The imposing fleet of 50 Jaguar E-Type models isn’t the only attraction to arrive today at London’s Canary Wharf for the free-to-visit Motorexpo as Disney and its Pixar studio sent two real life characters from the upcoming Cars 2 movie, which is set to hit UK theaters in 3D on July 22. The full-size film-star cars are the Lightning McQueen racer and the Finn McMissile Aston Martin, voiced in the movie by actors Owen Wilson and Michael Caine respectively.
Continuing the assault of promotional material for the second installment of the Cars animated movie franchise, Disney and its Pixar unit announced today that two characters from the film will jump into life at the upcoming Goodwood Festival of Speed, which will be held at the Goodwood House from 30 June until 3 July.
If there is one television crew that is almost impossible to go by unnoticed (at least by the male population) anywhere they go in the world, it is the hosts of BBC’s widely popular Top Gear program. This time, Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond were spotted in the medieval town of Lucca in Tuscany, central Italy.
Georges Lautner’s 1981 action-thriller Le Professionnel is about a French Secret Service agent betrayed by his employers and left to rot in an African prison camp. After breaking out and returning to his native France, the agent (played by Jean-Paul Belmondo) begins plotting his revenge against the people who set him up. In this scene, Belmondo is attempting to outfox the French Secret Service agents following him. Belmodono’s car is the red Fiat 131 Supermirafiori while his rivals are driving a black Peugeot 504. There are a couple of 180 degree turns, a handful of nice pit manoeuvres and the prerequisite shot of the Eiffel Tower for the non-Gallic viewers. The chase eventually moves to the grounds of the Palais de Chaillot, where we discover just how overused that, “driving a car down some stairs,” thing was before Jason Bourne got around to it.
Last November, Oprah Winfrey gave us our first tease of the spanking new 2012 Volkswagen Beetle during one of her daily shows by revealing the car’s silhouette. Now, being that the show reaches millions of American viewers, and as everybody knows, Oprah has that special Midas touch when it comes to promoting products; Volkswagen had no problem to donate a brand new 2012 Beetle to each of the 275 audience members. Fast forward to today, the German have already unwrapped the third generation Beetle at the 2011 New York and Shanghai motor shows in April, so it’s time for Volkswagen to create some buzz around the car with the release of a video showing Oprah handing the keys to one of the lucky audience members. You can watch it right after the jump.
