AMERICAN supernatural action film Drive Angrywas all about avenging the people you love and well — classic cars.
Most would say it’s about death defying stunts and supernatural beliefs but it was more to that than meets the eye.
As the movie came on the TV on Sunday night, most supernatural action film enthusiasts would sit in with a bucket of popcorn and watch the gruesome scenes and death defying stunts.
It wasn’t really the death defying scenes of the movie that really intrigued me, it was the classic vehicles that were featured that caught my attention.
If you had watched this movie when it was released in 2011 you would have noticed the number of classic cars used to transport Nicholas Cage and Amber Heard.
From the 1969 blue Dodge R/T 440 to the red 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle SS and the 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air to the 1964 Riviera, these vehicle have something in common and that is — they are old American Classics.
The 1964 Riviera and the Red Chevelle SS scenes in the film really surpassed everything with the flying car stunts adding in more vivacity to the scenes.
Website myclassicgarage.com highlights some interesting car details about these cars that you would probably want to read more about.
1971 Chevrolet Chevelle
The 1971 Chevelle featured the single headlight designs taken from the Monte Carlo and could be optioned with hood stripes and cowl induction hood. With high priced fuel and insurance premiums on top of the newer emissions standards, the Chevelle saw a collapse in performance options.
Also, GM enacted a rule that all engines have to run on unleaded fuel; therefore they detuned all its engines and introduced two new entry-level engines.
The new standard V8 was a dual-barrel single-exhaust option, and the optional 350ci had 270 hp. The 402 engine was renamed the Turbo Jet 400 and offered only 300hp. The LS6 454 couldn’t pass the emissions and was not offered, but the LS5 was still offered, surprisingly, and churned out 365hp.
The 300 Deluxe series’ name was changed to ‘Chevelle’. The base Chevelle was essentially the same as the 300 Deluxe, offering only two models: the sports coupe, and the 4-door sedan. The Malibu changed very little, with the exception of the aforementioned headlamp change. The SS Package was known as the RPO Z15 and offered only the LS5 454.
1957 Chevrolet Bel Air
One of the most recognised icons in the automotive industry, the ’57 Bel Air introduced minor improvements from the previous year like more chrome and featured a golden grille set off with a heavy chrome bar that included parking lights. The rear fins were capped with chrome moldings and highlighted with anodised aluminium side trim panels. The fuel-filler door was even concealed in the left rear chrome fin to clean up the lines of the car.
Under the hood the V8s got an increase in displacement to 283ci with optional max power output to 283 hp with the Ramjet continuous flow fuel injection.
1969 Blue Dodge Charger R/T 440
The 1969 Charger received minor changes to distinguish itself from the previous year with a new split front grille and new full-width taillamps. A six-cylinder was introduced as the base engine and was underpowered for the mass of the Charger.
The Charger 500 and the Charger Daytona were introduced for stock car races. An SE package was also introduced and offered a little more luxury.
The R/T package returned and little was changed.
The 500 and Daytona had improved aerodynamics, which were primarily a flush grille and backlight on the 500, but were radical on the Daytona, which had a Cd (coefficient of drag) of 0.29, a number not bettered on production cars for many decades. Both cars had the 440 Magnum as standard equipment, with the 2X4-BBl 426 Hemi as the only engine option. The Daytona set a world closed-course record of 200.45 MPH at Talladega, Alabama in March, 1970, in a car that had been stolen on the streets of Los Angeles and recovered by the LAPD.
