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    • Attracts attention with replicas of famous Hollywood cars
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    Attracts attention with replicas of famous Hollywood cars

    Harry Posted on

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    When Damian Muzzi lines up his car collection in front of his house to drive to the next auto show, it creates some traffic congestion in his usually quiet neighborhood.

    Because he may have the most unique car collection in the state.

    If you’re a fan of classic movies and television shows from the ’80s and ’90s, you’d probably be causing the bottleneck even more if you’d been there, too.

    That’s because all five of its rebuilt replicas are instantly recognizable to pop culture aficionados: the Bluesmobile from “The Blues Brothers,” KITT from “Knight Rider,” the van from “The A-Team,” the DeLorean from “Back to the Future” and “Back to the Future.” Ten DeLorean. Mirthmobile from “Wayne’s World”.

    Seeing just one of the cars might be exciting, but when all five come together at a car show it takes many back to their childhood.

    And if you see that caravan of five people rolling down the road, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a hallucination.

    “The first car might not catch someone’s eye, but as soon as they see the second one, they look back and say, ‘What’s going on?'” said Damian’s father, August, who owns Wilmington’s. “they say,” he says. Angelo’s Lunch and often helps drive cars with his wife, Terry.

    attention to detail

    Muzzi, 45, always had project cars in his garage, working on everything from a 1968 Pontiac GTO to a 1935 Ford Tudor humpback.

    But about 10 years ago, he bought a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am and began transforming it into KITT, one of the most popular cars in his collection.

    With five Hollywood cars in working order, his hobby turned into a business called Delaware Star Cars (facebook.com/DEStarCars). In addition to now appearing everywhere from Wilmington Blue Rocks games to car shows including the Hagley Museum and Library, it also allows rentals so you can have one or more cars at your special event.

    He was meticulous about making his versions of famous cars as close to the screen as possible; Of course, within his budget.

    Perhaps on purpose, Muzzi did not keep track of how much money he poured into his hobby-turned-business. “I don’t want to cry at the end of the day,” she jokes.

    The A-Team watches TV shows and movies over and over again to capture every detail, down to the three antennas on their van or the color of the fog lights.

    Sometimes he can buy parts of these projects. Sometimes he has to build them from scratch. No matter the method, he does whatever it takes to get the job done right.

    “He’s super talented. I don’t know where he gets it from,” says Muzzi’s father, August, who often drives the A-Team van while his wife, Terry, takes the wheel of KITT. “Sometimes it really amazes me. Sometimes I wonder what he’s doing with these cars and all I can say is ‘Are you kidding me?’ “

    Cars are so sensitive that they can cause flashbacks for unsuspecting passersby.

    “Old men look younger when they pass by,” says Muzzi, whose co-pilot in the DeLorean has always been Stella, her German Shepherd. “Their past comes to life. I’m a kid from the ’80s, so I understand.”

    His garage only fits two cars, and he keeps the most expensive ones there: DeLorean and KITT. The other three are stored in a private parking lot behind his house.

    He wants to find a new place to live with his Delaware Star Cars, and he has a unique request.

    “I need a small house with a really big garage,” says Muzzi, whose day job is running a computer repair business. DJM Computer Repair.

    He’ll need a big garage if he buys his dream addition to the collection: a Freightliner FL86 cab to create his own Optimus Prime from “Transformers.”

    The idea is not only for this to be a centerpiece, but if he adds a car carrier trailer he can load up his entire collection and not have to rely on friends and family to help him drive the cars one by one at each event.

    KITT from ‘Knight Rider’

    KITT may have been his first “star car”, but even a decade later it’s still a work in progress.

    Highly detailed, especially colorful, futuristic dash. And the parts are quite expensive.

    But when he bought it for about $8,000, it was black, so he was ready to start on the details, including the iconic red light on the front.

    Over the years, he used different tricks to get KITT to speak with the car’s voice from the show; originally voiced by actor William Daniels.

    It originally used MP3s via a smartphone via Bluetooth. And now he has an AI app on his phone that allows him to tell KITT what he wants to say and the car repeats it almost instantly.

    Muzzi’s friend Mark Burton, who also often helps Muzzi transport cars, says he and Damian have fun with the new technology, often laughing while making someone’s day.

    “We’ll just sit in the lawn chairs and have the car say, ‘Hey, you in the striped shirt. That’s me, I’m talking to you,'” Burton says. “Very funny.”

    Muzzi even has a replica of the classic blue and gold California license plate from the series — “KNIGHT” — and also has a legitimate Delaware “KNIGHT” vanity plate on the back, making it curfew-worthy.

    ‘The A Team’ van

    His next project was the A-Team van, which started its facelift journey as a simple white cargo van; a 1983 GMC Vandura to be exact, just like the one in the NBC action/adventure show that premiered in 1983.

    In addition to detailed antennas and fog lights, he had the push rod custom made for the front of the van and painted it to mimic the original.

    “It’s little things that a normal person wouldn’t even notice, but a geek who’s into this is like, ‘Oh my God. You know what? This is actually spot on,'” says Muzzi.

    DeLorean in ‘Back to the Future’

    Then came the 1981 DeLorean DMC-12, the only car in the collection whose display was not correct. And this was done on purpose.

    Since it was a rare, low serial number DeLorean, he decided not to make the major changes needed to fit the “Back to the Future” look.

    He agreed after going to a DeLorean car convention and listening to pleas from DeLorean devotees not to replace the limited-edition car. But he can sell it for someone else, thus turning it into a proper DeLorean time machine.

    Although the silver DeLorean is the only car that doesn’t look like the movies (sorry, no flux capacitors here), it took two years to complete.

    “It sat in a barn for about 20 years until I got it,” says Muzzi, who believes there are only three DeLoreans registered in Delaware. “When I bought it it had to be drivable and when I arrived the engine was in pieces.”

    In a nice touch, a classic JVC video camera, similar to the one Marty McFly carries around in the movie, is hidden in the passenger seat.

    ‘Blues Brothers’ Bluesmobile

    More recently, he completed his Bluesmobile, which he originally purchased as a yellow 1974 Dodge Monaco sedan.

    The new paint job on the police car deliberately gives it a slightly weathered look to match the film.

    And the car’s dashboard looks just like the movie, thanks to repeated viewings. He has a pack of Chesterfield Kings, an old crushed Budweiser can, sunglasses and cigarette butts. He placed magnets under each item to keep them in place.

    Burton often drives the Bluesmobile, complete with a comically oversized speaker roped to its roof, and wears a black fedora and black sunglasses, just like John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in 1980’s “Saturday Night Live.” the resulting movie.

    When you stop at a light, someone will probably quote a quote from the movie.

    “I hear, ‘We are on a mission from God!’ “a lot,” he says. “And then I do my whole speech, ‘We’ve got a full gas tank, we’ve got half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses.’ It’s pretty fun. People love it.”

    The line was signed by Belushi’s brother Jim at a private summer party in Centerville earlier this year, after he entered the stage with a vehicle before appearing on stage with a band referred to as The Blues Brothers.

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    It was a pretty good scene, but it could have been better. Aykroyd was also scheduled to be there but had to cancel because he was ill.

    Mirthmobile from ‘Wayne’s World’

    The newest member of the Delaware Star Cars is a baby blue 1976 AMC Pacer with painted flames coming out of its front wheels.

    The Pacer, not to be confused with AMC’s Gremlin from the same period, was the vehicle in which Wayne and Garth drove around in 1992’s “Wayne’s World,” starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey.

    The Mirthmobile mentioned in the movie is also the scene of the movie’s most iconic scene: the scene where Queen’s song “Bohemian Rhapsody” is sung at length.

    Muzzi outfitted the interior of his Mirthmobile replica with everything seen in the movie: a cup dispenser with a classic Pepsi cup, a glass crusher, a portable compact disc player on the dash, and even a licorice dispenser on the car’s roof.

    However, it was filled with red thread instead of sweet things because it would melt in the heat.

    Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at: [email protected] or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and X (@ryancormier).

    Harry
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