Gran Prix by James Garner

the racing scenes are magnificent

one of the characters in the movie lives or stays at some place that has these representations of the race tracks in the Gran Prix circuit on the 2 storey wall in the staircase

below is the scene where James Garner's character drives some other characters wife home

 Naturally beautiful woman, Jessica Walter

 Hertz Shelby GT350 Mustang that James Garner's character drove as a commuter

below are examples of the multiple uses that VW vans were used for in the 60's... they were used for everything, advertising signboards, mobile mechanics tool boxes,

 this mobile gas station seems to be a converted bus

 more great cinematography

Now to the making of

 cool 1960's French helicopter, an Alouette

director Frankenheimer was a amatuer racer, Ferrari fan

James Garner was in the Carroll Shelby school of race car driving for a couple weeks, and Bob Bondurant was his personal trainer. Lucky!

a real GT 40 was used as a camera car. I've posted photos of this in the archives, and can't find them

Replica of James Garners Lola T70 24 Hour Daytona racecar, the AIR on the nose stands for American International Racing, Garners team name

for a gallery of James Garner's racing team http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/12/james-garners-american-intenational.html

Fonzie's bike was up for auction by Bud Elkins, 1949 Triumph Trophy TR5... so was James Garner's Baja Olds 442

The motorcycle that helped make Arthur Fonzarelli an icon of cool was up for auction. (didn't sell)

The 1949 Triumph Trophy TR5 was featured on the beloved sitcom “Happy Days.” Even without the Fonz connection, the bike would have a famous pedigree since it was owned by stuntman, racer and Triumph dealer Bud Ekins — a guy even cooler than Fonzie himself. He’s best known for dyeing his hair blonde and performing the stunts that studios wouldn’t allow his friend Steve McQueen to do, including the fence jump at the end of The Great Escape and some of the driving in Bullit

When Happy Days needed an authentic bike for Fonzie, Ekins obliged by removing the bike’s front fender, spray-painting the gas tank silver and replacing the handlebars.

Henry Winkler, who played the Fonz, couldn’t ride a motorcycle. Winkler told Emmy TV Legends that he rammed the bike into a sound truck the first time he tried to ride it. From that day on, the crew pulled him and the motorcycle on a board.

The bike is in need of a lot of repairs. The speedometer is broken, it's rusted and hasn’t run since the 1970s, according to the New York Times. Despite the bike’s condition, it was expected to fetch between $60,000 and $80,000.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/10/ayy-fonzies-bike-is-for-sale/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/celebritology/post/fonzies-happy-days-motorcycle-up-for-sale-photo/2011/10/11/gIQAWOiFcL_blog.html



also up for auction are James Garner's former Oldsmobile Racer (didn't sell) , Fast and the Furious '94 Toyota Supra(sold for $21,000), and Tom Cruise's futuristic Lexus (sold at $101,000) from the "Minority Report", though the winning bidder can't actually take it on the road. http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/car_tips&id=8429328

some photos from http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/WService=wslive_pub/pubweb/publicSite.r