The Bluesmobile

The Bluesmobile is a 1974 Dodge Monaco sedan that was prominently featured in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. In the film, it is described as a decommissioned Mount Prospect police car, purchased by Elwood Blues at an auction after he had traded the previous Bluesmobile (a Cadillac) for a microphone. The new Bluesmobile is equipped with the "440 Magnum" squad car package, an option offered by Dodge for the Monaco in 1974. It bears an Illinois license plate reading "BDR 529," a tribute to the Black Diamond Riders motorcycle club of Toronto, Canada at 529 Jarvis Street. Dan Aykroyd, co-writer of the film, stated that he chose the 440 Dodge Monaco because he considered it to be the hottest car used by police during the 1970s.





In describing the car to his brother Jake, Elwood says, "It's got a cop motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas." The Bluesmobile has the ability to perform seemingly impossible stunts, such as jumping over an open drawbridge, flipping backwards in midair and even "flying" for very brief periods of time. However, its cigarette lighter does not work, as discovered by Jake early in the film.





The film used 13 different cars to depict the Bluesmobile, all of which were former police cars purchased from the California Highway Patrol, and were mocked up to look like former Mount Prospect, Illinois patrol cars. Some were formatted for speed, and others in jumps or high-performance maneuvers, depending on the scene. One was designed simply to fall apart upon its arrival at the Cook County Building. A mechanic took several months to rig the car for that scene. Over 60 old police cars were purchased for the film's chase scenes, and the production kept a 24-hour body shop open to perform repairs as needed.

At the time of the film's release, it set a world record for the most cars destroyed in one film; it held this distinction until 1998, when it was surpassed by its own sequel, The Blues Brothers 2000.





The brothers use the Bluesmobile to evade pursuers in a number of high-speed chases throughout the film, culminating in a race to Chicago after the band's performance north of the city. Even though the car throws a rod during this pursuit, they are still able to outrun both the police and a group of Neo-Nazis in a pair of Ford Pinto station wagons. After they crash through the Richard J. Daley Center and arrive at the Cook County Building to pay the property taxes on the orphanage where they grew up, the car falls to pieces on the sidewalk.



Director John Landis has claimed that the portion of the final chase sequence beneath the elevated train tracks, which briefly showed a reading of 120 miles per hour (190 km/h) on the car's speedometer, was actually filmed at that speed, a testament to the Monaco's police car heritage. He has also stated that he re-shot some of the scenes with pedestrians on the sidewalks, so viewers could see that the film had not been sped up to create the effect of speed.



The vehicle's model is never referred to in the original film by Elwood, who purchased the car, or the various police officers and dispatch operators coordinating the manhunt. It is only referred to as a "1974 Dodge sedan" over the CB, and as "that shitbox Dodge" by one of the state troopers pursuing Jake and Elwood throughout the film.



