Hi everyone. New on here. I found the site from Tico who I met in Cheltenham on Tuesday.
I thought I could use this site and the knowledge from it to gain some further knowledge of car chases and what people want to see?
Apart from the obvious drifting, burnouts, smashes etc. What else would you want to see and have you any specific do's or don'ts?

Hey Lofty, welcome on board.
What would I want from a car chase?
Well, firstly, the location has to be exotic and unique. I'm kinda tired of the same L.A., San Francisco, New York settings (not that I dislike these cities, it's just getting kinda cliche). Good examples of foreign settings is Bourne Supremacy's Moscow car chase and Tokyo Drift's night-time pursuit. The action doesn't have to be overseas for it to be non-coventional: car parks, on top of and through office buildings, subways and across countrysides are pretty good locations too.
Secondly, I want to have a unique set-piece. What would a car chase's special stunt be? It could be the Man With the Golden Gun's corkscrew jump, Gone in 60 Second's leap of faith, or the Blue Brother's massive pile-up. Every one of the great chases had a trademark sequence, a single scene or iconic shot which sums up the chase and immortalizes it into movie history.
Thirdly, creative use of vehicles. Exotic, muscle and of late, Asian import cars are cool and all that, but seriously in real life, what are the chances of a hero hijacking or even owning one? Truly awesome car chases use ordinary, everyday tin-boxes and push them to the limit, just look at the Bourne, Terminator and Lethal Weapon series. Pedestrian vehicles such as a Mini Cooper, fire engine, ambulance and security vans can give a pursuit as thrilling as their faster counterparts.
Lastly, a great soundtrack is a must. Yes, hearing the roaring engines and tire screeches is great and all, but a good music track certainly enhances the experience. Ronin and Terminator 3 had eerily silent soundtracks till the end, some people like that but I prefer otherwise. Good examples are Hans Zimmer 'The Chase' from The Rock, John Powell's 'Bim Bam Smash' and 'Minivan Chase' from Bourne Supremacy and Mr & Mrs Smith, and Trevor Rabin's 'BMBBO' from Bad Company. Give a listen to these tracks and you'll see what I mean.
As for Don'ts:
Don't use CGI too excessively. A little is good to enhance the scene, or if you require the cars to change into giant robots or something else. But to cop-out with a CGI shot instead of doing the real thing cheats the audience of its realism (eg Gone in 60 Seconds remake).
Don't have shakey-cams, excessive slow-mos, and MTV-style cuts. Again, a little is good for cinematography, but too much of it is bad.
Don't promise something and don't deliver it. In other words, don't set up audience expectations either through pre-release hype or even in the scene building up to the chase only to end prematurely or deliver a disappointing pursuit. Nothing sucks worse than a chase that could have been good, but isn't.
Yeah, I'll stop rambling, but basically you get an idea of what I look for in a good chase. Have fun!

Welcome to the forum, Lofty. Great to meet you last Tuesday. I'm sure that other forum members will appreciate your car expertise here.

I think what AndreTeh has to say is on the money. Only thing I would add is that car chase fans like to see innovation. This could come in multiple forms, such as locations, vehicles, stunts, and filmmaking style. Anything that will make the chase standout from the norm.

On another note: what was the make of the BMW in Dolphins? I want to upload the entry for it to provide the car details.

Thanks guys. More films to watch popping up I see.
The BMW in Dolphins was an E36 M3. It was used mainly in the first half of the filming so I'm not too sure about the car. I think it was slightly modified and I do believe it had a Nitrous system installed. The M3 wasn't as fast as I thought it would be. I was driving the 300zx in their race sequence, which was a tuned but non turbo version and it kept up with BMW ok considering.

Hmm what i like seing on a car chase...

Well i may repeat some of Andreteh's ideas but what i love in chases is a lot of destruction, good driving, the use of normal cars and not super cars nor muscle cars either, first of all because seing a muscle car wrecking is such a shame, i also like seing big vehicles like trucks with trailers and buses becasue they smash up into everything causing a complete chaos.

I prefere it when two civil vehicles are involved rather than just a vehicle and the police, i love it to be set on a city or a freeway full of traffic in where the pursuit vehicles are forced to wave between them, as i said, my favorite location for a car chase is the motorway/freeway, i hate it when they are for example locatd on a boring desert area or when there's a complete lack of traffic.

About destruction i love pile ups, rammings and rollovers as well as hard collisions, my favorite settings are Europe, and car chases with European cars but this doesnt mean i dont like chases in america, is just that i prefere Europe.

I also hate CGI, in my opinion all it makes is ruin the chase, if there's something you cannot do just dont do it and invent another kind of stunt, Gone in Sixty Seconds or Bad Boys 2 are two examples, the chases theirselves are not bad at all, specially Bad Boys, they are well planned, but CGI just ruins it all, why using a Ferrari on Bad Boys 2 if in most of the sequences we have it in the car is CGI?? i dont see the point, and the same for Gone in Sixty Seconds, if a jump with a real car was not possible why ruinning it all with what it is the fakest jump on car chase history?

As Andreteh also says i dont like the shacky cam, it doesnt let you enjoy the action, if The Bourne Supremacy didnt have it it would had been much better to me, i know it makes it more thrilling and fast but less movement would had been appreciated.

Ive mention something about desert areas being annoying but what i also cant stand is when they locate the car chase on a long motorway or freeway and it is unrealisticly empty, set it anywhere else but not in a freeway if you cant afford renting cars for the traffic!!!

Then all these years have made me get some hates in chases as far as driving, sounds and crashes goes, i dont like when a car goes to the water or when it gets its roof cut after going under a trailer, nor a car cut in half, and about sounds, oh well, there are some out there really fake and annoying, others are marvelous to me like in Ronin.

I also hate it when a car is hit by another and just explodes.

Also i prefere no music and just engines and wheels sounds, a good music can make it better i know, but if it can be done without it then i prefere it.

I think that's all i can think of right now.

That pretty much sums it all up for me. But we all know that when too many conventions and cliches pop up, there's really nothing to accept. All we realize is that this director went through all the trouble just to bring their audience a car chase. Of course, this film will be submitted on the site to make it grow but will we care about the car chase? It all depends.

There was one idea I had for a film. Like Mad Max meets The Day After Tomorrow. No it's not Neon City, but it mainly settles into those boundaries. The world is covered in snow and ice. Everyone is wrapped up in heavily insulated clothing driving around in snowmobiles, hovercrafts and sometimes beaten trucks and sedans. The setting would be a futuristic medieval type society.

As far as car chase sense, the most important thing that matters is the setting. This way, people know exactly what type of environment people are living in. This can leave a more interesting car chase like AndreTeh pointed out. For instance, in a world of snow where people drive nothing but snowmobiles, hovercrafts and jalopies one would expect that hovercrafts would be flying and bouncing off obstacles, snowmobiles would swarm like the jet-skis in Waterworld and the beaten oldies would just skid and slip all they please.

Or let's say Ronin, it was set in Nice with narrow streets. Who would've thought cars speeding through night corners would be considered one of the best car chases ever?

And that's all I can think of right now...