ibelieveinthelittletreetopper:

ibelieveinthelittletreetopper:

A few bits about Baby….

So. Two weeks ago I got to see this girl in person, and yesterday I got to get in a replica and talk to Jeff Budnick, the picture car coordinator for the show. He also did a panel at RCCC. I wanted to share some cool stuff I learned.

-There are eight Impalas owned by the show. Jeff owns a few more of his own though (he owns about 150 cars that are used on a variety of shows in Vancouver).

-There are three Hero cars. Only Hero 1 has the Big Block engine that was put in during Baby’s break in season 7. You can hear that car coming blocks away. The pictures above are of Hero 2 which I think has been in the most episodes.

-There are three stunt cars. Stunt 3 has steel plates on the bottom to prevent damage to the undercarriage on roughy terrain. That was also the car they dropped into the bunker from pretty high.

-Hero 1 weighs about…4,700 pounds.

– There is also a car they can take apart (like for the overhead shot in “Baby”$ and the wrecked one from the season 1 finale.

-There are always two Babys on set in case there’s an issue with one. They travel in the big black trailer that you can see in the first few pics. The days I was there they used hero 1 and so we got to say hi to hero 2 while she was on standby.

-Baby had big speakers in the rear! But on hero 1 they are actually heat vents that help clear the rear window to shoot through.

-The person responsible for the most damage to the car is Jared. There actually not much leg room in these cars so Jared puts his feet on the dash and breaks vents. They also go through about 20 steering wheel caps a season because people, especially Jared mess with them. Jared is…not the preferred driver and has run Baby into a few fences etc. Jim Michaels dress giving him the keys according to Jeff. On the other hand Jeff said Jensen Could be a stunt driver. They also had to remove the hydraulics from the Pimpmobile cause Jared broke them.

-Production calls the continental the Pimpmobile just like us. There are now two of them and they live with the other impalas and Bobby’s Chevelle.

-The monster truck for Route 666 was custome built from a pre-existing truck in less that 4 days.

-After the EW cover shoot the hood of hero 1 had to be repainted cause they boys scratched her up!

-Baby is gonna take some damage early this season and be “broadsided” but she’ll make it through.

ADDED! The impala in the pilot was used as a police car in another show which is why it had the spot lights. Kim Manner hated how the spot lights messed up shots so he took them off at a certain point. The pilot impala is still one of the stunt cars.

Bringing this back because it put Dean’s fear of Sam driving the car into perspective.