15 of the Best Cars from FX’s ‘Archer’
Sterling Archer is the world’s most selfish superspy, but while you’re laughing at his outsized antics, you may notice that every detail of their world is pretty meticulously crafted. The show has cast aside any illusion of being set in a specific year in favor of going with “whatever looks cool” in its design. That’s great news for car fans, who get to see a massive array of classics (and deep cuts) lovingly featured on the show.
1. 1970 Chevrolet El Camino
The El Camino is sort of an odd beast. It’s basically a muscle car, but technically a pickup truck. Whatever else it is, it’s gorgeous, powerful, and stylish, which makes it perfect for Sterling.
(image via YouTube)
2. 1970 Dodge Challenger
Before the El Camino, though, Archer got this beautiful Challenger as a gift from his mother, outfitted with a 440 six-pack engine, and all kinds of crazy spy mods by Krieger. People assumed from the loving, ad-like intro that Dodge ran some kind of product placement, but all they did was give permission when the Archer team asked if they could feature this glorious thing.
(image via YouTube)
3. 1968 Plymouth GTX
This car was used in the early promo pictures for the show, but not in the show itself. Still, the GTX—introduced by Plymouth as the “gentleman’s” muscle car—sent a clear message to people in the know about what kind of person Archer was going to be (or wanted to be) before the show even aired.
(image via YouTube)
4. 1978 Aston Martin V8 Vantage
Lana may not be quite as fond of muscle cars as Sterling, but she’s no slouch, either—and neither is her Aston Martin, which has seen more than its fair share of gun battles (and a rampage). She’s in good company. James Bond drove a 1980s V8 Vantage in The Living Daylights.
(image via Wikipedia)
5. 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO
This was the ODIN company car, seen when the rival agency (very briefly) hired Archer and tried to poach Lana. The car is widely considered to be the definition of a Ferrari, but they didn’t get to drive it for very long before Lana intentionally crashed it out of spite. If she’d seen the price tag, she may have held off. In the last five years, two have sold for $38 million each.
(image via Wikipedia)
6. 1971 Dacia 1300
Cyril’s car could easily be mistaken for a Renault 12, but where’s the fun in that? Lest you doubt the show’s deep and genuine geekery over cars (or Cyril’s pitifulness), he’s actually driving the car’s sadder Soviet cousin, the Dacia 1300. The Dacia was a licensed copy of the Renault that was built in Romania to offer an affordable family car to the Communist Eastern bloc. We don’t even know what Cyril’s doing with this.
(image via Wikipedia)
7. 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am
When Archer heads into Texas to move a tour bus full of drugs (it’s a long story), he needs a flashy car to double as an escort and a distraction. He doubles down on his love of Burt Reynolds with a Bo Darville disguise and a Trans Am just like the one from Smokey and the Bandit.
(image via Wikipedia)
8. 1967 Lotus 49
It’s not uncommon for the Archer team to start with an existing car and then modify and stylize it. The cars that appear during the Gran Prix in “Jeu Monegasque” are sort of piecemeal riffs on Formula One cars, but if you follow the sport, you may recognize some classics like the Lotus 49 and the Eagle Mk1.
(image via Wikipedia)
9. 1970s Datsun 240Z
“Drift Problem” was a visual feast for car fans, filled with loving renditions of classic sports cars. George Takei’s villainous Mr. Moto even got in on the action in the slick Datsun 240Z. This car was the first of the Nissan Z GT coupes, and between great engineering and the fact that emissions regulations didn’t exist yet, the 240Z became an instant classic for its performance and affordability.
(image via Wikipedia)
10. 1972 Mazda RX-2
Likewise, “Drift Problem” gave us one of our first big looks into Pam’s life—and we start by learning that she’s part of an underground Yakuza drift-racing ring. Appropriately, she drives a tricked-out version of this vintage Japanese racer. The RX-2 was a Capella decked out with a Mazda Wankel rotary engine. Since the animators couldn’t find a 3-D model for the car, they had to build one from scratch.
(image via YouTube)
11. 1978 GM G-Series Van
Krieger’s gone through several vans in the series—all funded dubiously, all decked out dubiously (Lana refers to the van as “rolling probable cause,”) and all named, themed, and painted in reference to Rush albums. The poor things don’t tend to last long. They’ve been wrecked by everything from falling cyborgs to Cuban hitmen.
(image via Wikipedia)
12. 1967 Cadillac Fleetwood 60 Special
Once Mallory gets married to auto dealer (and former car thief) Ron Cadillac, we start seeing a lot more Caddies, from the Fleetwood that carries them away from the wedding chapel to the Coupe Devilles he’s so fond of driving. Even the first responders that show up when we first meet Ron after a shootout pull up in the 1966 Cadillac Ambulance.
(image via Wikipedia)
13. 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air
This classic sports coupe doesn’t even get driven by anyone. It just sort of shows up in the background. But that’s part of the whole point. Even in the background, even when it doesn’t matter, Archer is filled to the brim with gorgeous vehicles—sometimes for a deep storytelling reason, but sometimes just for their own sake.
(image via Wikipedia)
14. 1932 Ford Model B
Ron Cadillac’s been in the car business a long time—and by “business,” we mean stealing cars and selling them to chop shops. When we get this flashback to his childhood as Ron Kazinzky, he’s stealing Model As and Bs left and right. (Of course, those aren’t the only Fords we’ve seen in the show. We’ve got everything from the F-1 to the Galaxie to Mustangs, Thunderbirds, and even the Ford M4 A3 “Sherman” tank.)
(image via Wikipedia)
15. 1968 Bizzarini Manta
In case there’s any lingering doubt about the show’s gearhead cred, just take a look at the Manta, an influential one-off concept car by Giorgetto Giugiaro that somehow found its way into a dictator’s garage at the end of Archer: Vice. We don’t know if said dictator bought the only Manta in existence, or if they made more than just one in the world of Archer, but we’re too busy looking at those curves to care.
(image via Wikipedia)