The Paris Motor Show returns for its 90th edition. This year sees the return of European and American manufacturers such as Volkswagen, Audi, Tesla and BMW. To mark the show’s 126th anniversary, a host of beautiful machines will be on show, whether they have left their mark on automotive history or the collective imagination.
In addition to the latest automotive innovations and world previews, the 90th Mondial de l’automobile, which runs from October 14 to 20 at Porte de Versailles in Paris, will feature 19 vehicles that have marked several key eras in the industry’s development, from the Peugeot Type 3 to the Tesla Model S, via the Citroën DS and Mercedes S-Class.
There will also be 25 proud cars that have marked generations of viewers on the big and small screens, with no less than Batman, James Bond, Starsky and Hutch, Crockett and Tubbs, Marty McFly, Ian Malcolm, John Wick and Professor Ellie Sattler on board …
These will range from authentic mass-produced models to concept cars and other customized vehicles, such as the Batmobile from Tim Burton’s film, the Delorean from Back to the Future or the Wrangler Sahara expedition jeeps from Jurassic Park.
Of course, some may bemoan the absence of such legends as the Ford Mustang GT390 driven by Steve McQueen in Bullit, the Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters or the GMC Vandura from The A-Team.
We take a closer look at seven of them, presented in the Pop Culture area (Pavilion 7-1) designed by Movie Cars Central. 42 km from Paris, in Etréchy (Essonne), the company has a car museum housing Europe’s largest collection of film and TV series cars, which can be viewed, rent… as well as tested on the racetrack!
Delorean DMC-12 – Back to the Future (1985-1990)
“The way I see it, if you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?” exclaims the mad scientist in Back to the Future.
If there’s one star of the ’80s, it’s the Delorean DMC-12. The sole flagship of the American Delorean Motor Company, founded in 1975 by engineer and businessman John Delorean, this “car of the future” had a history as flamboyant as it was dazzling.
The legendary coupé’s poor performance didn’t find its audience, nor did it justify its exorbitant price ($24,000). Its brushed stainless steel bodywork and emblematic gullwing doors may have been gleaming in design, but they proved extremely complicated to paint. Declared bankrupt, the company finally ceased production in 1981.
It wasn’t until Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future saga that the myth rose from the ashes, four years later. Doc Emmett Brown and Marty McFly’s time-travelling car featured a time convector and the famous Time Machine triple-display dashboard.
No fewer than six cars were needed for the shoot, one for static shots, another for rolling shots and a third, cut out for interior shots. Three more were added for the final part of the trilogy. Over the course of the adventure, this UFO of the road has been transformed into a cyberpunk hovercraft and a rail wagon in the American Wild West, this last transformation having, without divulging, been poorly finished.
Its 130 hp V6 engine and weight of almost a ton actually struggled to reach the “88 mph” described in the film, so the director opted for sound editing to give it some pep. We hear the raucous sound of a Porsche 928 V8 coupled with the whistle of a landspeeder, straight out of his friend Georges Lucas’ Star Wars saga.
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Featured Photo: © Bold Films/Odd Lot Entertainment/Marc Platt Productions/Seed Productions
