Charlie Sheen has done more than a few wild things, but do you remember when he voiced the spirit of a street racer embodying a 1980s supercar? Jay Leno does.
“Just like any cult car, he can be a little temperamental now and then,” Leno says of his friend, whose career has been both spectacular and disastrous.
Sheen arrives in the hero car from “The Wraith,” a movie from 1986 in which he starred as a teen who is murdered and reincarnated as the supernatural force controlling an indestructible supercar bent on taking revenge on the gang members who had him killed.
“I shot this in a pit stop on the way to the Philippines to film ‘Platoon,'” Sheen said of “The Wraith.” “Oliver Stone went and saw it in the movie theater and called me so angrily afterwards,” Sheen recalls, as Stone was genuinely worried that “Wraith” was going to soil peoples’ opinions of “Platoon.”
While Sheen voiced the car’s digitized personality, the car itself was a bit of a celebrity in its own right. Playing the supercar was Dodge’s 1981 M4S (“Mid-engine, 4-cylinder, Sport”) concept car, also known as the PPG Turbo Interceptor.
If you’re getting serious Pontiac Fiero vibes, well, you’re not far off. Unfortunately, the M4S never spawned a production variant. Fortunately, Leno has a car just like one used in the movie that can be driven—a 1984 Chrysler Laser.
The futuristic Chrysler sports car with a talking dash isn’t quite as flashy as the hero car, but it has the benefit of being a fully functional automobile. While not as wild or flashy as the concept car from “The Wraith,” it was a significant departure from the K-Car models Chrysler leaned on in the 1980s to claw its way back from financial troubles.
Leno and Sheen take the Laser for a joy ride while talking about Sheen’s first car (a BMW 320is, as he recalls it) and his not-so-perfect high school attendance. It’s worth a watch.
This article was originally published by Motor Authority, an editorial partner of ClassicCars.com.
Yes I remember that movie. Also starring Randy Quaid as the sherrif. The gang races people for their title.
The car in The Wraith did not talk, pisses me off when morons write about a movie without even watching it.