The great thing about famous cars on TV is that while most of us will never get to drive James Bond’s movie Aston Martin or Ferris Bueller’s Ferrari 250, we might aspire to Del Boy’s Reliant Regal, or even The Mentalist‘s Citroen DS. So while the movie classics are out of the running, we decided to have some fun choosing celebrity cars from TV old and new, and imagine the times we’d have taking them to do the shopping at Aldi. Which classic would you add to the top ten celebrity TV cars list?
10. KITT – Knight Rider
Based on a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am, KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand) was the talking companion of hi-tech crime fighter Michael Knight, played by David Hasselhoff. The black muscle car was fitted with armour, turbo-boost and a spooky scanner bar, it had a sense of smell, and one suspected it was smarter than Michael Knight. It certainly got him out of plenty of scrapes in the series that lasted from 1982 to 1986.
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09. Dodge Charger – Dukes of Hazzard
Known as the General Lee, this was the ideal vehicle for the Duke brothers to perform their high-octane chases and stunts. Recognisable by its signature horn, orange paintwork and welded-shut doors, the General Lee was in fact several different stunt cars. Unfortunately its Confederate flag roof decoration has seen it go out of favour in recent years, and it doesn’t turn up at conventions and car shows as much as it used to.
08. Citroen DS Pallas – The Mentalist
Crime drama The Mentalist ran from 2008 to 2015, starring Simon Baker as fake ‘mentalist’ Patrick Jane, who helps the police after the murder of his family. His choice of car, the Citroen DS Pallas, is as quirky as Jane’s approach to solving crime. “It’s a 1971 Citroën DS,” says exec producer Chris Long. “Simon wanted a car that reflected his quirky character. He’s a longtime fan of Peter Falk, who drove a beat-up 1959 Peugeot in his detective series Columbo, so we went looking for a Columbo car.” Long says the downside of using a vintage auto is that “it stalls all the time, plus the taillights went out and had to be painted on.”
Warner Bros., producer of “The Mentalist” for CBS, had the car in its inventory – it was used in the 2008 movie Speed Racer. For The Mentalist, the car was shipped from Germany and painted eggshell blue (it was originally red). The Pallas model features notable faired-in headlamps. Fun Fact -you can’t put a wheelclamp on a Citroen DS as the rear wheels are shrouded. And another Fun Fact – detective Antoine Verlaque (Roger Allam) also drove a Citroen DS Pallas in Murder in Provence.
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