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Take a spooky spin in the new Ecto-1 from 'Ghostbusters'

Go for a ride in the new Ecto-1 Cadillac Fleetwood from the comedy reboot, and find out how director Paul Feig chose the new car.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
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Drew Stearne
2 min read

Ghosts may be able to pass through walls, but the Ghostbusters still need to hit the road like everyone else. That's where Ecto-1 comes in.

In this summer's remake of the classic comedy, a new team of Ghostbusters have a new car to speed them to spooky situations. The car, license plate Ecto-1, is a souped-up 1984 Cadillac Fleetwood station wagon with a Eureka Hearse body -- and to celebrate, Roadshow's Drew Stearne donned his Ghostbusters uniform to take a replica of the car for a spin.

Watch this: Taking 'Ghostbusters' Ecto-1 for a spirited drive

In the film, Patty, played by Leslie Jones, borrows the car from her uncle. The team's tech whizz, Holtzmann, played by Kate McKinnon, then stuffs it with ghostbusting gear, including long-range psychokinetic energy (PKE) scanners and spectral foam detectors.

The hearse boasts a 5-litre V8 with a four-speed automatic gearbox. Obviously, as a hearse, it's not designed to go very fast. It's also a whale of a car, and though there's plenty of room for the phantasmic four and their proton packs, it's not going to break any speed records on the streets of New York. Still, if we can imagine a nuclear fuel cell powering the spectre-zapping kit, we can imagine that the characters have given the engine an extra kick too.

Behind the wheel of the new 'Ghostbusters' Ecto-1 (pictures)

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The new car replaces the gorgeously finned 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor ambulance that transported the team in the original movies. Reboot director Paul Feig wanted to stick to the idea of an old Caddy to transport the team, and choose the 1980s Fleetwood from a selection of possibilities.

"I've always loved that era of Cadillac," he said. "Those lines remind me of the cars my dad had. It felt right. We had a bunch of cars that they sent, and I was like, 'That's the one'. It just spoke to me." The fact it's from 1984, the same year as the original "Ghostbusters" movie, is just a bonus.

"Ghostbusters" opens in the UK on 11 July, in Australia on 14 July and in the US on 15 July.

Watch this: 'Ghostbusters' director Paul Feig talks remakes, funny women and online fury