by Mike –
What I did not know when I first saw the Disney movie, “The Love Bug” which came out in 1968, was that the Thorndyke Special race car was really an Apollo GT. This very car below is the Thorndyke Special and will be at Concorso Italiano August 16, 2013 in Monterey, California.
The Thorndyke Special (Apollo GT)
I also did not know there was a Bizzarrini GT 5300 featured in the big race. I should have guessed because Carey Loftin was in charge of the stunt driving and he usually took one of his Bizzarrini GT 5300s to the movie set he was working on and parked them so they were within camera range.
The Thorndyke Special (Apollo GT) and Bizzarrini GT 5300 In “The Love Bug”
There should be many other Apollo GTs at Concorso Italiano this year celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo GT.
I will be there with my Iso Grifo – if you are there stop by and say hello!
I am going to watch “The Love Bug” again before August.
Thanks for this article. Even as a kid, I was pretty knowledgeable about cars but didn’t know what the Thorndyke Special was either. I no longer remember if I ever saw the movie again once I was familiar with the Apollo GT but probably not. I did think it was pretty funny that the gear lever of the Thorndyke/Apollo was treated as a magic go faster stick in the movie that he had to move whenever a car was approaching from behind.