This is the car/show that motivated me to start looking for a Cuda/Challenger. I was not looking for a convertible necessarily but it HAD to have a pistol grip shifted 4 speed. I ended up with a rough basket case 70 Challenger drop top in 2001, took me 7 years of blood sweat and tears to get it done and still have it today. Originally it had a 318 auto and was B5 blue, changed it to slime green with a 440 4 speed.

Everything is very accurate, great episode. I did research on the Nash Bridges Cudas several years ago and you were spot on. Here's an extra interesting tidbit: There was only ONE lemon twist Hemicuda ever built from the factory, and as far as I know it's home is the Petersons Automotive Museum in California. I have no idea if it's still there, but that car is probably almost priceless today.

That restomod ruined the #3 cuda

What a show and what a car - thank you for covering this. Well done as always ~ Chuck

Love the fish gill “stickers” on the blown up one 😂

This brings back some fond memories of watching Nash Bridges with my dad back in the late ‘90’s when it was still on the air. I read that the idea of using a Hemi ‘Cuda came from Don Johnson himself, since he was the executive producer. Even though a police captain driving around San Francisco in a “lemon twist” ‘71 Hemi ‘Cuda convertible makes for a great TV show, I would never use a cherry old school muscle car as a daily driver and I certainly wouldn’t use it for police work. The switch from Mopar Lemon Twist to Caterpillar Yellow is a bit of a disappointing fact, thank goodness none of those real Hemi Cuda cars were used for the series.

Don Johnson had 3 iconic TV vehicles. Guy understood his audience.

Back in 1990s I was working on a project in the Presidio of San Francisco when one morning a studio sound truck with one of the ‘Cudas in tow showed up at the main post. They proceeded to do burnouts and donuts in the big parking lot of main post while guys with microphones recorded the sounds…unfortunately (for them) nobody had apparently told law enforcement who quickly showed up with sirens blaring and shut down the show…was fun to watch while they were at it.

I hope the '57 T-Bird that Dan Tanna drove in the show Vega$ is still on your list.😎

Now this is a awesome one. One of my all time dream cars. Is a 71 Hemi Cuda hard top. Not so much the convertible. As the early 80's I had a model of the Hemi Cuda. It was Orange.

I was working on a high-rise in San Francisco👀 I saw them filming🎉 I saw the car it 🍀Cool😎✌️

As many dvd set and scale model sales as your videos inspire, the studios should be paying you.

There is a lot of stuff out there about #1, I have personally seen #1, the only real 1971 that has been upgraded to a real 426 Hemi. I saw it around 2016-2018, don't know if the owner at the time still has it, but it had all the info and the glove box door was signed by Don and Cheech. What a beautiful car.

funny enough about the model kit of the car, I build one based on the hard top 71 cuda kit before the licensed nash cuda kit came out. I simply sliced off the roof and made a folded roof cover out of white plastic to cover up what used to be the roof and rear shelf behind the glass. if anybody ever wants to duplicate that 'industrial' yellow I used Tamiya TS 47 Chrome Yellow it is a very good match for that shade of yellow.

I loved Nash and his gorgeous car 🥰😍❤️

While it might sound like it was, a 360 was not an upgrade (not even slight) to the 340.

Great series and a very cool car. Thanks again for the back story.

One of the best looking convertibles in my opinion!

Fact #11 Don Johnson is the only actor in history to hold a world championship title in a motor sport, he's a world champion (I don't believe currently) speed boat racer, the big cigarette job's.

That´s a beautiful badass mopar muscle! period

Love the video and love the series, the '71 hemi Cuda convertible just looked too cool to ignore and love the fact that all four of them are still around though, can't wait for the next one and stay safe for the New Year.

Great video, Bubba. I love the original show run. The reboot movie not so much. 😂

Coolest police series ever were Miami Vice and Nash Bridges. '71 Cuda and packing a custom 1911 thats ALWAYS carried correctly, cocked'n'locked makes the series COOL!

another great video my friend. thank you.

The Daytona kit is Johnson's best on screen car. There was that one Miami Vice episode where he was driving a sweet P'up tho.

Lov it!🔥🎉 Thank you👏🏻

I was in the national park service on alcatraz Island 1994-2017, I WOULD WALK BY THESES cars ,there was three. every day on the way to alcatraz, they were parked on park service land, when there was no fliming of nash bridges going on some of the flim crew would let me check them out, they were in pretty good shape they were also parked over night which had guards watching over them. When mr Johnson show was over and done, he donated $25,000 in wood to the park service

Well done! Thanks for video.

You STILL keep bringing the pain!!!! We TRULY APPRECIATE what you do!!!✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾

thanks for doing this one! i often wondered what happened to the cars and wondered about the specs. it should be noted too that generally all mopars are relatively rare given their low production numbers compared to to ford and gm. great work man!

Another Mopar classic and a great show. Thanks Boss!

Always loved this car!

'Bubba the only rule you need is not mess up my ride got it' yes nash i know that rule to heart as your 71 cuda is sweet mopar that no one will mess up unless you got into car chase 😅😅 oh yeah nice job carstarz on today's video with nash bridges cuda it's great pick for him as captain of police squad as normally law enforcement usually go with cruiser not personal car but he don't care about it so thank you for the video and have a nice day bye now.

Love the channel, a place where the Cars ARE the Stars, even if the 10 Facts are mundane rather than “Wild”. Still, great concept and production!

I'm an 80s baby and the reason I've been obsessed with cars and motorcycles my whole life is because of movies and TV shows 😂 I really appreciate your videos, thank you

Very nice!!

I saw three of the cars in SF when the show was being filmed. They were sitting in a parking lot when I drove by with the tops up as it had been raining. Two of the cars had tops that were torn and obviously needed replacing. The tops were an eyesore compared the cars' paint jobs. I had to drive by again to see them again a few minutes later. Since the show never really filmed the cars with the tops up, replacing the torn tops was not a priority.

thanks 😊😊

Awesome job

Cool show love the car

😢 Way cool thanks liked it 👍👍👍👍👍🤗

Great review!👍👍👍

Cool 😀

Great vid!!! 👍👍

My dad was working the Mecum where that France export Cuda was going up for bid. If I remember, he said the reserve was 6 million or near that

The 3.4 million dollar '71 Hemicuda, yes, one word, sold at Mecom was restored from a rough basket case by Restorations by Julius in LA in the mid-2000s...

Great video i built the model of it i put a 440 6 pack in it instead of the hemi

This made me want a Mopar with white leather interior.

Plymouth rockstar!🤩⭐⭐⭐

Hey. I really enjoy your videos! Can you do one about the Viper from the TV show "Viper"? This would be awesome! 😁

That was a good show.

I've always loved this car and I really enjoyed the TV show over the t

0:57. love how the gills are just painted on.

My mom LOVED this show

Very cool video for and about Nash Bridges Hemi Cudas. I saw a different video and some of the closeup shoots of him in the car were done with the car on a flatbed trailer and not driving.

Used to love watching this show with my dad growing up. If i recall correctly didn't they aslo have cigarette boat in the show too painted the same color of the car? And i remember everyone called this show the 90's Miami Vice.

Anyone else notice the fender gills on that blown up 72 Cuda on the flatbed truck? Reflective decals.

I read an article at the time the show was on that all of the cars were powered by MOPAR Performance 360 crate engines.

Oh my gosh... Fact #8 just revealed to me that Cuda 3 was restored less than a mile away from me. 😲

Johnson always had cool cars in show and movies. Miami vice. Tin Cup he had that 300zx convertible.

There is an episode of 'Miami Vice' in which Crockett and Tubbs get chased by a Corvette and a Barracuda. Tying in that show and Nash Bridges, and recalling reading about Don Johnson having the idea of driving a 'Cuda in Nash Bridges, I wonder if it was his idea to include a Barracuda in the Miami Vice chase scene years prior (I don't believe it was supposed to be the higher perforamance 'Cuda model, and it ended up crashing and totaled). I remember Ferrari fan-boys writing letters to the editor of one of the mainstream car magazines poking fun at a 'mere' Barracuda keeping up with a Testarossa in that episode, but I already knew about how potent a 440 or Hemi was even as a teen back in the day, and would have had no problem keeping up...except if the Ferrari took a turn, lol.

The actual paint color name is “Curious Yellow” for anyone who was wondering. 👍🏻

Mopar Action ran an article back in the day, and the (I guess second car) had the Magnum 360 380hp crate motor. Figuring that was about 435lbs completely dressed, that was a pretty potent small block in that car.

I've never heard of a 360 being described as an upgrade to a 340 before.

Like the lemon twist color better than the repaint.

Im seeing a 1970 yellow hemi cuda convertible

The sacrifices that 318s make....😎 Love my 318.

Hi again

They should not have upgraded anything on that convertible. They completely ruined it.

Oh gee, Okay, car number one was the 340 4 speed, converted the the 380 Magnum crate, and later to a 426 hemi. And it wasn't Mopar Action, it was Mopar Performance magazine, and actually it was Dave Ferro, the Editor, ad owner of Totally Auto, in Feasterville PA who installed the 426, and restored the car to hemi car specs. I should have known that as I almost worked there, as my friend Jim Farrell was managing the shop back than. That car still exists, and if I had to guess, I'd say it's owner is probably a fella named John Kent, or Keet, who had a thing for Yellow Cuda's.

Doesn’t surprise me the jump car never recovered, those convertible ‘cudas weren’t the strongest cars built. One magazine tested a big block ‘71 and after several hard launches the doors wouldn’t close properly anymore… 😮

I like 👍 the Nash bridge cuda car 🚗

The French car, if I remember correctly, actually is a rebuilt car. The original owner in France raced it, and it burned up back in the 70s or 80s. It has been restored and whoever owns it now wants a boatload for it. There was another convertible Hemi sold to the CEO of British Steel (the company, not the Judas Priest album) which I believe was a '70, and if I recall it is now owned by someone in the US.

LOL, never noticed until today the silver stickers on the fenders to represent the gills of the cut roof one in the explosion, the art department could have done a much better job.

can you do one on Ponch's firebird from Chips please

Starting with the 1975 Plymouth Fury Maryland State Police had sunfire yellow as their color for many years.

How is a 360 an upgrade from a 340 exactly?

Have you looked into the Gibbs Cuda on NCIS?

12 hemi Cuda convertibles to be exact in '71. 7 in US and 5 for export.

#3 got ruined

Possible one for your list - is there any info about the Plymouth Road Runner / GTX from Beyonce’s Crazy in Love video?

The lemon twist yellow 71 hemi cuda convertible sold for close to 7 million. The guy who restored it paid 25k for it in the 1980's and sold it to the owner of the LA Times for 89k in the early 90's.

A Dr. I know bought the # 2 car and he pulled the 318 and stabbed in a 426 hemi. It's in Cleveland OH now

Awesome! Now do one on Phantasm. Edit : Already done I see.

Heyy man, please make a video about Toyota Pickup truck from Back To The Future

440 was 370hp..so yer ooomph range is much more fun :P

Just thinking of driving a 4spd hemi around San Francisco is making my left leg ache 😂

The resto mod does nothing for me, but the rest of them I would happily own.

The Movie "Super Hybrid" is my new monster car movie. As I am building a Magnum SRT8 clone. The movie is about a creature that has taken the shape of a 78 Chevy Nova, just because it can cruise in broad daylight, and eat people. After an hour and ten minutes of the parking attendants battling the creature, and it turning into everything from a low rider Chevy pickup, to a 71 Super bee, they finally defeat the monster, only to exit the garage, and find the world has been taken over by blood thursty Dodge Magnums.

you cosnidered Johnny Cab from Total Recall (1990 ) ??

I never really watched Nash Bridges but did catch a few episodes. I thought this video caught a lot of the details about those cars. The irony of Hollywood is the idea of a cop, even a captain using their personal cars for official business. Bullitt, Starskey & Hutch, etc - when the inevitable accident comes along, the department sure ain’t going to cover it. Does anyone think the City of San Fran repaired Frank’s Mustang GT (the studio didn’t even want to repair one of them). Doubt an insurance company would either. On the other hand, even on most cop salaries, a 71 big block or hemi convertible could have become very affordable when the oil crisis brought us rationing and gas lines…. I think a replacement 340 would have been nice.

5:30 Seems like it's a Texas car now.

I’m Don Johnson

They had 5 cars for the show 2 kit cars for non driving close ups 2 driving car that were hemi cudas and one modified car for high speed chase scenes

Iv'e never understood the appeal of a cool model of car that's missing it's roof .

6:40 Ummm your information is wrong on that 440, it came like that stock before that and was originally plum crazy purple, one of the others was B5 blue I have that magazine article that the photos of the 4 cars are from, they also beefed up the K frame, as one came undone on the hero car after a light jump, put in a ladder steel box section for the ramming bit in the pilot as I wondered why all those years ago it didnt crumple, and also switched them over to disc brakes and their was also a 383 car, the big block one for the chase scenes, that don kept which was then converted to the latter motor latter on, the 318 was the jump car, not the chase car after all the smaller block means less weight over the front, and its easier to balance and to keep it from smacking in nose first and tearing the car up and what did it in bending wise was the same style jump as the quattro in ashes to ashes, a hard landing on concrete (that also totaled that latter 85' car they got for season 2, vs the 83' in that) that is actually featured in the intro for season 5, as after that hard landing it was proported that the car never drove the same again, as its an unibody, which means one side of the body shifted from the other, thus throwing the aligment out of wack given you can see it has a slight bend to the right and the cars also had shocks changed on them too, I think QE1 or something, its something that always drove me nuts, as the back end is always sitting way too high and I think that 383 was the backup to the hero car, which I half wondered is what inspired him to go for that challenger for the reboot, as not only did they do that, they switched the interior out for black, just like that challenger chop top custom so to keep track, they had the 318, the 340, which became the crate 360, the 383 and the 440 so they had the whole gambit of the mopar range and the 440 had flowmaster series 40's which were put on during its resto on it hence its very distinct sound, which 30 years latter, is still permanetly tatooed in my brain so it was a pretty bitchin ride even before the show and you actually put this up on the same day I bought my second 1/87 cuda model I found of a hemi cuda convertible FYI which is shockingly accurate for what it is, like in all my years this is the first time outside of some 1/43 out of japan where they got the grill right, a 1/43 De Agostini, and have a look at their cuda, AND the trans AM FYI on a 1/87 not even the nash bridges your car in diecast that they charge 600 bucks for does that Brekina/Ricko NEW HO 1/87 Classic Plymouth HEMI Cuda Convertible in Bright Green, should show right up, and honestly my second one arrived today the first was the red which is more like a red orange like that one I saw at a car show as a kid, a hemi orange 340 six pack coupe with a shaker hood, louvers, spoiler, black billboards and dog dish hubcaps like between that and the nash bridges cuda I've always really been in love with this car, and I was very glad to hear just from what that writer said that well one of the transportation department guys was like hey you wanna drive the hero car and he was like yeah yeah, as he said they had the most beautiful hero car and don in seeing that just put his paw on him, and just politely said no no that bitch will get away from you so I know that 340 to 360 magnum crate was no candy asses car lol FYI the videos Nash Bridges Writers Room Reunion (ATX Television Festival 2018) barely any views so I was more than abit surprised when they got to the stories about Hunter S thompson which is crazy in of itself, sadly they ran out of time and couldnt give them another hour, and to think it only has 500 views and I just found it as i was feeling nolstagic for the cuda given how badly they wrote it out of the reboot as they should have had the thing miss the cuda and hit a prius, that turns out to belong to some higher up hence why he gets fired like the reboot was good save for that, and was actually closer to what hunter s thompson wanted to do in the first place so it was almost a tribute to him really. just wish they could have wrote out the cuda better, like I get it, the cars too valuable now and it had to be written out but damn it that fan car was beautiful, like even if it was CGI that was paintful to watch and haunted me for a week afterwards lol and ironically during my wielding class I was taking I kept thinking alright how would I fix that, I need two new front quarters, the K member and it turns out they did actual splices like that back in the 80's, the back gets trashed, they wielded on a new car, happened with a 70 or 61 440 shows up in the fake cuda episode of graveyard cars, one of the commentors down below had it pegged right off the bat so the car was a geniune 440 that got smacked into on the back and they grafted on a grand cuda to keep it going kinda not unlike the enterprise D, and Mr Smarty pance the rebodier who takes old classic cars, throws out everything save for the vin tag and then calls it new didnt know that. also Ironically I found a 1970 340 cuda grand cuda just like that that's for sale for 10 grand but holy crap does it need work very very VERY tempted though, as those 318's can really put out some power, and I guarintee you the one on the show did not have less than my station wagon lol the new one yes, but not the two before it which was still a very fast car with a 135 HP, like horsepower's overrated its the torque and the gearing that makes it go, and you can make some pretty surprising things go very fast if its rigged up right like look up the Firebird sprint, falcon sprint and some of the hopped up inline sixes if you do them right and the firebird that Jay leno has, like dont underestimate the small blocks or the inlines, just look at a Buick small blocks that they used to power Lola Race cars back in the day that made the basis of the ford GT40, or a Boss 302 with 101 octane as theirs a reason why the small blocks survived, and its not because they sucked, its because they were good on gas, they drove great, and people saved them and most were auto's so they didnt slam shift them into a tree, as they didnt know to hold the gas with a little brake to keep the back end in check, while only giving it some gas in a straight line when the suspension has settled down and is planted in the right direction hence the mustang car show phenomenon, they always give it gas in a corner before it even has a chance to settle down and grip and then once it gets loose they keep going and dont let off or counter steer even just saw it happen in a fail video with a corvette C5 convertible that was going less than 15 mph,

If you’ve seen the Reboot episode you can tell they used a model to destroy of the cuda. But the modern Cuda/Challenger just wasn’t a comparison to the original.

Fact #11 Cheech Marin sat on a booster seat so he wouldn't look so short in the car

Upgraded to a 360?

Great upload arguably the 1970 and 1971 Plymouth cuda were the most beautiful car’s Chrysler produced .the tv show mannix from the late Sixties through early 1970 starred mike Conners driving real 383 magnum powered cuda convertibles and its a great show better than Nash bridges.don johnson drove a fake Ferrari in his tv show Miami vice until Ferrari gave the show 2 real Ferraris then he drove fake cudas on Nash bridges why not just had all them be 440 are 383 cudas as everyone knows street hemi cars were not very reliable as day too day transportation.and would have never been able too take the abuse off police work .✌🏿👍