Posted by David in SW Colorado [64.17.25.194] on Friday, June 27, 2014 at 19:00:30 :
In Reply to: M-37 FROM THE MOVIE : ITS A MAD MAD MAD WORLD posted by earl callow [24.123.47.238] on Friday, June 27, 2014 at 16:17:43 :
Will have to check out MMMM World.
As a teenager Good Old Dad got us hired as extras for the filming of Vanishing Point at Cisco, Utah, east of Green River. We hung out for 3 days waiting for the sun to be right for filming. It was fun watching stunt drivers in the Challengers (there were more than one there if I remember right) and police cars doing some chasing. They had us up on the hillside whenever they were filming. We went and saw the "Challenger" to be exploded and the whole set-up while waiting for the sun to come out. They had 2 Caterpillars, probably D-8s, parked in the road with the blades making a V. There was a box full of explosives waiting in the V. They towed the rolling shell of a Camaro to its explosive death with maybe a 1/4 mile long cable between the dozer blades with a Ford pickup. The hood blew way up in the air and floated down. There was no motor in the car so you don't see a motor flying in the air. They told us to run down to the wreck after giving us the all-clear. We think we got a glimpse of my brother on the movie. We had a white 68 Plymouth wagon (383 motor) but the film pans over the crowd so fast that we couldn't pick our car out. Now with a DVR on slow-mo it may be possible.
If I remember right, my 3 brothers, my parents, and I each got paid $15 a day plus Dad got $10 a day to drive out there from Grand Junction, Colorado. There was a Motor Trend article a few years back that had some of the facts about it wrong but I didn't take the time to set them straight. So don't believe everything you read in Motor Trend!
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