Mick WALSH
Classic & Sports Car|September 2023
'If you can bear the movie's laughable plot and some awful songs, the race action is spectacular
Mick WALSH

Seeing Bill Shepherd's 427 Cobra, resplendent in Elvis-style paint, battling a pair of GT40s at the Goodwood Members' Meeting earlier this year had me ordering a DVD of the '66 musical comedy Spinout. It was the 22nd of The King's movies and the second of three pretty dreadful motorsport-themed plots that began with Viva Las Vegas.

But for car-spotters like me they're great fun. Among the most amusing features of Spinout are the transformations during two crashes. In the opening scenes, Elvis is driving a Cobra on the road and chasing rich girl Cynthia Foxhugh (played by Shelley Fabares) in her Ferrari 250GT Cabriolet. He is forced into a river, at which point the Competition 427 transforms into a Special with a Microplas Mistral body. Later, during the big race, Mike McCoy (Elvis) in a blue-painted Ol' Yeller has another face-off with Cynthia. She goes off into the same river, where her Ferrari becomes a red Triumph TR4.

This story is from the September 2023 edition of Classic & Sports Car.

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This story is from the September 2023 edition of Classic & Sports Car.

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