To update: Hagerty’s reporter confirms that the actual car was used. The text has been updated accordingly.
Amazon MGM Studios has aired the first season of its new TV show Fallout. It is based on the long-running video game series set in an alternate universe based on futuristic ideas of the 1950s, ending in all-out thermonuclear war and its aftermath. To keep with the look, all scenes set before nuclear war feature 50s clothing, political ideology and of course cars. The most The cars on display are genuine series vehicles from this period. One of the main characters, Cooper Howard, drives a beautiful yellow Kaiser Darrin, and there’s even a scene that shows off the car’s super cool sliding doors. A Messerschmitt tandem bubble car also appears (and there are lookalikes you can find in the game). But the most interesting and unique car appears in the first episode, and amazingly, it’s hidden in the background in various shots.
It doesn’t take long to spot it, as it appears in the first few minutes of the show. These scenes begin at a birthday party just before the bombs fall, and are most clearly seen in the shot above as Howard sets off on horseback with his daughter in search of safety. They speed past a big, bright red roadster, with a shiny side exhaust and a tailfin reminiscent of some historic racing cars. This vehicle was not made specifically for the show. It’s the 1960 Plymouth XNR concept, and apparently it’s the original, as a Hagerty reporter discovered.
The actual 1960 Plymouth XNR concept has a lot of mesmerizing history. It was designed by Virgil Exner (hence the name XNR), who worked at Pontiac, Studebaker and most notably the Chrysler Corporation. He started at Chrysler with concept cars, and the first production cars credited to him were the “Forward Look” models, which included the original C-300, which would eventually inspire the 2005 Chrysler 300.
The styling is really wild. As already mentioned, it features asymmetrical elements of the racing cars of the time, but these are reinforced by the air scoop on the hood, which flows into a long, rising hood. The exhaust only protrudes from the driver’s side, and at the rear there is a kind of chrome star that connects the tailfin to the pseudo-bumper. The radical-looking fenders also appeared on the original 1960 Valiant, which was quickly placed under the Plymouth brand while Dodge got its own version called the Lancer. Accordingly, the XNR even uses the chassis of the Valiant Motor trend (It provides an excellent, detailed look at the car from its sadly defunct condition Motor trend classic Magazine).
In addition to the royal designers’ wild looks, the XNR was actually a fully functional car. It had a 170 cubic inch (or about 2.8L) inline-six engine with 250 horsepower, a three-speed manual transmission and rear-wheel drive. And although it looks like it only has a driver’s seat, there is a passenger seat hidden under a removable body panel. It also had an independent front suspension with torsion springs and a live rear axle with leaf springs. These rear leaf springs even fit snugly into the curve of the rear body (or more likely, the body matched the springs).
When Chrysler was finished with the car, a wild journey began, which led first to Italy and Carrozzeria Ghia, the company that built the body. It eventually passed to several other owners, including at one point the Shah of Iran. It was eventually found by Karim Edde, who discovered it in Lebanon in the 80s and had to transport it for security reasons when the civil war broke out. It was then restored in the late 2000s by RM Restorations, part of today’s RM Sotheby’s auction house. After its restoration, it was shown at Pebble Beach in 2011, where it won the Gran Turismo Award, meaning it was included as a driveable car in the video game franchise, including the most recent Gran Turismo 7. It’s really fun to drive, especially with the high-revving engine. The game shows that the redline is just under 8,000 rpm.
And that brings us to today, where the car appeared in “Fallout.” When we first wrote this, we were trying to get information about whether the car in question was the real XNR or a replica of Gotham Garage, the custom car shop featured in the Netflix series “Car Masters : From Rust to Riches”. This replica is now located at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles and the museum’s PR contact confirmed that the replica was not used. HotCars reported that Gotham Garage was thinking about building another replica a while back, adding another possible car to the mix. We also contacted Amazon for details but never received a response. But a friend and reporter of Hagerty’s found a contact who was able to confirm that the actual car was used.
Now the XNR can add a TV star to its already fascinating existence. Pretty sweet if you ask us.