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THE CARS
First generation re-detailed Ford Tauruses has been used in all RoboCop movie/tv installments as police cars, alhough RoboCop himself drove a different kind of car in the tv-series.
Several cars were created for the first film and even more were created for the sequels.
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The inclusion of the Ford Taurus almost didn't happen; RoboCop was originally supposed to drive a specially designed police car dubbed the Robo-Mobile or the Turbo-Car, which featured all sorts of futuristic gear. The car itself was quite elaborate, almost Batmobile-like in appearance. However, when it rolled onto the set early in production, it became clear that it looked too ridiculous to be used in the film. Verhoeven then saw the new Taurus had just gone on sale, and he ordered more than a dozen new cars. RoboCop and the police force used the Ford Taurus as the primary vehicle in all three movies.
Interestingly enough, Ford was not involved with the production of the first film and was quite upset that its cars were used in such a violent film. The Taurus was all new, and Ford worried that the association with a gory film would spoil the image of the car.
The Tauruses were given a matte black repaint, push bars, a lightbar, roof mounted spotlight, onboard computer and dashboard arsenal. The datascreens inside the card was supposed to be featured much more in the original movie but it wasn't until RoboCop3 that it was actually shown in any greater amount.
This garish and just barely fictional car was advertised as returning a whopping 8.2 mpg in the first film's memorable TV commercial, with the car serving as the centerpiece of the film's critique of consumer and corporate culture. "It's back! Big is back. Because bigger is better. The 6000 SUX. An American Tradition," the ad copy boasted. The 6000 number suggests a swipe at the relatively modest Pontiac 6000.
Two complete SUX cars, that were fully operational, was built with parts for a third one that the production people blew up in Dallas. From the beginning they wanted a big car in the four-door configuration, one that could be modernized to make it look more futuristic, so for the basic body they chose a '77 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme,
mainly because it had an Interesting window line. Assembly quality was not top notch; in a scene with villain Clarence Boddicker one of the mirrors falls off.
They designed a large air inlet in the front, a couple more air inlets on the sides and toward the rear and then a very large rectangular exhaust system in the center rear. The actual auto bodies themselves were made from fiberglass components. They mocked up the SUX in metal, foam and plastic, and then took fiberglass molds of it and made fiberglass parts.
The complete front end was all removable as one piece back to the windshield, and the back end lifted up like a trunk. As for the engine and interior work, that was all stock, whatever came with the Oldsmobile in the first place.
The 6000 SUX was seen in the first film only, though it was briefly mentioned in the third film.
The Ford Motor Company had supplied the RoboCop TV series with a special 1994, 5-Litre Ford Mustang prototype. The Detroit Police force employs twenty additional Ford automobiles in the TV series. Other vehicles include two Hummers from the AM General Corporation and the Orion II, an urban transport for the disabled supplied by Ontario Bus Industries. All have been painted and fitted with a high-tech skin representing near future technology, including state-of-the-art emergency roof lighting.
RoboCop: The Series" had a respectable vehicle budget that allowed for an entire fleet of Ford Tauruses, AM General Hummer H1s and a Ford Mustang prototype for RoboCop himself. The fourth-generation Ford Mustang had just gone on sale months prior to the debut of the series. For the show, Ford provided a 5.0-liter Mustang prototype for filming. The Mustang prototype was painted matte gray with OCP decals on the doors, and it featured a new type of lightbar on the roof. The use of the Mustang was a bit of a return to the Robo-Mobile idea; in the TV series, RoboCop was the only character to drive a Ford Mustang.
Rysher Entertainment
An impressive fleet of Hummers, which were a bit of a novelty at the time were used and fit in perfectly into the Detroit portrayed in the TV series. Throughout the one-season run, they were redressed numerous times, usually as vehicles used by OCP's other departments.
The Series featured several Orion II buses by Ontario Bus Industries serving as OCP police vans. The Orion II was a wheelchair-friendly specialty bus, but it was convincingly redressed as a detention vehicle for the series. The Orion II made a number of appearances, but it was never shown in great detail.
ROBOCOP: PRIME DIRECTIVES
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In the latest tv series, RoboCop: Prime Directives,
the vehicles used by Robocop and Robocable were chevy impala's, with the chevy logo stripped away. And the vehicles used by Delta City Security were the Ford Tauras's.
The Ford Taurus paint scheme and graphics was slightly modified, and the oval Ford logo on the grille were replaced with a OCP graphic.
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