Cool Cars

In his book Alan Mann quoted Richard Attwood as follows: "He maintains to this day that, although it lacked downforce, the (Ford P68's) basic handling was very good and he tells me that he really enjoyed driving it in 1968. He points out that it was astonishingly fast and he also reminded me recently that, in every race it did in 1968, the F3L was on pole, led the race or set the fastest race lap. Those facts speak for themselves in Richard's way of thinking, and he feels that the car has been criticized too harshly ever since..."

The chase scene featured two Lola T70 Mk III race cars[12] being chased by Yamaha TA125/250cc two-stroke, race-replica motorcycles through two San Francisco Bay Area automotive tunnels: the Caldecott Tunnel between Oakland and Orinda and the underwater Posey Tube between Oakland and Alameda.[2][2] According to Caleb Deschanel, cars drove at speeds of 140 mph while filming the chase.[2] Other cars appearing in several scenes of the movie include the custom-built Ferrari Thomassima cars; one of them is on display in the Ferrari museum in Modena, Italy.[13]

The chase featured a motorcycle stunt: Stuntman Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton (credited as Duffy Hamilton) rode his police motorcycle full speed into a fallen paint stand, with a ramp built to Hambleton's specification, flew over the handlebars, was hit by the airborne motorcycle, landed in the street on his back, and slammed into the crashed car in which Duvall's character had escaped.[2] According to Lucas, it turned out Hambleton was perfectly fine, apart from being angry with the people who had run into the shot to check on him. He was worried that they might have ruined the amazing stunt he had just performed by walking into frame.