The six best cars in Oscar-winning films

The Oscars 2015 may be over, but the 87th Academy Awards is still a decent excuse to talk great motors. So here, in no particular order, are the six best cars to have appeared in Oscar-winning films…

Oscar cars Buick Roadmaster Rain Man United Artists

The legendary Buick Roadmaster in Rain Man

Buick Roadmaster - Rain Man

“I’m an excellent driver,” the Oscar-winning Dustin Hoffman told us repeatedly in this heart-warming tale of redemption.

The 1949 Buick Roadmaster is as much a character in the movie as Hoffman and Tom Cruise, as the pair drive across the US in a road trip that changes both their lives.

1949 Hudson Commodore Driving Miss DaisyWarner Bros

The 1949 Hudson Commodore starred in Driving Miss Daisy

These are the best cars to have EVER appeared in Oscar-wining films

Hudson Commodore - Driving Miss Daisy

A year after Rain Man, another car-centric movie was also successful at the Oscars.

Over a 26-year period, Miss Daisy (Jessica Tandy) is driven – first in a 1949 Hudson Commodore, followed by two Cadillac Sixty Specials – by her driver, Morgan Freeman, as they manoeuvre through an era when civil rights changes the Georgia in which they live.

Ford Mustang BullittSolar Productions

Steve McQueen drove this Ford Mustang in Bullitt

Ford Mustang - Bullitt

No round-up of Oscar-winning movies featuring cars is complete without Bullitt, which won the gong for Best Film Editing at the 1969 ceremony. 

The seven-minute chase – featuring Steve McQueen in a Ford Mustang and two hitmen in a Dodge Charger – has become a benchmark for subsequent movie sequences and helped the two vehicles involved to become muscle car icons.

Pontiac LeMans The French Connection20th Century Fox

The Pontiac LeMans is a classic, despite the crash damage

Pontiac LeMans - The French Connection

Another classic car chase comes from a thriller that won five Oscars, including Best Actor for Gene Hackman.

And it was Hackman, as police detective ‘Popeye’ Doyle, who was behind the wheel of a Pontiac LeMans that he commandeered to chase a hitman on a subway train. One of the best-filmed chases ever.

Back to the Future car DeLorean DMC-12 Universal Pictures

The incredible DeLorean DMC-12 featured in Back to the Future

DeLorean DMC-12 - Back to the Future

“The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?”

Becoming a time machine certainly made the DeLorean DMC-12 memorable, its use in Back to the Future (Oscar winner for Best Sound Effects Editing), cementing its place in popular culture.

Aston Martin DB5 Goldfinger carUnited Artists

The icon of Goldfinger, the Aston Martin DB5. And Sean Connery

Aston Martin DB5 - Goldfinger

The first appearance of James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 was in Goldfinger, which like Back to the Future, won an Oscar for Best Sound Effects Editing, in 1965.

The DB5 has subsequently become intertwined with the Bond franchise, even raising a cheer in cinemas when it made an appearance in Skyfall, nearly 50 years after its debut.

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