BACK in the 80s, this film made cars even cooler than ever – especially Lamborghinis.
Now, to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the legendary films, its stars have reunited with both each other and the vehicle that made the franchise a must-see.
Cannonball Run stars Adrienne Barbeau and Tara Buckman were snapped with the iconic Lamborghini Countach LP 400 S, which they drove in the movie.
Cannonball Run, released in June 1981, saw the ladies star as Marcie Thatcher and Jill Rivers, two Spandex-clad racers who enter a cross-country car race starting in Connecticut.
For the race, they chose the Black Lambo for style as well as substance.
They starred opposite Burt Reynolds who played competing racer, JJ McClure, with Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Jackie Chan and Farrah Fawcett also making an appearance.
In order to win the race, the pair would use their womanly wiles to seduce policemen and get them out of any speeding tickets they may ensue.
“We had the best car, and it was definitely the most beautiful of all,” Tara said at the event.
Cannonball Run became an enduring cult success, triggering a wave of movies around races and cars, with its influence can be seen directly in the films like the Fast And The Furious franchise.
Before appearing in the movie, the Lamborghini was owned by a friend of a film’s director, who offered it to him to use.
The car was later modified with stand-out features including a wing, two full-beam headlights on the nose, a spoiler, three antennas, and twelve exhaust pipes, as well as two fake instruments in front of the passenger seat.
The owner kept hold of the car up until 2009, when Cannonball Run superfan Jeff Ippoliti purchased it.
“I had always been crazy about cars but the opening of the movie was the first time I got to see and hear the Countach in motion, and I was captivated!” he said.
“I didn’t see it in person for the first time until twenty-six years later, and it took me another eighteen months of negotiations before I managed to take it home.”
In 2021, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the film, the Countach LP 400 S was inducted into the US Library of Congress – marking it as an ‘artefact of extraordinary importance to American history and culture’.
To date, only 30 cars have achieved this honour.
As for the stars of the series, both continued to act after the film’s success.
Tara removed herself from acting in 1994, after a string of roles in Silent Night, Deadly Night, Days Of Our Lives, The Marilyn Diaries and Night Killer.
Adrienne has starred on screen and stage, with key roles in 2012’s Argo, American Horror Stories, General Hospital and a guest role in Sons of Anarchy, Criminal Minds and Revenge among others.
