Before it had fins, flames or a song, the Greased Lightning car in Grease was a tired old Ford convertible. In the 1978 film, Kenickie buys a 1948 Ford De Luxe with money he saved working at Bargain City. The T-Birds then dream it into a hot rod.
The car shares its name with the song “Greased Lightnin’,” sung in the auto shop. However, it was only one of a whole fleet of period cars built for the movie. One custom-car builder gets the credit for them.
Here is what the car started as, who built the film’s cars, and what became of them.
The Greased Lightning car began as a 1948 Ford De Luxe
The De Luxe that Kenickie brings home “needs a lot of work and is definitely nothing to look at,” according to Hagerty. That is the point of the scene. The gang sees what it could become, not what it is.
As a result, the car keeps changing on screen. It shifts between the battered white convertible and “a red dream car with fins,” Hagerty notes. In the fantasy sequence, one version even flies. Hagerty also spots a slip in the music. Zuko sings about one kind of transmission in the shop, yet he works a column shifter during the race.
Under the hood, the De Luxe carried a V8 of 239.4 cubic inches rated at 100 horsepower, according to HotCars and Gold Eagle. For the film, the builder cut the roofs off two white 1948 Fords, HotCars reports.
Eddie Paul built the cars of Grease
The man behind the fleet was Eddie Paul. He “created Hell’s Chariot and the more than 40 other cars seen in the film,” Hagerty says. HotCars goes further. It says Paul designed and built all 48 cars used in the movie.
Paul’s other work shows up across Hollywood, too. HotCars lists The Dukes of Hazzard, Taxi and the Fast and Furious films among his credits.
Not every car in Grease needed heavy custom work, though. Rizzo and the Pink Ladies ride in a pink 1948 Studebaker Commander Regal, according to Hagerty. Meanwhile, Danny takes Sandy to the drive-in in a beat-up 1949 Dodge Wayfarer. In fact, Greased Lightning belongs to Kenickie, not Danny, Hagerty points out.
Hell’s Chariot, the car it raced
Every hero car needs a rival. Here it is Hell’s Chariot, a 1949 Mercury custom convertible driven by Leo “Craterface,” leader of the Scorpions. Paul gave it black paint with yellow flames, flame-shooting tailpipes and serrated blades on the hubcaps, Hagerty reports.
The two cars meet at Thunder Road. In real life, the crew filmed the race in the dry bed of the Los Angeles River in downtown L.A., according to Old Cars Weekly. Hell’s Chariot rams Danny’s car and slices into its side with its razor hubcaps.
Paul built two versions of the Mercury, Hagerty says. One was a stunt car that no longer exists. The other was the star car. Fans can tell them apart by the windows, because the stunt car’s are rounded and the star car’s are squared.
Where the Grease cars are now
The star Hell’s Chariot crossed the block at Julien’s Auctions’ Hollywood Legends sale in Beverly Hills on June 26–27, 2015, Old Cars Weekly reports. Olivia Newton-John had signed its dashboard. The presale estimate was $400,000 to $600,000. In the end, it sold for $478,000, Hagerty says.
The story of the Greased Lightning car itself is murkier. After filming, it went to a private buyer in California, according to a second HotCars report. Then, in 2011, its owner died while the car sat in a shop for restoration. HotCars and Gold Eagle both tell this part. The shop then took possession and offered the car to the Volo Auto Museum in Illinois, they report. There, it would join movie cars such as Herbie and a Back to the Future DeLorean.
Volo tells a different story about its own car. The museum’s listing describes it as an official Barris Kustoms licensed promotional car built from a 1946 Ford coupe, with a Chevrolet 350 and dual quads. George Barris and Didi Conn, who played Frenchy, have both signed it. Its body changes are steel rather than fiberglass, and it later appeared in “Glease,” the Glee tribute episode, Volo says.
The museum’s listing also comes with authentication papers from Fox Studios. Yet it states plainly that no original Greased Lightning cars survived production.
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