Top Ten Film Cars

The real star of the Back to the Future trilogy is De Lorean's iconic DMC-12

Alex Eckford picks the top ten cars to have graced the big screen.

1. Mini Cooper S from The Italian Job

The greatest bank heist movie of all time, featuring some of the most-loved four-wheeled stars of all time - Mini Cooper S's.

The 1969 movie starring Michael Caine and Noel Coward made international stars of the much-loved British cars, and helped turn them into a motoring icon.

The cars' diminutive shape and manoeuvrability help them evade the police, finally escaping through the city's sewers

The getaway scene featuring the front wheel drive cars at the end of the 1963 film was designed to feature as many of Turin's landmarks as possible, and therefore, geographically makes little sense.

2. 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 Fastback from Bullitt

The Fastback model of the Mustang in Bullitt is Steve McQueen’s ride for what some consider the greatest movie car chase of all time, between the Mustang and a black Dodge Charger R/T 440 Magnum.

The Highland Green car had a monstrous 390 cubic-inch (6.4-litre) V8 engine under the bonnet, and came with side air-intakes, uniquely shaped rear side windows, and the same dual-piston Brembo brakes as found on the Mustang Cobra.

Just over 3,000 Highland Green Fastbacks were produced during the car's original production run.

One of the two stunt drivers who drove the Mustang in the film, Bud Ekins, also performed the famous motorcycle jump for McQueen in The Great Escape.

3. Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger

The Bond films are a goldmine of incredible cars, but the DB5 is the king of them all.

First appearing in Goldfinger, the silver successor to the DB4 also featured in Thunderball, GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies (although the scene featuring the car was cut from this film).

The 4-litre engine kicks out 282bhp and gives the car a top speed of 141mph.

In Goldfinger, the car also sports a number of enhancements, including an ejector seat, an oil-slick spray, and smokescreen-spewing exhaust pipes.

A left-hand drive model of the 1964 car also makes a brief return in the most recent Bond film - Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig.

4. The Batmobile from Batman

Not Adam West's garish automobile from the 1960s television series, but the car from Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film.

Built on a the chassis of a Chevy Impala, the sleek black car's design was inspired by 1930s coupes such as the Bugatti Type 57, and its styling was designed to reflect the Art Deco vision the director had for Gotham City.

The car also featured a fully-functional jet engine, which consumed fuel at such rate it could only be used for a maximum of fifteen seconds.

5. De Lorean DMC-12 from Back to the Future

The real star of the Back to the Future trilogy is De Lorean's iconic DMC-12. Manufactured in Northern Ireland from 1981 to 1983 and more commonly known simply as the De Lorean, the DMC-12 packed a 2.8-litre V6 engine.

In the films the gull-wing door-sporting car also featured a time machine used by "Doc" Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox).

Director Robert Zemeckis and executive producer Steven Spielberg originally intended the time machine to be a refrigerator, but changed it to a car as they didn’t want children climbing into fridges and getting trapped inside.

Only nine thousand DMC-12s were built, over six thousand of which still exist.

6. Chevrolet Camaro ('Bumblebee') from Transformers

Michael Bay's version of the 80s cartoon classic was the summer blockbuster of 2007 – and featured a host of US motors.

Among them are two incarnations of the Chevrolet Camaro as the Transformer 'Bumblebee'. Bay originally intended Bumblebee to be a Volkswagen Beetle but changed it to a Camaro to avoid camparisons with Herbie.

The car originally appears as a 1976 model, but transforms into the stunning fifth generation 2009 concept version mid-way through the film.

7. Pontiac Firebird Trans Am T/A from Smokey and the Bandit

This 1977 American muscle car packs a massive, earth-shaking 6.6-litre V8 engine – complete with a 'shaker scoop' – a cover in the engine's intake which pokes through the bonnet and shakes with it. But 325lb/ft of pulling power more than makes up for a disappointing 200bhp output.

Other notable features of the Trans Am include power-assisted front disk brakes, power steering, 15-inch alloys, a racing steering wheel and a 'four on the floor' manual gearbox. Not bad for 1977.

Five identical Trans Ams were used in Smokey and the Bandit, all continually rebuilt due to the hammering they took during filming, with one car totalled in the river-jump scene.

8. Dodge Monaco (The 'Bluesmobile') from The Blues Brothers

The 1974 Dodge Monaco featured in the 1980 film starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd is a former Illinois state police car which Elwood Blues (Aykroyd) traded in for a microphone.

The car is seemingly able to perform impossible jumps – even flying for brief periods of time.

Describing the car to his brother Jake (Belushi) in the film, Elwood says: "It's got a cop motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas."

9. Shelby Mustang GT 500 ('Eleanor') from Gone in 60 Seconds

The 2000 remake of the 1974 film stars Nicholas Cage as a retired car thief who has to steal 50 cars in one night to save his brother's life.

A team is assembled to round up the specific motors, and before long there's only one left to nab - a 1967 Shelby Ford Mustang GT 500, codenamed 'Eleanor'.

The cars used in the film were not real GT 500s, but converted standard 1967 Mustang fastbacks. Seven of the cars were made for the film, five of which were destroyed during stunt sequences.

10. 1971 Pontiac LeMans from The French Connection

Another of the greatest movie car chases – this time featuring Gene Hackman's character Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle racing after an out-of-control subway train.

The Pontiac takes a beating in the film. Legend has it not all of the cars which collide with Doyle's car were meant to - but the unplanned collisions were left in the film.

The LeMans which appears in the film is the 1971 hardtop saloon model.