Author	Message
ty619 ◊ 2006-12-12 22:29	IT WAS A 1973 FORD LTD 4DOOR SEDAN.IT HAD A 351 FORD V-8 WITH A LOW RISE INTAKE,WITH 2 HOLLEY 4 BARREL CARBS.IT ALSO HAD 4 SPEED TRANNY,SHIFTER ON THE FLOOR IN IT.COLOR WAS BROWN WITH A BLUE INTERIOR.I ALWAYS WONDERED OVER THE YEARS WHO MIGHT HAVE THE CAR IF IT WAS NOT DESTROYED. -- Last edit: 2006-12-13 00:21:53
stpaulcarguy ◊ 2007-01-08 04:21	sorry ty619 it was a 71 cutom 500 with a 429 and dual carburators. however you were right about the 4 speed, exterior and interior color. -- Last edit: 2007-03-08 02:16:00
wekke ◊ 2007-03-27 23:17	I have no pictures sadly, but if there is a 4 or 5 star rating to be given, Gator's brown 1971 Ford (either Custom or Galaxie, I can't see it clearly) in this movie should get it. First it's a 4-on-the-floor manual, later it miraculously becomes a column-shift automatic ;-) It's not too hard to find the sponsor of this picture... half of all the other cars in the movie are '71 Ford also. :-D And there's a lightgreen early-seventies Mercury Marquis that deserves at least 3 stars as well.
stpaulcarguy ◊ 2007-04-26 08:30	Personaly I think it a 5star car. The reason it miracously turnes into a column shift is that it never actully was a 4speed. Acording to the movie it was suposed to be, but if you watch closley when gator shifts, hes not in the custom 500. They dubed in the noise of the gear shift with a clip from inside another car. It's near impossible to tell what car has the 4speed, but if uv ever been inside a 71 ford u can definetly tell the dash is different from the one they used for the shift shots. Plus when u see a shot of him shifting, the car with the 4speed has a woodgrain steering wheel and gators car dosnt. And even if they made one with a stick just for show (witch I highly doubt they did) I dont think the motorpool guys would take the time to hang a clutch in every other standbycar.
stpaulcarguy ◊ 2007-07-15 22:15	There's a 71' ltd thats missing from the main page. It was driven in the begining and the end of the movie by the FBI guys and it also apeared in a chase scene as a backround vehicle its silver with a black vinyl top.
Group9 ◊ 2007-08-03 19:01	There were definitely several brown Ford Custom 500's used in this movie. One, for sure, was destroyed in the barge jumping scene, and when you watch the movie, some of the cars have slightly different trim, and one has a protective piece of re-bar on the front bumper that the other ones don't have. Any movie like this is going to have to have a lot of copies of the main car because they are going to be banging them up and they don't want to have to stop and take it to a body shop when that happens (in Smokey and the Bandit, they used four Trans Ams, two with autos, and two with 4 speeds). You could get a 1971 Ford Custom with a 429 police interceptor engine that had a mix of Cobra Jet and Super Cobra Jet parts on it and was rated at 370 horsepower. This was a standard police unit, but you hardly ever see any around anymore because hot rodders and drag racers would snap these cars up at auction for the motors. You could also get a 3 speed column mounted manual transmission as an option (but not with the 429) and it would have been about three hours worth of work, and cost about $250 when this movie was made, to pull that 3 speed out, replace it with a floor shifted toploader. Movie cars are frequently modified anyway (the two Ford Mustangs used in Bullett were both souped up because they didn't have enough power to film the scenes they way the director wanted them filmed) and it is not hard to believe that various Gator cars used in the film had a variety of engine and transmission packages in them, or even that after the movie was shot and the cars shipped out, someone decided they needed film of Gator shifting the gears, and a shot of the (dual quad 429) motor, and went and found a 1972 Mustang (which is what those two shots look like they came from). The shot of the motor, which is not a dual quad set up, has shock towers to either side of it that a 1971 Ford Custom doesn't have. But, the idea of a 1971 Ford four door sedan with a big block and a 4 speed is so cool that I like to think that they had at least one of them around during filming.
stpaulcarguy ◊ 2007-10-12 04:26	Thanx for the info group9 I didnt know that.
Gator ◊ 2008-07-19 05:16	If the motor shot is a 429 Like Gator says, it would mean the mustang is a 71. Tha last year of the big block. I think, due to the Valve covers, it is a Boss 351.
vilero ◊ 2009-05-15 12:14	Added 29 new vehicles; 11 of them with 2, courtesy of user 'typhlosion'
carguy67 ◊ 2009-11-10 00:11	This car was definitely a 1971 Ford Custom 500 4 door sedan. The in car Custom 500 shots showed an automatic on the column, but the underhood shot was of a '71-'73 Mustang with the 351 Cleveland and a single 4 barrel carb. You can just see the unibody spring towers on either side of the engine. The in car shot of Burt Reynolds shifting the 4 speed was also a '71-'73 Mustang because you can just see the bottom of the instrument panel and console assembly. It is part of the Mustang he was driving to show the 4 speed and looks nothing like the '71 Custom 500 instument panel. A good friend of mine and I are building an identical '71 Ford Custom 500 with a built 460 and top loader 4 speed. We both enjoyed the movie so much that he decided to build a car just like the one in the movie and I'm giving him a hand in it's construction.
rjluna2 ◊ 2009-11-10 02:04	That explains from A to Z on two different transmission configuration that I keep seeing on 1971 Ford Custom 500
JohntheFordguy ◊ 2009-11-23 08:11	I have built a 1973 Ford Galaxie 4-door (exactly the same as the LTD) like the movie GATOR. With a balanced and blueprinted 429 and a custom 4-speed trans. Ford 9" rear axle with rear disc brakes and 4:11 spool. It is frighteningly fast for such a big car. And the movie White Lightning is what gave me the idea to build this car.
Skid ◊ 2009-11-23 08:16	Nice, John. Big cars with four speeds rock.
Rocketman ◊ 2010-01-16 04:09	New to the data base. i am currently building a 1/25th scale version of the Gator's car. All of your detail info is much appreciated.
Gator ◊ 2011-12-03 06:32	carjucky wrote I've always wondered this; no car in this movie is newer than 1971, was it actually shot in '71 and not released until '73? There is a 72 pictured above.
typhlosion ◊ 2012-02-16 08:58	some more
Nightrider ◊ 2012-02-16 23:05	Movie about moonshine?
Ingo ◊ 2012-02-16 23:13	Nightrider wrote Movie about moonshine? Soundtrack? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8ZMM8GNLrI
TheFacts ◊ 2013-07-05 11:22	The car is NOT a 1973. The car is a 1971 and it had a column shift. The cut-aways of the engine and 4-speed were taken from a Mustang. When Gator (Burt Reynolds) arrives home, he is CLEARLY seen slamming the car's gear-shift into "park".
falconetti ◊ 2015-06-17 21:43	Hello. Does anyone know what color code on the car as Burt Reynolds drove in the movie White Lightning
mike962 ◊ 2018-02-08 21:42	wonder if this stunt went a bit wrong by the car falling off a bit too short -- Last edit: 2018-02-08 21:47:56
thrashmetalguy ◊ 2018-12-29 22:26	mike962 wrote wonder if this stunt went a bit wrong by the car falling off a bit too short It did go wrong Mike according to Turner Movie Classics channel. The car was supposed to land in the middle of the barge. They said Burt Reynolds was the first to jump into the water and help his friend and stuntman Hal Needman before the car submerged into the water. No one wanted to redo the stunt so they secured the car to the end of the barge the way you see it in the movie and rewrote the scene. -- Last edit: 2018-12-29 22:31:45

	The vehicle is part of the movie
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	Vehicle used by a character or in a car chase
	Minor action vehicle or used in only a short scene
	Background vehicle
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	Seen only in preview/trailer
	Seen only in deleted scenes
	Seen only in an alternative ending
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White Lightning, Movie, 1973

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