It’s something we can all relate to: that moment, probably when you were a kid, that a car in a movie or TV show made you go “wow.” The silver screen and its smaller brother are responsible for igniting the passions of millions and millions of petrolheads everywhere. Whatever era you grew up in, cars are an extremely important part of American and European media, being used as a status symbol, a character analog, and much much more. In this list, we’re going to go through 10 of the finest modded cars in film and TV history, plus some honorable mentions.

#10: Dazed And Confused’s ’70 Pontiac GTO Judge

Dazed and Confused packs a double punch of nostalgia these days. Those who grew up in the 70s will recognize elements of their own adolescence, while those viewers born in the 80s, 90s, and 00s will likely remember watching the movie and wishing they’d been born a few decades earlier. The undisputed automotive star of the show is the 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge. Driven by Kevin Pickford, the car functions as something of a vehicular analog to Pickford: plain cool. The GTOs used in the movie were not actually Judges, as you can tell from the vinyl tops. When the car was purchased, it was colored green and yellow, and had pretty bad roof damage from someone walking on it at a football game. The builder wasn’t a professional mechanic, and so decided to add a vinyl top.

New doors, hoods, decklids, and exhaust tips were fitted over the coming years, before the car was chosen to star in Dazed and Confused. A second GTO then had to be acquired for use as a stunt double, and had to be done up to look exactly like the first. This time, however, there weren’t years to work with, just 28 days. This goal was just about accomplished, with the car being delivered with hours to spare. While the main car had an automatic transmission, the stunt double had a four-speed manual, which gave the film’s actors some trouble. To resolve this, the car was mounted on a trailer and towed around to film some scenes. The fate of the car is unknown, but the stunt double found its way into Hemmings in August ’97 following a full restoration, and was instantly snapped up.