5 Criminally Underrated Movie Cars From The '80s

The 1980s was a great decade for movie cars (and car movies, for that matter). There's the absolutely iconic DeLorean from "Back to the Future," the 1958 Plymouth Fury from "Christine," and the mega-bucks Ferrari 250 GT California famously wrecked in "Ferris Bueller's Day Out," to name a few. But while these are big names that even the most casual movie fan will probably recognize — and justifiably so, of course — there's a whole lot more to the world of 1980s movie cars than these.

Now, I'm not going to claim that any of these are at all obscure or unknown; I don't think there's really much chance of anyone digging up a totally forgotten '80s movie car, given the huge shadow the decade's movies continue to cast on popular culture. However, there are definitely a bunch of cars that, even if they're familiar to the initiated, are far less recognized than the leading lights of the era. And, besides, almost everything feels unknown next to the DeLorean. Either way, it's these somewhat lesser-known, not-quite-mainstream cars that we're celebrating here, be they European exotics or modified 1950s cruisers.

1981's "The Cannonball Run" is many things. It's a pretty enjoyable comedy movie, with a star-studded cast including Burt Reynolds, Dean Martin, Roger Moore, and Farrah Fawcett, to name a few. It's also a great car movie, offering screen time to a bunch of exotic and not-so-exotic cars alike, befitting its namesake inspiration. Sure, the mind-boggling Cannonball Run records we now take for granted were still decades away, but that doesn't mean there weren't some amazing cars on display.

Chief among these cars, to my mind, is the black 1979 Lamborghini Countach that opens the movie. Yes, this was the car's only appearance in the movie, but what a cameo it is. I'd go so far as to say it's the definitive car from the movie, and it all has to do with the introductory sequence itself. Well, that, and the quirky nose-mounted spoiler.

Let's face it: there are few better ways to kick off a car movie than with a helicopter shot of a black Countach on a desert highway at dawn, the V12 roar blasting the viewer's ears as Ray Stevens' ultra-funky theme tune revs into gear, before day breaks and we see the Countach toying with a police cruiser before leaving it for dead. Seriously, it's great. The Lamborghini was never seen again in the movie, but it's thankfully still around: As of 2022, the Countach was living its best life with one Jeff Ippoliti, its third owner.

"No Man's Land" is not, perhaps, a classic, but it has a couple of things in its favor. First is a synth-tastic soundtrack from the one and only Basil Poledouris (he of "Conan The Barbarian" fame), which I absolutely love — it's worth checking out on YouTube, even if you aren't going to watch the movie. Second is the Porsches, and there are plenty of nice ones to choose from. Given that the movie is centered on a car theft gang that only targets Porsches, it shouldn't be much of a surprise. 

There's a nice black 911 — complete with Fuchs wheels, some of the best-looking wheels of all time — early on, but the star of the show for me is the silver mid-'70s 911 that appears about halfway through and gets involved in a fun little car chase when antagonist Ted Varrick (Charlie Sheen) tries to steal a red 911 from a parking garage. The owner's goons spot him, whereupon he — and protagonist Benjy Taylor (D.B. Sweeney), who's behind the silver 911's wheel — have to escape from said goons through the parking garage and the streets of Los Angeles.

There are plenty of great shots of the 911 weaving through traffic, and it's a beauty. It's impossible to resist its low stance, its fat, flared wheel arches, and the gloriously deep-dish wheels — possibly Gotti J55 wheels of some variety. The chase itself isn't necessarily ground-breaking, but the music's great and the lead car is a joy to look at. Do you really need more than that?

The Bricklin SV-1, or Safety Vehicle One, was designed to be ultra safe, to the point that designer Malcolm Bricklin even eschewed a cigarette lighter and ashtray, as he considered driving and smoking a dangerous habit. However, it also had sports car credentials, packing an AMC 360-CI V8 under the hood inside a futuristic fiberglass body with gullwing doors. It's likely the latter two that earned it a place in "The Junkman." 

A 1982 action-comedy movie directed by and starring H.B. Halicki (who directed the original "Gone in 60 Seconds"), "Junkman" kicks off in self-referential mode, with a film-within-a-film car chase featuring the Bricklin SV-1. Given the movie's small budget, it's not necessarily the most extravagant chase you'll ever see, but it's certainly got a memorable ending — and the SV-1 is an integral part of that.

As the SV-1's driver — protagonist Harlan B. Hollis (Halicki), acting in a fictionalized version of "Gone in 60 Seconds" — realizes he's boxed in, he radios for a chopper to fly in and pick him up. He pops the SV-1 into cruise control, ties down the steering wheel with a seatbelt, opens the gullwing doors, and grabs onto the chopper's skids. Hollis flies away, while the SV-1 drives straight on with the doors open, hitting a ramp and jumping over a couple of police cars in slow motion. It's a glorious sight, and a painful one for fans of automotive history: The SV-1 was one of the worst-selling sports cars ever, with fewer than 3,000 made, and so wrecking one would be sacrilege now. Things were, however, likely very different in the '80s.

In many ways, the Dodge M4S is the perfect vehicle for a mysterious, supernatural driver hellbent on revenge. Its sleek lines were definitely out of the ordinary in 1986 — it was originally designed as a PPG Pace Car, which meant it didn't need to be road legal and could show off Dodge's engineering prowess. And that it did, with its turbocharged, mid-mounted engine and aerodynamics-first, practicality-last body.

The M4S seemingly never ended up running as a pace car, but it did make a public debut 1986's "The Wraith," as the car of the film's supernatural protagonist. Well, kind of. The cars that feature in the movie are apparently just dune buggies made up to look like the M4S, complete with gullwing doors. Does that mean the M4S technically isn't a movie car? Perhaps, but there's also no denying these replicas — and the movie itself — are the primary reason anyone even remembers the M4S in the first place. 

And even if we're only ever watching fakes, they do a pretty great job in the movie. The people behind the movie knew they were onto a good thing, and the supposed M4S features heavily in a series of street races (the movie is really just a bunch of races strung together with a plot, if you ask me). It cuts an imposing sight even in broad daylight, its aerodynamic lines seeming almost otherworldly compared to the more mundane cars the antagonists drive as they get picked off one by one.

And now, for a classic slice of 1980s ultraviolence courtesy of Sylvester Stallone. Set in a crime-ridden Los Angeles, "Cobra" is mostly remembered for the violence and stunning lack of nuance displayed in protagonist Marion "Cobra" Cobretti's (played by Stallone) dealings with the criminals he encounters throughout the film. However, a genuinely cool car also served as Cobretti's wheels for most of the movie — until he wrecks it in a car chase about two-thirds of the way in, that is.

Cobretti's car of choice was a black chopped 1950 Mercury, with a nitrous-powered small block under the hood. It rode on white-letter BFGoodrich tires complete with smoothie hubcaps for a full-on retro look. I genuinely love it. Sure, it's not a slice of drool-worthy high-end exotica like the Lamborghini Countach, nor is it one-of-a-kind like Dodge M4S, but its mean, wide stance and tough lines match the stoic, sunglasses-wearing, black-jacketed Cobretti perfectly. It's a tough car for a tough guy in a very tough movie, and every bit the equal of the 1951 Mercury Custom Coupe in "American Graffiti," if you ask me.

The filmmakers used four cars in the movie, and only one survived the shoot. Stallone ended up with it (and I can't blame him), although someone snatched it from under his nose in 1994. Unlike other famous movie and TV cars that were stolen, though, there seems to have been a happy ending: Sly got the car back in 2011, according to a TMZ report of the time.