Any one remember this.......UFO
Looking back, I think as a very young lad, I must have been heavily influenced by the smoking, drinking, girls in mini skirts and the cars....
Foster's Car 1998: Foster's car is currently owned by Tony Read in eastern England. Unfortunately, it is missing the original engine, interior and several portions of the exterior. Here are photos of the car taken in November 1998 (courtesy Dave Griffiths):
The futuristic, gull-winged cars driven by the Ed Straker and Paul Foster characters were originally built for the Anderson movie Doppelgänger (US title: Journey to the Far Side of the Sun). During the shooting of the UFO series, David Lowe and Sydney Carlton raised funds to form a company called "The Explorer Motor Company," dedicated to the mass production of these cars for sale to the public. A plastic mould was made of the Straker car, in preparation for mass production, but the company never got off the ground.
Ed Straker's dramatic gas turbine car, resembling somewhat the 1970 Citroën SM, was, in fact, based on the chassis of a humble Ford Zephyr with a specially built aluminium body shell. There appear to have been only two cars made for the series, a prominently featured brown/gold car and a pink car with a larger hood opening. It appears that at some point in production the brown car was damaged because in some shots you can see one of the headlight openings has been covered in tape, one of the wheels has been replaced by a mismatched wheel, and the lead characters start using the pink car more frequently.
Both Ed Bishop and Michael Billington commented that the futuristic cars were "impossible to drive" (partly because the steering wheel was designed for looks, rather than functionality). Also, the gull-wing doors did not open automatically. Every shot in which the car door was seen to open automatically had to be arranged so that a prop man could run up to the car, just outside of the frame, open the door, and hold it open while Ed Bishop stepped out.
R.I.P
Looking back, I think as a very young lad, I must have been heavily influenced by the smoking, drinking, girls in mini skirts and the cars....
Foster's Car 1998: Foster's car is currently owned by Tony Read in eastern England. Unfortunately, it is missing the original engine, interior and several portions of the exterior. Here are photos of the car taken in November 1998 (courtesy Dave Griffiths):
The futuristic, gull-winged cars driven by the Ed Straker and Paul Foster characters were originally built for the Anderson movie Doppelgänger (US title: Journey to the Far Side of the Sun). During the shooting of the UFO series, David Lowe and Sydney Carlton raised funds to form a company called "The Explorer Motor Company," dedicated to the mass production of these cars for sale to the public. A plastic mould was made of the Straker car, in preparation for mass production, but the company never got off the ground.
Ed Straker's dramatic gas turbine car, resembling somewhat the 1970 Citroën SM, was, in fact, based on the chassis of a humble Ford Zephyr with a specially built aluminium body shell. There appear to have been only two cars made for the series, a prominently featured brown/gold car and a pink car with a larger hood opening. It appears that at some point in production the brown car was damaged because in some shots you can see one of the headlight openings has been covered in tape, one of the wheels has been replaced by a mismatched wheel, and the lead characters start using the pink car more frequently.
Both Ed Bishop and Michael Billington commented that the futuristic cars were "impossible to drive" (partly because the steering wheel was designed for looks, rather than functionality). Also, the gull-wing doors did not open automatically. Every shot in which the car door was seen to open automatically had to be arranged so that a prop man could run up to the car, just outside of the frame, open the door, and hold it open while Ed Bishop stepped out.
R.I.P