Iconic Cars: National Lampoon’s Vacation

The usual MO of a car in a classic film is that people then went out in their droves to buy one. DMC’s time-warping DeLorean, Cruise’s Risky Porsche, The Italian Job’s Mini, Herbie…

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But this next vehicle is an exception to the rule. A much-loved car, it’s the fact that it’s a pastiche in and of itself of Middle America that makes it so loved.

Conceived by Batmobile designer George Barris, Barris took a 1979 Ford LTD Country Squire station-wagon and did a real job on it. The ‘Wagon Queen Family Truckster’ was painted pea green, with fake wood panelling, eight headlights contained in two clusters, a front grille aping the Oldsmobile Toronado, oversized hubcaps with a large crown logo and a fuel access door located in the front passenger hood.

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The quintessential -instantly recognisable- sensible family car was born. And so was the fifth lead in the movie, set up by the fact that it wasn’t the car the lead wanted to buy, but one foisted upon him by Eugene Levy’s superb car salesman, a man to spot a mark when he sees one entering the used car lot.

National Lampoon’s Vacation was written by Hollywood’s golden boy, John Hughes, based on his short story ‘Vacation 58’ and directed by Harold Ramis, of Ghostbuster’s fame.

Starring Chevy Chase, ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’, known simply as ‘Vacation’ in the States, concerned a mid-life crisis-ridden Clark Griswold’s efforts to bond with his family by taking them cross country from Chicago, Illinois, to ‘Walley World’ fun park in LA, California, all the while tempted by Christie Brinkley’s sexy siren in a Ferrari 308GTS.

Of course, everything that could go wrong does so, making Griswold even more determined to get there and deliver his family the promised holiday, come what may. 

Wayne Lensing’s ‘Historic Auto Attractions Museum’ in Roscoe, Illinois houses the original vehicle among its unique collection, one that includes Stalin’s bulletproof limo, the Ghostbuster’s ambulance and the actual car behind the one JFK was assassinated in… hmm.

The Country Squire was a long-running hugely successful family sedan created and remodelled over the decades by Ford, first appearing in 1950, restyling seven times subsequently, in ’54, ’57, ’60, ’67, ’73 and ’79. The perfect stooge for the comedy, epitomising as it did so many people’s memories of their own family holidays. 

This major Ford marque inevitably became a symbol for suburban family life and, as such, ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’ was not the only film to choose the Ford Country Squire as their car of choice, saying so much so easily as it does, by its very existence.

A black 1959 Country Squire is used quite extensively in the 1967 Valley Of The Dolls.

A red 1964 Country Squire is used to transport James in the Bond movie Goldfinger.

A 1987 Country Squire is also driven by Scott Thomson’s character, Jason "Preacher" Rowe in the 1996 film Twister.

A red 1975 Country Squire is also the creator’s car of choice for Peter Griffin in the animated series ‘Family Guy’.

However, in Vacation, it’s perhaps not treated with quite so much respect as it does in some of its other more illustrious appearances on celluloid.