Few vehicles say ‘vacation’ to movie fans more than the hideous ‘family truckster’ from National Lampoon’s Vacation – other than, perhaps, Cousin Eddie’s battered RV!
The 1989 movie starring Chevy Chase as the dim but harmless Clark Griswold, who drags his reluctant family on a disaster-filled road-trip across America to visit Wally World, is the byword for ill-fated vacations.
And the Wagon Queen Family Truckster plays a big part in the mayhem that is the Griswolds’ family vacation; the slime-green station wagon careers off a cliff, tows the unlucky dog Dinky to his death and even spends a period with a dead Aunt Edna tied to the roof.
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And while the truckster – a fictitious make, according to The Manual website, which says the vehicle was created by a custom car designer just for the movie – was hardly the last word in automotive elegance, it turns out an auto-enthusiast admired it so much that they painstakingly worked to recreate it.
And now that faithful recreation has just sold for over $100,000 at the Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach auction in Florida this past weekend. The automatic model is based on a 1981 Ford LTD wagon, but has had extra wood panelling added.