‘Eleanor’ Ford Mustang – Gone in 60 Seconds (Movie Mustangs)

Gone in 60 Seconds mustang

Awesome Movie Mustangs – ‘Eleanor’ Ford Mustang from Gone in 60 Seconds

An original 1967 GT500 was used for the motor sound effects, but not as a model for the movie car. The actual cars used were just 67 Mustangs, all customized to look like Eleanor in this movie. Most of the cars were 289 Mustangs with automatic transmissions.

Originally the production designer, Jeff Mann who is also a professed car fanatic, proposed this car be a GT 40 then when that didn’t fly he suggested a Shelby Series I Cobra. Eventually they settled on a 67 GT 500. According to SAAC, the 11 Mustangs were each chosen for specific duty. Some had highly modified suspensions for the high speed slides. Some were cosmetic models used for close ups and PR shots. Others, the ones crashed and crushed didn’t even have engines.

In Shelby American issue #70, the latest copy, the article explains that the car used for the close-ups of Cage actually had two steering wheels. Someone else was driving the car allowing Cage to focus “acting” rather than driving. The car used to record the sound affects is a 500 horsepower 428 1967 GT 500 with a great lumpy cam sound.

The car is Brittany blue with wnt o LeMans stripes. Corvette side exhaust pipes were temporarily added for taping the sounds of the car. The movie car had side pipes to produce a different sound than rear exhaust. George Watters, a long time SAAC member and top sound editor for Hollywood, obtained the GT 500 and took it to Willow Springs. He and his sound people spent six hours doing different things with the car, recording the sound of it for the movie soundtrack. So the only original GT500 used in the movie produced the sounds you hear.

To make the “67 GT 500” more unique, modifications were made from the original, stock 67 GT500. Among the modifications: custom “Corvette” side pipes were added, a front air dam, similar to the one on the 1965 GT 350R, replaced the front end, the gas cap was located behind the top scoop instead of the rear of the car, the hood was replaced with one that has a definitely non-stock hood scoop, and nitrous was featured. Oh and least I forget to mention those huge mag rims and sports tires.

I understand the producer took one of cars home after the movie, and that he is afraid to drive it. Those were not options in 1967.

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