“I know where the cars from the movie Days of Thunder are.” This is the message that the person in charge of the Coors Bandit YouTube channel received in November 2023. Joe Jackson, who is dedicated to rescuing and restoring classic Pontiacs in his workshop, did not believe that they were the authentic Chevrolets that appear in the film by Tom Cruise until he was able to verify it in situ in the depths of the California forest where they lay for years. This is how he found the Mello Yello Lumina number 51 and the Hardee Lumina number 18, rusty and wrapped in weeds, as he recounts in this video published a few weeks ago.
Fans of action movies will surely remember this film directed by Tony Scott that premiered in Spain on September 28, 1990. Days of Thunder tells the story of Cole Trickle (Tom Cruise), a rookie racing driver who conquers the public for his successive victories in NASCAR races. The young man suffers an accident while competing against his biggest rival, Rowdy Burns (Michael Rooker), which ends up making him afraid of driving, which he overcomes with the help of Dr. Claire Lewicki (Nicole Kidman), with whom he falls in love in the race. hospital.
In NASCAR races, so-called stock cars compete, that is, production cars whose factory elements have not been modified to compete. The main difference with the street models lies in the striking colors of their bodywork. This competition is held on numerous circuits in the United States where drivers must complete 200 laps, such as the Daytona 500 in Florida, where part of the filming took place and very close to where both cars were abandoned. The number 51 is, in fact, the one that Tom Cruise drives in the final scene of the film.
The most curious thing is that, just a few days after the video was published, the person in charge of Coors Bandit receives the following message: “I know where number 46 has been for years. The last time I saw it, it was covered by vegetation.” Randy Willingham, who participated on the set of Days of Thunder as a body painter, contacted Joe Jackson, who did not hesitate to rescue this third car, as shown in the following video.
These cars were used by stuntmen during the filming of Days of Thunder. Apart from removing the mud and turning them into a showpiece for motor nostalgics, little else can be done for these cars. The dents are impossible to restore and this may be the reason that led three of the cars from the film to be abandoned in the forest, at least, until now.
