Dodge M4S: The Wraith Movie Car, aka Turbo Interceptor

This is by far one of my favorite muscle car movies ever. The Wraith movie was one of the first to inspire me into the muscle car hobby. When I saw Rughead throw down his hands for the first drag race, a Dodge Daytona against a Chevrolet Corvette I knew I was hooked. But really those muscle cars weren't the stars of the movie. What turned heads was Dodge's own one of a kind Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor clone. They called it a Wraith in the movie. Boy this thing was cool, I never seen anything like it. My Dad's a tough critic and he even liked it.

To make the replica director Mike Marvin supposedly used the original body molds of the M4S. Because originally only one Turbo Interceptor was made and that was the 1984 Dodge Turbo Interceptor by Chrysler and PPG Industries for $1.5 million. Story goes the paint alone was $40,000. Underneath the hood was a 2.2L Cosworth twin-turbo in-line four. The engine ended up producing 440 horsepower and topped out at 194mph, now that's an amazing number for a muscle car from the 80s. The real The M4S prototype made a brief appearance in a couple of close up scenes in the movie, but to keep the M4S in good shape Mike Marvin made six prop cars and four dummy cars (shells built over a towable frame) for crash scenes.

The movie definitely made a lot of cult fans over the last two decades. One fan the movie put a spark in was this guy. When I first saw the website in the Google search engine, I thought dam this ought to be interesting. I clicked on the link and come to find out one auto enthusiast was trying to restore one of the M4S Turbo Interceptor props used in the actual movie. Over the years I have been following the site, looking every few months to see if the owner accomplished anything. At first it seemed like he was getting no where, but then I started to see improvements made. This guy actually knew what he was doing, before I thought it was some ricer guy that was trying to restore the car.

Restoration on these cars take a long time, especially if you don't have all the parts. I definitely give props to the guy for taking up the job, a car like this brings back memories me for when I was a kid. Just like I said in the first paragraph, this was one of the first muscle cars movies I have ever watched and it got me hooked into the hobby. Now I have a 2002 Trans Am WS.6 and a 2004 SVT Mustang Cobra.

The year is now 2010 and the movie is still a hit. Yeah it gets a few mixed reviews on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, but I still plug it in ever now and then to get me hyped before a cruise out on Woodward. Movies like this stay implanted in your mind for a very long time, well until you get Alzheimers, by that time you probably won't even know your own name. The actual stars in the movie became very big in Hollywood. Just some off the top of my head are Charlie Sheen, Sherilyn Fenn, and Randy Quaid. Randy Quaid is one of my favorite actors, you all know him from the movie Christmas vacation as Cousin Eddie Johnson.

If you check out the guy's website who restored his own wraith car, he's been trying to get a Wraith Reunion planned, but time and time again it gets canceled due to the lack of interest. It would probably impossible to get the actual stars to show up at the event. He was looking to hold the event locally in Wichita, Kansas. The owner of the restored Turbo Interceptor does have his own message forum going too, so if you're looking for a place to talk about the movie, this would definitely be a good place. I'm kind of surprised the owner never tried to take the Turbo Interceptor out to the Woodward Dream Cruise in Royal Oak, Michigan. I bet a lot of fans would love to see the car in action, maybe the owner feels the car is too valuable, I really can't blame him if he feels that way. Deep down I would just loved to see the car in person and get a few of my own pictures.

I decided to make my own collection of the car from the movie. Some of these pictures were really hard to find, the quality is kind of poor on some of them, but it's still fun to look through them. If you never seen the movie before I suggest go renting it right now.

This is a quick clip from the movie, a Pontiac Trans Am racing the Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor.

This is a the video of PPG industries doing a test with the Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor out on the track. This is where the M4S reached 194mph, as you might notice in the video the M4S Turbo Interceptor is using a big spoiler to keep the front end down. Without it the M4S would probably pick up and fly away. This is a pretty inspirational video too!

Here's pictures of the Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor pace car. I don't know if this is the official M4S Turbo Interceptor or another clone. As you can see the paint job are different on this M4S.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article, it took me some time to gather the information and pictures on "The Wraith" movie and car, check back often on my blog to find out more American muscle car news. Thank you for reading!