Today's new cars come
with all manner of whiz-bang features that were once the realm of science
fiction writers' imaginations, such as 4G wireless hotspots and even autonomous
self-driving technology. Car designers likely would never have come up with
some of these ideas without the crazy inventions found on fictional cars from
the movies and television.

Today, Anchorage Auto Electric & Classic Muffler
presents some of the wildest fictional cars of all time, any of which we would
love to park in our own personal garages.
Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang
The real star of the Dick Van Dyke family film by the same name, the car Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang got its name from the trademark huffing and puffing sounds its
engine makes. With the ability to sprout flotation devices and turn into a boat
as well as deploy wings for impromptu airplane flights, the sentient race car
made an otherwise ordinary comedy film into one of the top car movies of all
time.
The car was created specifically for the movie, and only one of the examples
built was full-size and road-legal. That car sold at auction for $805,000 in
2011 to film director Peter Jackson, who had plans to use it for charity
fundraising events.
KITT
Those who grew up watching television in the 1980s are sure to be familiar with
the Knight Industries Two Thousand, better known as KITT. This heavily
retrofitted 1982 Pontiac Trans Am was portrayed to contain a crime-fighting
artificial intelligence unit along with several outlandish upgrades not
commonly found on real production cars such as a Turbo Boost feature for
jumping over roadblocks, a molecular bonded shell that allowed it to be
impervious to gunfire and even explosions, and a sophisticated sensor system
that allowed it to "see" the road ahead. The talking, wisecracking
KITT was as much a star as the series' lead actor David Hasselhoff.
James Bond's
Aston Martin DB5
James Bond has driven some very cool cars throughout the super spy film series'
illustrious run, but none were more impressive than the classic Aston Martin
DB5 that made its debut in 1964's Goldfinger. The real DB5 came with a
272-horsepower 4.0-liter V-8 engine and five-speed manual transmission,
allowing drivers to take best advantage of its sinuous good looks.
Bond's version, of course, got some special upgrades: a smokescreen, a
retractable rear license plate, an oil dispenser to foil the attempts of
would-be pursuers, and even an ejector seat. The DB5 set the stage for a
decades-long product placement relationship between Aston and the Bond film
series producers, one that continues to this day.
Back to the
Future DeLorean
Even the 1,200-horsepower Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, although it is the
fastest car in the world, does not have the ability to travel through time.
That has left gearheads and film buffs coveting the oddball DeLorean more than
any other fictional car. The story of the actual DeLorean Motor Company and its
cocaine-dealing founder John DeLorean is an odd one. The unpainted, stainless
steel-bodied sports car came with vertically rising "gullwing" doors
and a design unlike anything that had come before it.
Real-world drivers would need to get their hands on a flux capacitor to make
time travel possible, if one existed, but movie replica DeLorean time machine
cars show up from time to time on the streets of Hollywood with Doc Brown
impersonators behind the wheel.
Image courtesy of artur84 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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