The History of the Ghostbuster’s Ecto-1

The Ecto-1 is one of the most iconic movie cars from the 1980s. We look at its spooky origins just in time for the Halloween season.
Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - imdb.com
Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - imdb.com

The ‘59 Caddy Made for Bustin’ Ghosts

Forty years after the original Ghostbusters hit the silver screen, it remains a favorite film franchise for a lot or reasons, But, arguably, the Ecto-1 is the biggest. That big white Caddy that Ray Stantz bought for $4,800, that needed “…suspension work and shocks, brakes, brake pads, lining, steering box, transmission, rear end … maybe new rings, also mufflers, a little wiring …” has gone on to become one of the most famous movie cars of all time.

So where did the Ecto-1 come from? The car itself is an old Cadillac ambulance, specifically a 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor Futura Duplex. Miller-Meteor was a now-defunct division of the equally defunct Waye Corporation out of Indiana that built professional vehicles like ambulances and limousines. The model used in Ghostbusters was a ’59 Cadillac with a Miller-Meteor ambulance body conversion.

On their own, these are rare vehicles with only about 400 ever built. When new, they came with a stout 6.3L V8 good for 320 horsepower. Though, as fans of the Ghostbusters II know, that engine ultimately gave up the, ahem, ghost. In fact, the big Caddy almost didn’t make the cut as early scripts written by Dan Akroyd featured a 1975 Cadillac painted black with purple strobe lights. White paint was chosen for ease of filming at night and we can only assume a ’59 was chosen because they’re just plain cooler.

Who Built the Original Ecto-1?

Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters - imdb.com

The man responsible for actually building the Ecto-1 was Stephen Dane, a creative wonder who also whipped up the proton pack, ghost trap, particle thrower, slime scooper, and slime blower designs. In the credits for the original 1984 film, he is listed simply as “Hardware Consultant”. The car of course carried the Ghostbusters and all their gear around New York City, using the old ambulance gurney as a pull-out rack for the proton packs, PKE meters, and more.

Though we never learn what all the roof-mounted gadgetry is used for in the movie, it sure looks cool. And though the big car is lovingly referred to as Ecto-1 thanks to its license plate in the film, the soundtrack says differently. In the song Cleanin’ Up The Town, it is called the Ectomobile.

Throughout the filming of the original movie, there were three Miller-Meteor conversions used. Up first was a black and primer beater that Ray drives up to show off to the crew – including an incredulous Venkman. This car was leased just for that scene, but never converted into a film car. Then there was the primary car and a secondary backup Ecto 1. That backup model, initially referred to as Ecto-1A in Ghostbusters II was as much of a mess as the movie makes it look.

Ecto-1A from Ghostbusters II - imdb.com
Ecto-1A from Ghostbusters II - imdb.com

Remember all the smoke and backfiring on display in the sequel? It wasn’t movie magic; it was really the car struggling to stay running. The story goes that it was so unreliable that it stalled out in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge, blocking traffic and getting a ticket for doing so. When Sony decided to fund a restoration of the first Ecto-1, Ecto-1A was left to rot in a Universal Studios backlot.

The Ecto-1 Rebuilt for a New Generation

Ecto-1 from Ghostbuster: Answer the Call - @GhostbusterNet on youtube
Ecto-1 from Ghostbuster: Answer the Call - @GhostbusterNet on youtube

In 2016, the freshly overhauled car was put on display outside of Sony’s Ghost Corps building in Culver City, California. It wasn’t until 2019 that Ecto-1A, at the furious insistence of diehard fans, was retrieved from certain extinction and put back into service. This was just a few years after the first Ghostbusters reboot in 2016 debuted with a forgettable 1984 Cadillac Fleetwood hearse as Ecto-1.

Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters: Afterlife - imdb.com
Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters: Afterlife - imdb.com

It wasn’t until the second attempt at a reboot with Ghostbusters: Afterlife in 2021 that fans once again laid eyes on the 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor from the 1984 original. From this author’s perspective, the revival of this car in that movie was about as cinematically perfect as it comes.

In the film, we learn that Egon Spengler took it upon himself to relocate Ecto-1 to an old farmhouse in rural Oklahoma before passing away. Fast forward to present day and his grandson, Trevor, finds an old car under a dusty cover in a barn on said farm. The reveal is perhaps the best barn find of all time. After wrenching on the old Caddy – with the help of Egon’s ghost – young Trevor gets it running.

The camera pans to his view of a wide-open barley field and as you would hope, he mats the gas and proceeds to have himself an epic joyride in one of the original Ecto-1s. Watching the movie, this scene has all the hallmarks of practical effects – no CGI in other words. Which would have any self-respecting gearhead wondering just how a 62-year-old car that was last seen billowing spoke in the late ‘80s could be blowing donuts in an Oklahoma field? Even in new condition, that old 6.3-liter V8 would’ve been hard-pressed to fling such an enormous conversion vehicle around.

Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - imdb.com
Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - imdb.com

Turns out, Jason Reitman, director of Afterlife and son of Ivan Reitman who directed the first Ghostbusters, had the same thought. So, he dropped in a General Motors LS crate engine and let ‘er rip. Not stopping there, the revitalized Ecto-1 gained an extendable gunner seat and a ramp to deploy the remote-controlled Remote Trap Vehicle. For the latest film, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, a roof-mounted trap-equipped drone was fitted.

The Spookiest Hero Car of the 80’s

Sidecar from Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - imdb.com
Sidecar from Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - imdb.com

It’s fair to say Ecto-1 is an iconic movie car, maybe one of the most widely loved and featured. Along with all these movies, the Ecto-1 has been reimagined as all manner of toys, diecast models, and of course as a Hot Wheels car. It was used in the Ghostbusters video game back in the days of Atari and has gained additional numerical variants in the years since.

Ecto-2 was a motorbike in the 2016 reboot, Ecto-3 was a sidecar motorcycle in Frozen Empire, and Ecto-8 was a tugboat from the 2009 Ghostbusters video game. In other words, the rabidly loyal fans of Ghostbusters and the Ecto-1 have loads of exciting material to keep their enthusiasm alive for decades to come.

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Niel Stender

Niel Stender grew up doing replacement work on his 1990 Cherokee and 1989 Starion, so it’s not surprising that he would put his mechanical engineering degree from the University of New Hampshire to use in the car world as a vehicle dynamics engineer. Now engineering sentence structures, his writing infuses his auto experience with his time in marketing and his sales experience. Writing about cars for close to a decade now, he focuses on some of the more technical mechanical systems that are found under the hood and throughout a vehicle.

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