In 1966, MGM released a splashy Formula 1 film, Grand Prix, with a glittering international cast and copious cameos from real-life legendary wheelmen: Phil Hill, Bruce McLaren and Juan Manuel Fangio, to start. The thing is, to film racecars, you need a racecar. Ford provided a GT40 for all the racing sequences. Now that’s a frunk put to good use., Getty Images Tom Cruise famously does his own stunts, including some of the driving in the latest Mission: Impossible installment. Good thing the studio used the most powerful 3 Series: those twin camera rigs don’t look featherweight., FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images The Aston Martin Vantage is not known for its reliability or utility. Still, director Peter Hunt saw an opportunity with that particular hatchback, and decided to ditch the door and install a camera for the interior shots in the 1969 Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service., Larry Ellis Collection/Getty Images From the earliest days of film, Hollywood was hitching motors to cameras. Here, in 1929, an MGM lensman films a fellow in a car with a sign advertising a performance of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” featuring “distinguished thespians.” Not popcorn fare, that., John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images When the road gets rough, the director calls in a Commander, a heavy-duty off-road camera vehicle tough enough for any woods or desert. The murdered-out paint scheme isn’t for aesthetics—it minimizes glare and reflection to avoid spoiled shots., Colin McConnell/Getty Images Without a Trace, CBS’s crime procedural, certainly knows how to pick a vehicle: this glorious, robin’s egg blue Volvo 240 makes a winsome camera car. Hopefully it survived the shoot to live, and trundle, another day., Mitch Haddad/Warner bros./Getty Images After the demise of the R63, the Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG is as close as it gets to a muscle minivan from Stuttgart. That made it the perfect vehicle to film the harrowing chase sequences from the forthcoming Suicide Squad. Quad exhausts: cool on everything., Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images
