There are several iconic cars in the game from movies and TV-series. Some of them obvious, some of them a bit more obscure. It can be tricky to get an exact match due to limitations in the game, but you can come very close to the point where you will recognise it immediately if you’ve watched the movie or TV-series.
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The Last of the V8s – Mad Max
Note: Credit goes to BadTrip
The Ford Falcon XB GT Coupe 1973 “V8 Interceptor” was driven by Max Rockatansky, Mad Max, in the movie with the same name. It was modified for the movie to become a police interceptor, specialised for hunting down outlaws.
The iconic car is first seen in the MFP garage when Max, that has quit since he is tired of the violent job, is baited to return to the force. It’s evidently super charged, with the intake sticking out of the hood. It’s also different from the other MFP vehicles in that it’s black with only some emblems in gold. The other police cars are yellow with roof mounted police lights.
In GTA V the base vehicle is called Vapid Imperator and you can buy it through the Arena Wars shop. To modify some parts of it, you need to own a Arena Wars garage (mainly to remove the armour plating). The rest can be done in an ordinary garage or the LS car meet.
You can come pretty close to the real thing with the Imperator with some minor details that you won’t be able to change.
- The intake is considerably larger than it’s movie counterpart, even with the smallest one fitted.
- The head lamps have a yellow border around them which you can’t get in the game.
There are some other differences as well, but if you’ve seen the movie you will recognise the car immediately.
The movie has one factual error and that is that the super charger is switched on by pulling a red switch on the gear stick. In real life, the super charger is driven by the cam shaft and is always active just as a turbo charger.
Aston Martin DBS – The Persuaders!
Perhaps a little bit more obscure is the car driven by Brett Sinclair (Roger Moore) in the TV-series The Persuaders! The series was initially aired in 1971-72 and featured two protagonists that solved cases that the regular police failed to do. Roger More, as mentioned above, played one of them and Tony Curtis played the other one, Danny Wilde. Danny drove a Ferrari Dino 246 GT.
In GTA V Online, you can come pretty close to the DBS by getting the Dewbauchee Rapid GT Classic. There will be some more evident differences between the real deal and the game, mainly in the nose. But, if you mod it sparingly and paint it in a darker yellow, you will definitely have the same feel as in the TV-series.
Highly recommend to you to watch this series that is more like The Saint than e.g. James Bond. Oh.. and the main theme music is really good. I’m not kidding, it is. Go and listen to it now. Do it!
Aston Martin DB5 – James Bond
If number 2 was a bit obscure, this one should not be difficult to recognise. Another British car driven by James Bond in several movies (list below). It’s a beautiful car, some argue it even to be the most beautiful ever created.
It started in the series in Goldfinger where it’s handled, roughly at times, by Sean Connery.
And now you can pour yourself a Dry Martini, throw your hat towards Miss Moneypenny and fire your machine guns at unsuspecting bystanders yourself.
In GTA V you can buy the DEWBAUCHEE JB 700 or JB 700W. The only difference between them is that the 700W is bought through Warstock Cache & Carry and is more expensive since it has weapons by default.
As far as similarities go, it’s really close to the original. The nose is slightly different and lacks the creases the original car has, but it’s such a small difference that you will hardly notice it unless you are a Aston Martin fanatic.
James Bond appearances:
- 1964 – Goldfinger
- 1965 – Thunderball
- 1995 – GoldenEye
- 1997 – Tomorrow Never Dies
- 2006 – Casino Royale
- 2012 – Skyfall
- 2015 – Spectre
- 2021 – No Time To Die
The car has also been featured in several other games.
Goldfinger has perhaps the best dialogue between Bond and the main antagonist:
- James Bond: “Do you expect me to talk?”
- Auric Goldfinger: “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!”
1932 Ford Coupe – American Graffiti
This car is like a character in the movie, featured to drive (no pun intended) the final part of it. I won’t spoil it for those that haven’t seen it. In the movie it belongs to John Milner, one of the main characters. Likely Milner has converted the car into a hot rod himself, since he works as a mechanic.
The paint job is described by Harrison Ford’s character Bob Falfa as “Sorta a cross between Piss Yellow and Puke Green” (not my words).
When you mod it in GTA V you will get pretty close to the original, with mainly the engine and exhaust being impossible to replicate. You can also only completely remove the fenders whereas the original car has small cycle ones bolted on.
However, it’s so close that you will be able to answer the question: “Where were you in ’62?” while you cruise Hollywood boulevard.
DMC DeLorean – Back to the Future Trilogy
If you didn’t see this one coming, it’s on you. Likely one of the most recognisable movie cars ever with it’s brushed stainless-steel body and gull-wing doors.
In GTA V, the car is called Imponte Deluxo and has a rather hefty price-tag (likely due to iconic it is).
Yes, it flies and it also has machine guns and missiles making it a rather useful vehicle and a alternative to a helicopter. To fit or change the weapons, you need a Mobile Operations Center.
It also handles more like a helicopter and makes it easy to avoid traffic if needed although it’s actually faster on the ground than in the air.
Visually it’s almost identical to the real thing. However, you won’t be able to replicate the time machine since there is not option to add the Flux capacitor, the metal bumpers, electrical wiring and the displays inside. You can hit 88 mph though, but without any result.
Unfortunately the company, DeLorean Motor Company (DMC), made some critical mistakes and had to fold, so it’s a quite rare car in real life. However, you can get one for yourself now in the game and, Great Scott!, it hits that nostalgia nerve.
Lotus Esprit – James Bond
Another British Bond car made it on the list: Lotus Esprit.
The Esprit appeared twice in the movies and the first one is the more famous.
- The Spy Who Loved Me – 1977
This is one of the most, if not THE most, tricked out Bond vehicles. It has weapons, defensive counter measures and can turn into a submarine (more about that later).
- For Your Eyes Only – 1981
There are actually two Esprites in this movie. The first one (White) blows up when the bad guys try to break into it. The second one has a copper metallic paint job and has no features apart from a integral roof rack for skis.
If you have run out of Dry Martini and olives, you can replenish your stock by buying the Ocelot Ardent from the Warstock Cache & Carry for a price of $1,150,000. It’s not in the regular car shops since it’s a weaponised vehicle. As you can see in the picture, it’s pretty close to the original but the nose is more inspired by the editions from the late 90s and more rounded.
Unlike the original, it can’t turn into a submarine and it doesn’t have AA missiles.
Which brings us to that in the game there actually is a second car that could fit the description:
The Ocelot Stromberg. However, that car is based on a Maserati Bora and even if it can turn into a submarine and somewhat resembles the Lotus, it’s body doesn’t have that wedge shape but more of a wavy one.
1983 GMC Vandura van – The A-Team
Likely your situation in GTA V is very close to the A-Team’s: You are on the run from a crime “you didn’t commit”. Be so as it may, this is probably the most known van in the world. It served as the A-Team’s main transportation and sported a black/metallic grey paint job with red stripes, red rims and a bull-bar. The TV-series ran from 1983-1987.
The GMC Vandura was manufactured from the early 70s into the 90s more or less unchanged. Yeah, it’s innovation like that that explains the soaring car business in Detroit.
In GTA V you can buy the van Declasse Gang Burrito. It more or less has the best fit you will get when you buy it, and usually you just have to change the secondary colour to red.
The original van actually wasn’t all black, as mentioned above. The section above the red stripe was metallic grey. You can’t match that in the game together with that the stripe just continues back instead of meeting up with the roof spoiler. But, hey, you can’t have everything.
Ford Mustang – Bullitt
Arguably the first great car chase in movie history happened in the movie Bullitt. In the movie from 1968, Steve McQueen plays the Lieutenant Frank Bullitt in SFPD. His car is a dark green 68 Ford Mustang and in the famous car chase up and down San Francisco’s hilly streets, he’s chased by a Dodge Charger.
Considering that they had no CG effects e t c back then, it’s pretty amazing how they managed to make that car chase look so good with only real driving and practical effects used.
A lot, if not all, car chases since then has that as the benchmark. In the movie Ronin, e.g., they opted to do all the car chases in the same way to get the same feeling.
Now you can power slide yourself if you buy the Vapid Ellie and paint it dark green. There are some differences between the car in Bullitt and GTA V. Most noticeably, you can’t remove the scoop on the hood, which the car in the movie didn’t have. Apart from that, it’s pretty close to the real deal.
1950 Mercury – Cobra
Cobra from 1986 is a B-movie regardless of how you look at it. Cliches stacked on a stack of cliches and it got a pretty bad reception. It has since become sort of a cult movie as it sometimes happens.
Sylvester Stallone plays Marion “Cobra” Cobretti , a LAPD cop, who rather asks questions to a corpse in a morgue than in a interrogation room.
Cobra was nominated for six Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Sylvester Stallone), Worst Actress (Brigitte Nielsen), Worst Supporting Actor and Worst New Star (both for Brian Thompson) and Worst Screenplay. Yeah.. GG.
In the movie he drives a custom 1950 Mercury Eight with three stunt doubles made for the action scenes where he e.g. jumps out of the second floor of a car park. The movie might stink, but the car is more bad-ass than Cobra himself. The car is painted metallic grey with brushed aluminium (not aluminum) hubcaps. In GTA V the car is called Albany Hermes and you can get a pretty good resemblance to the original. You can’t get the hood intake though and the wheels are a bit off as well.
But you can intimidate the Hispanic gangs by just cruise around in their varrio. Maybe they’ve seen the movie as well.
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