Paris collector offers 'Fast and Furious' drives in famous movie cars

Dreaming of taking a tour in a Volkswagen Beetle as in the Herbie films, a Fast and Furious-style muscle car or a replica of a Back to the Future DeLorean? A French car collector offers just that in a new car museum south of Paris.

In a big hangar in Etrechy, 50km south of Paris, former car dealer Franck Galiegue, 39, is displaying a collection of 43 vintage cars that have either featured in famous movies or are replicas.

Galiegue, who started to collect cars at age 21, said one of his top pieces is one of two remaining 1970s Chevrolet Chevelle Malibus that Ryan Gosling drove in the 2011 action film Drive.

“They often have several back-up cars in movies as they do stunts and break a few. In this case, they used three — one was completely destroyed and two remain — this one and the other one which Ryan Gosling owns and drives in Los Angeles," he said.

The Chevelle is not for hire, but Galiegue's Movie Cars Central operation offers paying visitors the chance to take a spin in more than 10 mostly US-made vintage cars that featured in movies.

“I wanted to do something like a museum, but it must be a living thing, so that people can drive the cars, either here on our terrain or on the road," he said.

One of those cars for hire is a DeLorean, transformed to resemble the time travel machine from the 1985 film Back to the Future.

Galiegue also owns two Batmobiles, including a replica of the one in the 1989 Tim Burton-directed Batman film, a Ford Gran Torino from the series Starsky & Hutch and Magnum's Ferrari 398 GTS.

He owns 12 cars from the Fast and Furious series, eight of which are originals.

The museum will soon have three new cars, including one from the 1987 RoboCop movie.