switch on and off, which a real blower physically can't do.
QUESTION 9
A
A Chevrolet Corvette chassis and small-block V8
B
A steel-tube frame and MG-shaped fiberglass body, powered by a Ford V8 out of a 1974 Torino
C
A genuine Ferrari chassis fitted with a fiberglass replacement body
D
A Volkswagen pan and air-cooled flat-four
Correct!
Not quite — the answer is: a steel-tube frame wearing a fiberglass body reshaped from an MG, powered by a 302-cubic-inch Ford V8 pulled from a 1974 Torino — nothing Italian about it at all. Director John Hughes had three replicas built: two functional, and one non-runner sacrificed for the famous garage-window scene.
QUESTION 10
A
It was Aston Martin's only color in stock that year
B
Sean Connery requested it personally
C
It matched the grey Aston Martin described in Ian Fleming's original novels
D
It was chosen to hide scratches from the gadget tests
Correct!
Not quite — the answer is: the producers wanted to honor the grey Aston Martin from Ian Fleming's novels, and Silver Birch was the closest factory match. Two original DB5s did duty on Goldfinger; one sold at auction in 2010 for $4.1 million, and the other was stolen from a Florida hangar in 1997 and has never been recovered.
Final Result
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Facts checked against Silodrome, The Autopian, Hagerty, The Wrap, The Drive, Street Muscle Mag, Motorious, and Jalopnik.
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