Cool Car: Difference between revisions

Most Cool Cars, even ones that have no inherent super abilities, will be curiously immune to breakdown, physical damage or a realistic fuel range. No matter what manner in which the hero drives, as long as he's determined to stay on the straight and narrow and fight for the forces of good, his car shows an [[Empathic Weapon]]'s ability to never get scratched, dented or even dirty. It may also be able to outperform similar or even superior vehicles simply by virtue of having the hero behind the wheel. Driving one also seems to ensure you'll have [[Rock Star Parking]] privileges. If you're ''really'' lucky, you'll have a [[Cool Garage]] to park it in.

 

 

Sometimes, the car is cool enough that it actually can become a protagonist in the series -- ''e.g.'' KITT in ''[[Knight Rider (TV)|Knight Rider]]'' and the General Lee in ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]'' are arguably the ''main'' protagonists of their respective shows and are as iconic to the audience as the human stars.

See [[Improbably Cool Car]] for cars that are just ''too'' cool for the setting or the characters.

 

 

== Anime & Manga ==

** Other cool cars graced ''[[Speed Racer (Anime)|Speed Racer]]'' too, of course. Racer X's car, while not explicitly equipped with an arsenal of super gadgets, was shown jumping from one clifftop to another in flagrant violation of the Earth's gravity. The Car Acrobatic Team all sported miniature wings which turned them into gliders. The "evil twin" of the Mach 5 had full-blown airplane wings and a jet engine, in addition to a [[Death Ray]]. The Mammoth Car was the size of a passenger train, and {{spoiler|made of solid gold}}. The GRX could go faster than human reflexes could handle, necessitating use of [[Super Serum|V-Gas]] which reacts badly with water and dehydrates the user. The X3 Melange was driven by remote-control (with a robot dummy driver) by the revenge-fueled son of a dead racer. The "assassins", who were clearly ninjas, drove around in ''ninja cars''. And in one episode, Speed even test-drove a ''supersonic rocket car''.

* Just about every single race car in ''[[Future GPX Cyber Formula (Anime)|Future GPX Cyber Formula]]'' in its many iterations. The main car, the Asurada series of racers, is able to shapeshift (especially in its much later versions) has 6WD (except for GSX, which has the standard 4 wheels), rocket boosters, and needs an AI supercomputer to be driven properly. Its rivals over the years are just as colorful, including, but not limited to:

## The Missionel series of cars, the final version of which looked like if [[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|Unit 01]] has been turned into an automobile.

## The Spiegel Series (from the HG family), a windowless racer that has the driver lie in it like a closed-cockpit luge sled.

*** It could also be a civilian Schwimmwagen. VW supposedly sold some leftover Schwimmvagens on teh civilian market after the war.

* The G2 in ''[[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (Anime)|Science Ninja Team Gatchaman]]'' not only transforms from a Nissan Skyliner into an awesome-looking racer, it's equipped in later episodes with a ''[[Gatling Good|Gatling gun]]''.

* The team's car in ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' is a 1965 Pontiac GTO, and is one of the most well-known, highly sought-after and collectible classic American muscle cars in the world. Not only is it cringe-inducing to see the kind of abuse it gets, but it's valuable enough to where they could sell it and have more than enough money to buy a brand-new car that's faster, more fuel-efficient and more comfortable, but, well, then [[Rule of Cool|they wouldn't be driving around a freakin' 1965 GTO]].

** In the first and second seasons, Benny owns a 1969 Dodge Coronet R/T (fitted with a hood from a 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner). Another very valuable and sought-after piece of muscle-car history that is destroyed by Lagoon Company.

* The ''[[Looney Tunes Back in Action]]'' movie had a double subversion of this trope. The first car Brendan Fraser and Daffy find in Timothy Dalton's garage is a beat-up old Gremlin which barely makes it out of the driveway. About a minute after they leave, however, the floor of the garage flips over and a stereotypical spy car is revealed, complete with [[James Bond|Bond]]-esque musical sting.

* Michael Korben's Lotus Esprit in ''[[If Looks Could Kill]]''.

{{quote| '''Cameron:''' Less than a hundred were made. My father spent three years restoring this car. It is his ''love''. It is his ''passion''...<br />

'''Ferris:''' It is his ''fault'' he didn't lock the garage.<br />

* ''The Wraith''. An unnaturally cool car.

* Malloy's car in ''[[Con Air]]''.

* In ''[[Angels Revenge]]'' (aka ''Angels Brigade''), the team of "angels" puts together a van that looks like a rip-off from the A-Team, except that this movie was made before the A-Team.

* ''[[Death Proof]]'' features several cool cars, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger, Chevy Nova.

* ''[[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]]''

* Almost every car in ''[[Death Race]]''

* The Car (and Nemo's [[Cool Boat]]) are probably the only reasons to watch the ''[[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' movie.

** This (straight)female troper begs to differ. [[Sean Connery]] is a good reason to sit throught ''anything''.

* ''[[Undercover Brother]]''. The title character's Cadillac Coupe de Ville, with built-in tape launcher and slick sprayer.

* The so called "Durango 65" from [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s ''[[A Clockwork Orange (Film)|A Clockwork Orange]]'', actually an [http://www.carmk.net/media/2010/10/20101023084353271.jpg M-505 Adams Brothers Probe 16] - a super limited edition (only 3 were ever built) supercar built in England in 1969. The car was specifically chosen by Kubrick based on how cool and futuristic it was. It's main party piece was the fact that it was so low (only 86 cm or 34 inches in height) that it couldn't use normal doors, instead driver and passenger ingressed via an electric sliding glass roof.

* The Deathmobile in ''National Lampoon's [[Animal House]]''.

* The custom-built monster truck in ''[[Monster Man (Film)|Monster Man]]''. Behind the scenes it was actually [[Awesome but Impractical|unusable for actual driving]], as it was hard to steer and ran on expensive rocket fuel.

* In ''[[Skulduggery Pleasant (Literature)|Skulduggery Pleasant]]'' the title character starts off driving a classic Bentley, but when it gets wrecked is forced to temporarily replace it with a hideous [[The Alleged Car|yellow hatchback]].

** The third book reveals that Skulduggery has uncool cars stashed all over the place. This suggests that he is either very fond of his car (and doesn't want to drive it into situations he knows will be dangerous) or it gets damaged a lot.

* [[Tom Swift]], Jr.'s Triphibian Atomicar was a convertible that could transverse land, sea and air.

* [[The Saint]] had a Hirondel, which probably doesn't qualify; once, on a trip to Italy, he found himself using a classic Bugatti, which '''does'''. In spades. When he finds a bomb strapped to the bottom by the Mafia, his initial reaction is something along the lines of 'a bomb would be bad enough under my normal car, but this is a ''Bugatti''.'

 

== Web Animation ==

 

 

** Her car also made a cameo appearance at the very beginning of ''[[The Rescuers (Disney)|The Rescuers]]'', where it is now driven by Madame Medusa.

* The Patty Wagon in ''[[The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie]]'' is pretty cool. It can drive even though it's just a stack of unattached pieces, some of which probably aren't even mechanical, and every part of it is fast food-themed. It runs on frying oil, its wheels are pickle slices, it has actual sesame seeds, etc.

* ''[[Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends]]'': Madame Foster owns a black Firebird. Even with the [[Thick Line Animation|stylized artwork]] it can still be [[Shown Their Work|clearly identified]] as either a 1977 or 1978 model.

* The Question's car in ''[[Justice League]]'' looks to be a 60's Pontiac GTO. Extra points for using it to drive [[Car Fu|over some bad guys]].

* The Phooeymobile from [[Hong Kong Phooey]]. With the strike of a gong, it can change into anything.

* The Flintstone Car from ''[[The Flintstones]]'', which for some reason is actually powered by the driver's feet.

* [[Captain Planet and The Planeteers]] had the Geocruiser, which was solar powered. They also had an eco-friendly plane as well.

* [[Megamind]]'s invisible car.

** Let's be more specific... How about the [http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/pic/3506/Dome-S102-Judd_3.html Dome S102], [http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimages/394421/1992MagnyCoursev23.jpg Peugeot 905 'Supercopter'] (never raced sadly), [http://www.dyna.co.za/cars/Audi-R8C.jpg Audi R8C] (only raced once, sadly).

** The 1971 [http://robson.m3rlin.org/cars/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/porsche-917-1971-test-kauhsen-siffert-5.jpg Porsche 917 LH, in Martini colours]. To quote from the Autosport.com message board; "I asked a teenage Lewis Hamilton fan when this car was from. He said, 'dunno, nineties?'"

** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_787B The 1990 Mazda 787B], listed because it's the only japanese car to have won Le Mans, as well as without a piston engine, which produced it's ''limited'' max power at ''9000 RPM'' (in an endurance racer!), the true maximum power beeing 930 hp at '''10500'' RPM(!). [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_kEeRaS3UM&feature=related The noisiest le mans racer ever ?]. But the best is that by the end of the le mans win, mazda engineers (after telling the driver to ignore the limiter in some parts) dismounted the engine and found that it could still do ''another'' 24 race. The rotary engine was banned afterwards.

** In any list of cool race cars, there are always 2 cars that are bound to compete for the top slots. The Ferrari 250 GTO and its rival, the Ford GT40. The former is so iconic and nowadays, so rare that when it appeared on Top Gear, it could not be driven simply because the BBC could not afford to pay the insurance for it.

* The Pontiac Banshee concept car. It was a two-seat sports car that rivaled even the Corvette in coolness in the early-mid sixties. Too bad it was shot down before production.

* The Pope-mobile. Only the best for the head of the Catholic Church!

* The [http://www.netcarshow.com/holden/1969-hurricane_concept/ Holden Hurricane.] so cool that when they found it again in 2006, it was returned to holden who promptly undertook a massive restoration process (right down to duplicating the original paint) that took 3 years to complete, and was only just revealed recently in october 2011.

* You wouldn't expect a rather mundane car company like American Motors Corporation (aka AMC, now bought out by Chrysler and later turned into the Eagle company) to show up here, but take a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AMC_AMX3_Front.jpg good] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AMC_AMX3_Rear.jpg look] at the AMX/3. Sadly, this car never reached the market due to exorbitant costs and bumper regulations during the [[The Seventies|1970s.]] However, while the AMX/3 never went into production, they did produce a bunch of ''other'' cool cars, like the outlandish red white and blue muscle car, the [http://i.imgur.com/7Z5GX.jpg American Rebel Machine]. They also made the AMC Spirit AMX - the first American car to compete in the 24 hours of Nurburgring - and it won both first ''and'' second place in its class of 100+ cars - also one of the few racing cars to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQqysjI9gM4 receive a documentary]. The [http://i.imgur.com/yb2Fb.jpg Javelin AMX], a car designed to compete with the giants like the Ford Mustang Boss, curb-stomped most of the other racers in the SCCA races.

[[Category:Travel Cool]]

[[Category:Cool Car]]