Movie cars star at Detroit Auto Show

DETROIT — All the stars are at the Detroit Auto Show, and not just on charity night.

A collection of cars from or inspired by the most famous machines from the movies have been brought to the show by classic car insurer Hagerty.

“We really wanted to focus on ’80s and ’90s cars. These are the cars the new generation of collectors are really increasingly interested in, so we wanted to bring something fun and engaging,” said Claire Williams, Hagerty vice president of marketing strategy. “Who doesn’t love a nice movie car? There’s a lot of nostalgia tied up in it.”

A number of the cars were provided by local owner Mel Guthrie, while other cars came from other sources such as the Los Angeles-based Petersen Automotive Museum.

Among a group of notables including K.I.T.T. from “Knight Rider,” the Family Truckster (really a Ford Crown Victoria) from “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and a Ferrari 308 GTSi from “Magnum P.I.,” the most famous of the cars on display may be the Ferrari Modena Spyder California from “Ferris Bueller's Day Off.” 

Except not everything about the “Ferris Bueller” Ferrari is what it seems.

“The production studio couldn’t afford to use a real 240 GT California Spyder, so they found this outfit in California that built replica Ferraris,” said Casey Maxon, Hagerty’s senior manager of heritage. “Modena Design was the name of the company. They came out with this and they had built only a couple, and John Hughes saw one of their cars at a car show — their very first-ever rendition of a California Spyder — and decided, ‘That would be perfect for my new movie!’”

The company built four cars for the “Ferris Bueller” production, three being drivable models with Ford V8 engines and automatic transmissions based on tube frames, and one being the shell-only car that was destroyed at the end of the film.

The “Ferris Faux Ferrari” has been immortalized as part of Hagerty’s National Historic Vehicle Register, a collaboration between the insurer and the federal government that preserves historically and culturally significant vehicles. 

“We document cars for the Library of Congress to preserve the story of car culture and automotive history for the American public,” Maxon said. “That car was added to the register with a three-dimensional laser scan, measured line drawing and blueprints, documentation photography — a dossier of its history where we captured the essence of that car so it can be preserved for generations to come.”

The movie cars will be at the Detroit Auto Show throughout its run at the Huntington Place convention center, ending on Monday, Jan. 20.

Call Staff Writer Dean Vaglia at (586) 498-1043.