If such a person exists - besides me- does anybody remember what kind of car did automan drive? Was it Lamborghini? or was it some non-existing car, made only for the show?
thanks !
p.s. you can email the answer at [email protected] thanks in advance!
Not sure, but I believe the car was a mock-up of the Vector Twin Turbo, also a very angular rear-engine supercar like the Lambo Countach or Diablo -- however, most of the action sequences for Automan's driving were done as special effects.
shareit was definitely a Lamborghini Countach -
See the official Automan Tyco R/C car here:
http://www.80skid.com/images/AutomanRCL2.jpg
I agree, definately a Countach
shareYeah I remember those special fx! It would look as if his car was "sliding" sideways on the street (with the car always pointing straight in the direction of the street rather than the direction in which he was driving ON the street) when he was cruising through the traffic. I always thought it looked very cool. But then again, I was only 5-6 years old, hehe.
shareHow about the way Desi Arnaz Jr would get plastered against the door and window whenever Automan would take a turn, slot car style? LOL!!!!!!
The show would have made it if Automan were Autogirl. Seeing a man in glowing tights doesn't do it for me. Now, a babe in the same outfit.... Oh yaa!
It was a real Lamborghini. painted black . The light stripes you saw were plain old 3M reflective tape that they shined a blue light on. Does'nt that take all the fun out of it?
share
Automan's car was definitely a Lamborghini. It was indeed the world's most exciting show that has stood the test of times.
I personally think that the entire cast looked fabulous and Automan himself looked exotic in his costume.
DEFINITELY AUTOMAN FOR ME ! (I prefer Automan to be the same boy, who played him, the great Chuck Wagner !
'Bye'
It was a Lamborghini Countach with it's rear spoiler removed and both Neon Lights and 3M reflective material used to give it it's blue glow.
Also nearly all the footage you see of the car moving was filmed with the other cars moving a lot slower than Autocar, then the film was simply sped up in the editing.
And also you can tell this show was low budget because nearly every edit of the car doing 90 degree turns is on the same corner, and if you look at the traffic lights they jump when edited so Autocar never ran a red light!
Someone in one of these threads said he remembers the car going sideways - it never does, it TURNS, but it does it very fast, because the footage is sped up. Look carefully, and you'll see how it is. It never goes sideways (that would have been way more difficult - and unnecessary - to achieve).
"It was a Lamborghini Countach with it's rear spoiler removed and both Neon Lights and 3M reflective material used to give it it's blue glow."
Not quite. I mean, it definitely was a Lamborghini Countach, and its (not "it's" - english language is illogical, so it's 'understandable', but a mistake nevertheless) rear spoiler was certainly removed, and the reflective tape was indeed used, as far as I know.
BUT, it goes further than that.
You didn't mention the FRONT spoiler and the lower front lights, or the plastic (or whatever material) part they covered those lower front lights with (it changes the shape of the car slightly, and you can see this if you look carefully), the side mirrors, the modified/removed/cut rear (and possibly front) fenders (if you look carefully, you can see that there's something funny going on with the fenders (or where the fenders used to be)).
It still goes further - they blacked out the main front lights (with black tape?) and put some reflective tape (or whatever) BELOW the actual lights (probably so it'd be harder to recognize, or aesthetically more 'futuristic', or who knows).
They also seemed to have used the reflective tape 'misleadingly', so that they wouldn't precisely follow the actual curves and shapes of the car, but formed seemingly an 'alternate shape', so that the car was still more difficult to recognize.
They might have also gone as far as to remove the windshield wipers as well.
You only mentioned the rear spoiler being removed, but as you can see, they made many other alterations as well - which renders your explanation inadequate and thus false.
As a last detail, they also 'changed' the place of the signal light(s) this (or some other) way.
So basically it's _VERY_ stripped-down Lamborghini Countach, with 'deceitful visual shape and light alterations added', not just a Countach with the rear spoiler removed and some reflective tape added.
Here is a visual to compare (I made all my observations from these two pictures):
http://i2.aijaa.com/b/00591/12363297.jpg
And they definitely tampered with the hubcaps - whatever the default Lamborghini Hubcaps may look like - or perhaps removed them altogether in favor of the reflective tape - or maybe painted them black, who knows.
So, as you can see - they did a HECKUVA lot more than just removed the back spoiler and added some neon lights and reflective materials!
Yes, a heavily modified Lamborghini Countach. By the way, the 3M tape was made to glow by shooting through a refractive glass so that all of it glowed equally. In the pilot, everything was shot twice with Chuck. One with the regular 3M tape suit and one where the chest of the suit was open and replaced in post production with a star-field. So everything was shot twice when Chuck was on camera. Some scenes were shot in Lake Arrowhead about 3 hours from the Fox lot and production was held for two days while it snowed. I mention this because it was NOT the time of year for snow.
But I digress. Yes, a heavily modified Lamborghini Countach.