Restomods At The Movies: Top 10 Badass Modded Cars In TV And Film

June 26, 2018

#1: Gone In 60 Seconds’ ’67 Eleanor Mustang

Eleanor, Intact. [Via Wikimedia Commons.]

Nicolas “Horseface” Cage has a habit for wrecking the legacies of excellent movies. In 2000, he starred in the abortive remake of the excellent 1974 film, Gone in 60 Seconds, which turned an awesome car movie into a toothgrindingly tiresome exercise in boredom. Between this and what he did in the Wicker Man remake, I’m frankly amazed he gets work, but I digress. Let’s talk about the good one. The film that has a 40 minute car chase that is breathtakingly done. It’s also wonderfully simple: 48 cars have got to be stolen in five days. Go. The car we want to focus on is the famous “Eleanor” Mustang. There are four Mustangs in the movie that meet the requirements of the codename Eleanor, but only two were actually used in filming, while license plates and tires were swapped for the other models.

Both of the cars were 1971 Sportsback Mustangs, but met with very different fates. One was designed specifically for stunts, while the other was kept intact and used for external shots. Ironically, only the stunt Eleanor survives today. It took the director, H.B. Halicki, several years to find the funds to make the film. So the Mustangs didn’t appear outdated, they were fitted with 1973 grilles. To save money even further, the cars were painted in a generic “school bus” yellow, rather than, as most assume, Ford Medium Yellow Gold.

The Stunt Eleanor in her slightly battered shape. [Via MustangConnection1/Youtube.com.]

So the Stunt Eleanor wouldn’t just crumple like a tin can after all its rough treatment, extensive reinforcement was carried out, with a roll cage fitted and the transmission chained in. The stunt car had the Deluxe interior, but swapped seats with the other Eleanor, which had the standard interior. Other modifications include heavy duty harnesses, deadbolt door locks, new hood pins, an electrical kill switch, individually locking rear brakes, and a fish plated undercarriage made from thick steel. This car isn’t the most flashy model on this list, nor is it the fastest. It isn’t even the best looking, but I’m a big fan of it for one simple reason: the film was low budget, and yet it managed to create a phenomenal car movie. This car is that movie in a microcosm. It’s cheap and bolted together, but it works amazingly, and there’s not a single person who’s watched the movie and not wanted their very own Eleanor.

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