P-51/ P-38 Trucks

[Wildchild]

Hey guys, awhile back i was looking through my moms photo album from when my family went to universal studio's (Orlando) and sitting on a small section of grass was a P-51 and a P-38 that were turned into cars/trucks for a "end of the world" movie. If anyone has pictures of these planes, or the name of the movie, please show and tell me! Thanks!

P.S. if i can find my pictures i'll post them here

[51fixer]

Hey guys, awhile back i was looking through my moms photo album from when my family went to universal studio's (Orlando) and sitting on a small section of grass was a P-51 and a P-38 that were turned into cars/trucks for a "end of the world" movie. If anyone has pictures of these planes, or the name of the movie, please show and tell me! Thanks!

P.S. if i can find my pictures i'll post them here

IIRC Don Pennington made some molds of parts at POF that he in turn created the movie props from.
Nothing real was used, just fiberglass.

[P51Mstg]

I saw them there 1986 or so.... Had a P-51 Fuelage as a car, another was a P-38 cockpit pod, and some how one had the cowlings from a P-40 in it. They looked real. Somewhere I have photos of them (starting to scan all that stuff)...

Mark H

[Wildchild]

Found them:





Those pictures were from 1999. There gone now though, and i'd like to know where they are.

[P51Mstg]

Those would be them.... Also had JOHN WAYNE'S WARWAGON on the lot there. It was made of plywood. Looked tougher in the movie........

Mark H

[The Inspector]

I'd like to know what happened to that AUBURN Roadster on the right?

[Wildchild]

I'd like to know what happened to that AUBURN Roadster on the right?

Time for a WIX family trip to Universal Studio's!

I'm actually going on friday and saturday and i'll ask any of the managers there if they know about them.

[Tiger Tim]

The movie was called Road Raiders (I think) and I remember watching it as a kid. If memory serves (and bear in mind I likely didn't 'get it' at the time), a group of misfits is in a C-47 that crashes somewhere in Asia. There were two huge guys I remember being chained together so I'm not convinced these were entirely pleasant misfits. Anyways the Japanese troops are closing in fast so they all flee to some hiding place somewhere, possibly a church. For whatever reason they can't hide there forever so their search for a means of escape takes them to some abandoned hangar/shed/garage/barn/whatever that happens to be full of abandoned American airplanes, cars and trucks. Cue the A-Team music (probably) and one sweet, welding-filled montage later these truck chassis with airplane fuselages (and awesome fighter plane engines and guns inside!) come rolling out. The Auburn had an enclosed turret of some sort where you'd normally find a boat tail, BTW. So out they come, shoot some stuff up while the leader of this rag-tag team shows the resident Japanese General (or whatever) how cool he is, probably while smoking a cigar, cue the excessive explosions left and right, then drive right up onto a waiting barge to make your ultimate three and a half knot escape up the river. I think there was even a busload of orphans they rescued while they were at it. Oh yeah, some cheesy love interest crammed in too but I'll admit I was only in it for the airplanes.

I'm positive this is the IMDB listing for it but they differ on their synopsis:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098207/

-Tim

[bdk]

According to Joe Baugher's list, 41-51355 isn't a good serial number. I find these replica aircraft to be highly suspect!

[P51Mstg]

QUOTE from IMDB..........


I was a Japanese soldier extra in The Road Raiders, it was filmed in Jacksonville & Green Cove Springs, FL in September/October 1988. The show was supposed to be a CBS TV Pilot Movie for a possible TV show, it obviously never happened because ratings were probably terrible! It was just like the A-Team in concept but took place in World War II Japanese occupied territories like the Philippines. There was action mixed with comedy, and to meet the enemy, the good guys fabricated fighting machines with whatever wrecked planes, trucks & machinery that was laying around. Some of the vehicles used in the movie were displayed in a vehicle display park at Universal Studios Orlando during the mid 90's.


Looks like the right movie.......


Mark H

[Chris Brame]

Here's a little footage from Road Raiders - one "Japanese" T-6 flying and a C-47 on the ground:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T50H57_k3jI

Once-in-a-lifetime cast: Bruce Boxleitner... The Barbarian Brothers... and Leslie Jordan (best known today as drag queen "Brother Boy" from Sordid Lives) as a former jockey named "Whip". In a recent radio interview Leslie described conditions on the set as "like a dog trying to run on linoleum" and there was plenty of strange white powder available to the cast and crew...