If you’ve ever argued about whether a car can have genuine personality, or spent a Sunday afternoon welding the underside of a chassis just to keep something roadworthy for another six months, this is the podcast episode for you.
In the latest Fast Forward, GB and AJ tackle one of cinema’s great unsung obsessions: the cars. Not just the pretty ones. The rusty ones, the ridiculous ones, the ones that probably shouldn’t work but do anyway and the ones that became so iconic they defined the films they appeared in.
The rules were simple. Five picks each. Any car from any movie. And no, the DeLorean from Back to the Future doesn’t count as a pick because that’s already Hall of Fame. Yes it was woefully underpowered, with its stainless steel body, gullwing doors, built by a company that went bankrupt before the film even came out and still somehow the most famous movie car ever made. S tier. No debate.
From there, the lads go in very different directions.
For AJ, who has spent large portions of his adult life covered in grease and making peace with vehicles that cost more to fix than they’re worth, gravitates towards cars with character.
The kind of cars that leak. Cars where the bonnet doubles as a workbench. The kind of cars that inspire deeply personal stories involving the Cornish highway, a missing wheel nut, and a very patient family watching from the opposite carriageway.
Meanwhile, GB is drawn to the spectacular. The sleek. The cinematic. The kind of car that has a jet engine on the front and a grappling hook and can cocoon itself for protection.
What’s surprising, and genuinely fun, is how often they nearly overlap. The same films do come up. The same instincts about what makes a movie car truly great: it’s never just about looks. It needs personality. It needs a story. To feel like it belongs to the film in a way that no other car could.
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And when AJ reveals his number one pick, GB genuinely doesn’t see it coming.
And that’s sort of the point of the whole episode. The best movie cars aren’t always the fastest or the flashiest. Sometimes they’re the ones that feel most alive, the ones that make you think, yes, I’d drive that, I’d fix that, I’d love that thing even when it’s costing me a fortune and breaking down on a dual carriageway.
Also: listener picks, honourable mentions, a cameo from Herbie, and a very strong opinion about American muscle cars that AJ will not be backing down from.
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