I happened to catch Vanishing Point on Fox Classic tonight. I was quite amusing. Some impressions:
That year Challenger is very similar to the new body style. I could see a lot of styiling details like the hood scoops that they carried over.
I was a bit disappointed that they didn't discuss the performance of the car that Kowalski drove. They hinted that it may be supercharged, but they never discussed the car much and never showed a speedometer to show how fast they were going. They did show Kowalski pulling away from the cops but he could never really lose them. They overlayed some great muscle car motor sounds (including squealing tires on dirt!) which makes me want to lose my stock (although pretty large diameter) exhaust.
I was really laughing at the command center that they had set up in Caifornia. They had this big map on a panel that had a red light that flashed behind Kowalskis' assumed position. It was particularly interesting that 90% of the people in this command center were women. I have no idea what that signified.
Anyone else see it tonight? Comments?

 

I watched it again last week on my streaming Netfix account....
They should give a DVD away with each car sold....hehehe

 

I had to see it so I had the kids get it at Frys....$8.99 double sided disc with UK version....

 

FYI The car that crashes at the end of the movie was a Camaro not the Challenger. If I recall they used 9 Challengers. As for the Command Center, that is what the world was like before computer took over. The story line says it was supercharged but they were stock R/Ts

 

From Wikipedia, which corresponds with what I've read about Vanishing Point over the years:

The car Kowalski is assigned to deliver to San Francisco is an alpine white 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T hardtop bearing Colorado license plate number OA-5599. It has a 4-speed manual transmission with a Hurst "pistol grip" shifter, controlling a 4 barrel/440 cubic inch "Magnum" V-8 engine. A total of five 1970 Dodge Challengers were supplied to Cupid Productions by Chrysler Corporation. Four were identically equipped with 4-speed, 440 engines. The fifth Challenger was equipped with a 383 engine and automatic transmission, and was used primarily on the camera runs. (On the 2005 DVD release, director Richard Sarafian commented that there were a total of nine Challengers used during production. However, in a March 1986 Musclecar Review magazine interview, both Barry Newman and stunt driver Carey Loftin concurred that there were only five).

The 383 car was also used as the tow vehicle in the crash scene at the end of the movie. A ¼ mile cable was attached between the Challenger and an explosives-laden 1967 Chevrolet Camaro. The tow vehicle was driven by legendary stunt driver Cary Loftin, who pulled the Camaro into the blades of the bulldozers at high speed. After the picture wrapped, only one Challenger was still in service, as the other four were virtually destroyed during production filming.

Despite the speculation of the police at one point in the film, the car was not supercharged or turbocharged, but naturally aspirated with the single quad (4 barrel) 440/375 horse engine. The Challengers used in filming came equipped with a 4.10:1 Sure-Grip (limited slip) differential and were not well suited for high speed running. To compensate, the cameras were undercranked in some scenes to give the illusion of high speed. Also some chase scenes had the high speed engine noises of the Bullitt Mustang over-dubbed in portions of the sound track.

 

Did anyone else see the VP remake of 1997? I must be the only one who likes it equally as much as the original. Yeah it was dumb, but the remake showed a whole lot more Challenger (and detail), plus alot more other classic Mopars that the original didn't show.

For those that can find them, they're probably in the Wal Mart $4.99 DVD bin - I highly recommend picking one up.

 

The Vanishing Point Trailer is where the rumor of a supercharger started,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA4ymmXa8rs

 

Is there anything I can do for you?

Well, like what?

Doh!

Kowalski was an idiot!

 

No, he was high on speed! (Although he had the absolutely most laid-back attitude of ANYONE I've ever seen using it!)

 

Those other classic Mopars all belong to buddys of mine. I even built the lighted sign sitting on one of the work benches.