Stag Death of a Stag

[RonMacPherson]

New movie "Made of Honor", the one your wives will drag you to, because of Patrick Dempsey being in it, pretty good.

But be forewarned:

You will see a very nice looking Stag crushed by a Caber....

Alas, filmdom...

 

[John_Mc]

So it's a snuff film???

 

[Number_6]

For a while I was putting together a tape of just film clips I was collecting from TV & movies where they were demolishing E-Types. I must have had over 15+ clips. It seems like there was a period in the 70's and 80s where if the script called for them to wreck an exotic car it would always be an E. It appears that the favorite was chucking E-Types off of cliffs.

 

[eejay56]

In the original Italian Job they chuck two E-types, an Aston Martin, a Lamborghini and three minis off cliffs in the Alps. Painful.

 

[TR6oldtimer]

Sometimes I want to toss my TR6 as well....but then get over it.

 

[aeronca65t]

New movie "Made of Honor", the one your wives will drag you to, because of Patrick Dempsey being in it, pretty good.

But be forewarned:

You will see a very nice looking Stag crushed by a Caber....

Alas, filmdom...

So which is it?

A Chick Flick or a Stag FIlm?

 

[Brosky]

Very clever my friend, very clever indeed.

 

[Number_6]

Some of the other's that I can recall just off the top of my head:
"Vanishing Point", Irwin Alllan's "When Time Ran Out", John Wayne in "Brannigan"
A really spectacular one where a trian hits an E-Type OTS in "She's Out of Control" with Tony Danza
and also in an episode of "Murder She Wrote" & "Columbo"

The E's that they wrecked in "The Italian Job"(the original with Micheal Caine) were particularly painful becuase they were very early ones. I believe in the first 100 built.

 

[RobT]

The E's that they wrecked in "The Italian Job"(the original with Micheal Caine) were particularly painful becuase they were very early ones. I believe in the first 100 built.

It hurt at the time - but think of it another way. If they had not been used in the film, these cars may well have just been used, rusted and died. But instead, they are now immortalized in one of the best "car" movies ever made (IMHO).

BTW I believe the they used just shells for at least the Lambo and the Aston, if that's of consolation to folks.


Rob.

 

[Number_6]

The E's that they wrecked in "The Italian Job"(the original with Micheal Caine) were particularly painful becuase they were very early ones. I believe in the first 100 built.

It hurt at the time - but think of it another way. If they had not been used in the film, these cars may well have just been used, rusted and died. But instead, they are now immortalized in one of the best "car" movies ever made (IMHO).

BTW I believe the they used just shells for at least the Lambo and the Aston, if that's of consolation to folks.


Rob.

Although I believe that I read some place that Paul Skillter(sp?) who is an author of a lot of jag books rescued the two E's and restored them.
I'm not sure about the Aston (a DB5 convertible) but the Lambo Miura was a shell. I single framed while it took it's long plunge down the cliff and you can see there's no engine in it.

 

[bobh]

I remember those movies and TV shows well. They drove one off a cliff in Magnum PI.
It's interesting this should come up now. Peter Egan's article in the new R&T included some insight into the terrible habit so common in the 70's and early 80's.
He mentions that none of the mechanice at Chris Beebe's shop wanted to work on E Types. Back then you could buy an E Type cheap. Say $3K. Then you need some work like a clutch and the shop handed you an estimate for $1.5K. When you needed an engine overhaul it cost more than the car was worth.
I remember looking at several E Types for well under $2K in the mid 70's. I almost bought a 67 for $1200. It was less than 10 years old, in primer at a paint shop. Solid as a rock. I passed when an old friend who owned the G&L sports car lot and garage in Absecon NJ told me I might be able to afford a Jag, but "You can't afford to drive one".
Sad to say but he was 100% correct. Jags were cheap back then, but still very expensive to maintain. Of course AC Cobras, old Ferraries, Astons..... were all in the same boat. I knew a guy who bought a Healey 3000 for $50. He put in a new battery, tinkered with it for about half an hour and drove it home. At the same time you could buy a new TR6 for $3500 - $4000.
I still should have bought the Jag. Whether or not I would still have it.....? Although I do still have the TVR I bought in 1978.

 

[aeronca65t]

I test drove a running and fairly decent XKE in Reedman's in PA in '69. They wanted $800. Too much.
I bought a decent running TR3 for $200 instead.

For a while I worked in a foreign car shore in Lakewood NJ ("Shore Auto"). One time they chopped up *two* Ferrari 250s to make into a racing "special". The special looked like an early, front-engined Can-Am sports racer. We took it to Lime Rock and it was pretty quick, but later a friend of mine who worked there ran it into a telephone pole during a "midnight run". Wrote the whole thing off.

When I was in high school, I turned down a pre-war MG-T series (a TA, I think) for $500.

 

[Stig]

I found this cool website that allows you to search for your favorite car in the movies. https://www.imcdb.org/vehicles_make-Triumph_model-TR3A.html

 

[kodanja]

Stig

very cool find indeed!!!

 

[aeronca65t]

Here's a vid from a TV show that shows a nice wire wheel MGB getting crunched.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL0x5wgN2Xg

 

[AltaKnight]

There's a BBC television drama series called New Tricks which follows the work of the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS)
One of the actors Dennis Waterman (The Minder & The Sweeney) drives a nice looking Stag on the show.
I spend the whole show looking for the Stag; I'm always thrilled when I see it!

 

[gsalt57tr3]

I think one of my favorite Jag snuff films was "Harold and Maude."

The male lead was a depressed demented teen who was given a Jag by his parents. He immediately turned it into a Jag Hearse. I beleive they put the back half of a Pinto Station Wagon on it. As I understand, they built 2 of them, one was driven off a cliff at the end of the movie, not sure about the other one.

Maybe they had to do two takes...

 

[eejay56]

Actually there was only one and they had problems with the camera. That's why it freeze frames after the car goes over the cliff. That's my favorite Jag of all time.

 

[Number_6]

It's interesting this should come up now. Peter Egan's article in the new R&T included some insight into the terrible habit so common in the 70's and early 80's.

I recall reading in an article in Road & Track some time back that Innes Ireland was offered the entire Ecurie Ecosse '57 LeMans winning D-Type Jag team, the two cars that came in 1st & 2nd and a spare car for something like $10,000. This was in the late '60s or early '70s. He turned it down though. He figured, nice cars but what would he do with them? At the time all they were was just a bunch of 'second hand no longer competitive race cars'.