Plymouth Central - Martin's 1958 Plymouth Christine

She was one of over 20 or so cars used in the movie Christine. I acquired her in 1984. She was the actual stunt car from the alley scene chasing Moochie up where she corners him in the loading dock. Another car with urethane parts cast from originals was used where she actually crushes herself into the area to get Moochie. Christine was actually pulled into the loading dock through the set behind the actor with a cable crumpling the panels. She was the only 3 speed overdrive in the bunch. I know this because Al from classic mentioned that the film crew on the set forgot she was a manual and when they went to start her up she was in gear and lunged forward almost taking out some equipment. "Bad Christine," they shouted.

I bought her 18 years ago from the back lot of a studio in L.A. She was going to be saved for a movie that was in the works at the time called "Cat's eye," however, they found a beautiful red and white Belvedere and shot the footage they needed. Since the car was not used it was scheduled to be scrapped. My friend Al Newman from "Classic Wheels" out of Anaheim informed me that I may be able to save her. Because of his connection with movie cars and the studio not wanting the liability of selling these to private parties, he picked her up for "parts." I was able to buy her from him for 900 dollars and flat bedded her home along with boxes of parts. I was also given a script, movie stills, press kit, rubber moldings, fenders, etc. I even found some of the "CQB-241" license plates that were on the car during the filming in the trunk including the rear one with the 1979 DMV sticker still intact.

When I bought the car she had no interior, just a simple roll cage, 5 point harness, one bucket racing type seat and the windows were all painted black on the inside with the exception of a small driver section which was a patch of black window tint so that the stunt man could see. A lot of the stainless moldings and trim were made of cast urethane rubber or plastic and painted chrome silver. There was also 4x4 inch support braces between the firewall and front core support and the radiator was mounted in the trunk so that in crash scenes the radiator fluid would not spill out. The cars that were running were labeled "Muscle one," "Muscle two," etc. My car had "Muscle two" on the underside of the hood and driver side door jam. The non runners were pulled on casters or dollies. Al from Classic told me where all the wrecks were sent and I was allowed to go into "Bill and Ed's Auto Wrecking" in Fontana California. This is where all the smashed cars were sent. I quickly made friends with the owner there. I was told that possibly 25 Plymouths were used. Sadly, small handfuls were Fury's.

It took Eddie Lee Voelker "Christine" and transportation coordinator almost 2 1/2 years to locate them through DMV records and ads. Ironically, like Arnie, I was able to pull parts off the wrecked ones in the yard. Most of my Sport tone stainless came from the burn car. They had used rubber cement and poured it all over the car and set it on fire. The surviving Sport Tone trim inserts came from some of the ram cars, and out of the 57 and 58 Plymouths in the yard I was able to put the interior together. I was 20 years old when I found Christine and put her back together. I did not set out to build a show car, just a nice driver and she is still running and looking good after all these years. Christine has been in several "Cars and Parts" magazine issues and is also featured on the Forward Look website and The Offspring's "Americana" video.