Dax Shepard goes full throttle

Dax Shepard leaned on his Hollywood acting friends to fill out the cast of his new movie, Hit and Run, that hits theaters on Aug. 24. (Watch the movie trailer here.) But he wrote the script with his "stars" in mind--a hot-rodded 1967 Lincoln Continental and a Tatum Baja 1000 racer that he keeps in his garage.

Shepard the writer/director made things fun for Shepard the actor/gearhead (and in this movie, stunt driver). The Continental roars over two-lane California roads and spins a fog of tire smoke. The 700-hp Tatum flies through the air, barrels down the Pacific Coast Highway and climbs the stairs at the Cal State Northridge library.

But that's not all. The high-speed fun also includes a Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, a Cadillac CTS-V wagon and a Pontiac Solstice.

Hit and Run is a love story, a comedy and an action adventure rolled into one movie. In a nutshell, former getaway driver Yul Perkins (Shepard) abandons the Witness Protection program to drive his in-the-dark girlfriend (played by Kristen Bell, Shepard's real-life wife) to a job interview. The two are chased by Perkins' bank-robbing former cohorts, police and the girlfriend's ex-boyfriend.

The movie was produced and financed independently, giving Shepard-a motorcycle- and car-racing enthusiast--the freedom to do his own driving stunts. Bell even rode with him; there was no room in the budget for a stunt double. But there was another reason he stayed behind the wheel.

"Letting someone else drive my cars would be like letting someone make out with my wife," Shepard says.

We sat with Shepard recently, in theory to talk about his movie. We spent the whole time talking about cars.

Cars and drama

Shepard, 37, was born a gearhead in suburban Detroit. It helped that his mother, Laura Labo, owned Shows & Shoots, a business that delivered General Motors test cars to automotive journalists and public events. (Yes, many auto journalists shook Shepard's hand and got his autograph years before he became famous.)

In high school, his first car was a 1984 Ford Mustang GT. At 18, he had the crossed-flags emblem from the Corvette tattooed across his back. "I'm a GM guy," he says.

Shepard had to sell a trusty Honda Civic to buy the Continental that rumbles through the first half of Hit and Run.

"I think 1967 is the best year of cars. All cars," Shepard says. "The Lincoln was a typical luxury car of the day when I got it. It was big and floaty and wallowed around turns." He took the car to New York and stored it.

Shepard's acting career has been fueled by a mix of comedy and serious roles, from his debut on the MTV show Punk'd through movies such as Employee of the Month and Baby Mama. He's about to start filming the third season of the TV series Parenthood in which he stars.

When the acting business began to bring in real money, Shepard went out and bought a Lonestar Classics Cobra replica to drive around Hollywood. "It had straight pipes and was loud. It was fun, but I fell out of love with it."

ROGER HART
Actor/writer/director Dax Shepard used to deliver GM test cars to auto writers.

Hot-rod Lincoln

Inspired by the Pro Touring movement, Shepard sold the Cobra replica and dumped the money into the Lincoln. The engine bay got a stroked 700-hp Ford 514 V8 with Mass-Flo fuel injection. The suspension was overhauled with coil-overs and sway bars. Massive brake rotors are gripped by Wilwood calipers, including a brake-circuit switch and additional stunt-brake calipers in the rear.

Despite the abuse heaped on the Continental for the movie, the only damage was a broken rotor hat and a hiccup in the transmission that was fixed for less than $100. The car is Shepard's daily driver for the commute to and from his TV show.

The Tatum Class 1 racing rig that climbs up the library steps and flies out of a barn in the movie is an outgrowth of Shepard's interest in off-road racing. But his TV and movie bosses won't let him actually go off-road racing. Shepard's Tatum is fitted with a GM LS7 V8 with a 12.5:1 compression ratio. It's notched 700 hp on the dynomometer.

So a highlight of the movie for Shepard was running the Tatum in traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway. It was the one time during shooting that he allowed for an extra couple of takes.

"Kristen doesn't really get this one," he says.

Also in Shepard's garage are a 1999 Porsche 911 and a heavy-duty Chevy Silverado diesel pickup, which he uses to tow the Tatum. His wife drives a Chevy Volt, and the lead-footed Shepard says, "I love that car."

As for the other cars in the movie, Shepard doesn't deny that his past may have helped him get access to cars from the GM movie fleet.

His only complaint about the Corvette Grand Sport is that the movie car was fitted with an automatic transmission. The Pontiac Solstice was perfect for the ex-boyfriend of Bell's character, he notes.

And the Cadillac CTS-V wagon used by the bank robbers? Shepard wants one. "We're going to be starting a family soon, and that is just the perfect car," he says. A Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG is also on his wish list, and he regrets not buying a Ford GT sports car.

Hit and Run was shot quickly during the summer break from Shepard's TV show. The cast of friends includes Bradley Cooper, Tom Arnold, Kristin Chenoweth, David Koechner and Joy Bryant, who plays his wife on Parenthood-all part of staying within the bounds of an independent-film budget.

Car-chase history

Lest you think Shepard and stunt driver Jay Frye spent six weeks wantonly destroying tires for the movie, Shepard says the goal was to capture some of the feel of movie chase scenes he admires, such as the one in the classic Bullitt.

For one chase sequence involving the Corvette and the Cadillac wagon, Shepard's original plan was to re-create rally driver Ken Block's Gymkhana 2 romp around the Port of Los Angeles. But the cost to rent the site busted the budget, so the chase was filmed at the massive Tustin Hangars in Tustin, Calif.

The end of the press tour for Hit and Run comes just before Shepard is due back for the next season of Parenthood. But there are more cars-and car chases-in his future.

Shepard says, "I already know what my next movie will be, and there will be one great car-chase scene. There will be a limo. That's all I'm saying."

By Dale Jewett