I saw the Ron Howard movie Rush, which deals with a racing rivalry in 1976. Good movie (review in a few days), but there’s an autograph scene I thought I’d mention. Obviously, there were lots of autographing scenes in the movie, as these were the two best drivers during that time. One was interesting, though. A driver is asked for his autograph. He signs. The fan then says, “Can you write the date on it?”

When the driver asks why he’s told, “This could be your last race.”

Nothing like offending the person that’s going to sign your program.

And, in other car and movie news – remember that cool submarine car in the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me? Well, it just sold for $1.09 million at an auction. The Lotus Espirit, I’m told from my race car driving buddy Joe Harding (a former mechanic for Jay Leno), actually worked. The auction house also claims it can be driven on the road still (but didn’t comment on its underwater capabilities).

The car was made for the scene in which Roger Moore evades gunfire from a helicopter, by plunging into the water. Ringo Starr’s wife Barbara Bach is the worried passenger. Now, she’s a cutie…but I’d take P**** Galore in the Aston-Martin.

The auction house said that it was an important piece of movie memorabilia. What else would they say? What they didn’t tell you was this little tidbit I saw in an issue of Entertainment Weekly. They said the guy that got the car bought a storage container in 1989 at a blind auction. He paid under $100 for it!

Somewhere there’s a guy that has Oddjob’s bowler, and he doesn’t even realize it.

(side note: This is why the internet is so fun. I thought that was a clever ending to the piece, but decided to Google and see if I could find Oddjob’s hat. It was auctioned in 1998 by Christie’s and fetched 62,000 pounds. In 2006 it was sold for a lot less -- $36,000. I also read that the show MythBusters wanted to test the capabilities of the hat. For those that don’t remember – it had as steel brim and could decapitate people – and statues. After their tests, it proved to not work as the movie claimed and labeled ‘busted’. Perhaps that’s why it went down in value.)