(cheekybama)
Movie cars can almost become bigger than the stars they share the screen with. Everyone knows what car Steve McQueen drove in Bullitt, for example, and few cars of any sort attract more attention from passers-by than a DeLorean DMC-12, thanks to the Back to the Future movies.
While a great number of these star cars reside in museums across the world, maintained and pampered reflecting their significance and rarity, some, like the 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor ambulance that starred in Ghostbusters II as ECTO-1, are forgotten and left to rot. Now, fan group Ghostbusters Fans wants to recover the car and original parts at scrap value from Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), and has set up a petition to support its cause.
The car has suffered in recent years following its public display at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. A photo by cheekybama on Instagram shows its current state of disrepair. Sitting forlornly at Sony's prop warehouse, the car has a smashed windshield, crumpled hood and numerous missing parts, while its light bar sits unceremoniously on the hood. During its time in Orlando, the car was crashed into by a studio vehicle, before visitors left their own mark on the car, climbing inside and removing pieces as souvenirs.
Technically, the car is labeled ECTO-1a--used in the second Ghostbusters film. The original ECTO-1, used in the first film, was restored back in 2007, and a planned restoration of the second car never took place.
Movie buffs and gearheads alike can sign the petition on the group's website, which it will then forward to SPE. Ghostbusters Fans says it intends to restore the car to "better than on screen appearance"--and it may finally join the first car as a preserved icon of movie history.