The Stripped Tomato - a photo on Flickriver

File: 2005003-0020a

Ford Gran Torino replica on display at a fan convention, National Exhibition Centre (NEC) Birmingham, in Solihull, West Midlands, England, United Kingdom, on Saturday 26th November 2005.

About this photograph.

This is a Ford Gran Torino. I do not know what year this model is, and this is likely to be a customised replica of the famous car seen in the 1970s US police television series known as Starsky & Hutch.

It was on display during a fan con event called Memorabilia at the National Exhibition Centre. Anyone can have their photos taken with the car. They can also ask for their photos taken next to the actor Antonio Fargas whom played the character called Huggy Bear in the series, as he was attending the show for autograph session.

He can be seen in this photo www.flickr.com/photos/132335712@N05/49972893543/ posing with the same car.

The photograph was taken with an Olympus Camedia C-3040Z camera, and the photo is at full size of 2048 x 1536. I did not have my Nikon DSLR until a few years later.

There were a couple of people in the background, behind the car, so I made a copy of the file, opened it in Adobe Photoshop, and edited them out of the photo. I still have the original unedited photo.

About the subject.

Starsky & Hutch is a 1970s American police action television series about two streetwise detectives in Bay City, a fictional location within Los Angeles. It lasted 4 seasons and was one of the most popular buddy-buddy cop shows.

The Ford Gran Torino in bright red with a white vector strip on each side, was used as the main car for the show. In the fictional show, the car is owned by Detective Dave Starsky.

Many people often think the car is nicknamed as Zebra Three, but that is not correct. Zebra Three is the call sign for both Starsky and Hutch, regardless of what cars they use, and in one episode, they were using the call sign when on foot.

The car’s actual nickname is The Stripped Tomato.

This happened when the actor Paul Michael Glaser was shown the car and remarked to fellow actor David Soul by sarcastically saying “That thing looks like a stripped tomato!”

The nickname later made its onscreen mention, when Hutch called Starsky’s car as a stripped tomato.

The series used as much as about four or more different models for various roles, such as normal driving, stunt driving, interior filming, and so on.

The Ford Torino was manufactured by Ford for the North American market between 1968 and 1976, and there where three generations of the model.

About the event.

Memorabilia was a British fan convention, that started in 1994, aimed for the collectors of movies, television, and sporting memorabilia. It included celebrity signing autographs and fans in cosplay.

It later became a sister event to the MCM London Comic Con. In 2008, MCM Expo Group bought it and it went through changes, until it folded into MCM’s London Comic Con.

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Taken in: UK / England / Bickenhill (show map)

Taken on: March 12, 2022

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