“Your looks intoxicate me even though your folks hate me
There’s no one like you, Eleanor really…” The Turtles.
What do Lennon and McCartney, The Turtles and Nicholas Cage all have in common? Each are inextricably linked to each other by the rather dowdy moniker “Eleanor.” Dull as dishwater, this name probably hasn’t appeared on the “Top Ten Baby Name Lists” in decades to say the least. In the case of one resto-mod ’67 Mustang Fastback from the 2000 movie “Gone in 60 Seconds,” the end result of this pinup pony car with a frumpy name might end up superseding FDR’s wife in our consciousness forever.
With that out of the way, check out these expat “Eleanor” clones that now have Swiss citizenship. Both of these beauties were shipped overseas and are now wowing ’em with their svelte Detroit curves and sexy V-8 soundtracks. Listen to ’em here in a video from YouTube.
The first “Eleanor” on camera was last seen stateside near Seattle, Washington, and with dark gray paint, black stripes and Shelby-esque body mods, its almost identical to the movie car. Towards the end of the clip we see a GT500E (for Eleanor, naturally,) looking sharp in black paint and silver stripes.
Although each deviates slightly from the original both work from the same blueprint with unique grille work, fog lights, big block FoMoCo power, side exhaust, Shelby taillights, and retro Halibrand wheels.
As we peep in on this far away car culture, we only see the two “Eleanors” amongst other Mustangs at a Swiss Pony show, but could you imagine these two in traffic against a sea of lozenge shape European cars? The coolest thing about these expat “Eleanors” is how American muscle is a universal language of beauty and speed that transcends borders, politics and the inevitable arrival of soybean powered clown cars.