One of the most popular shows with both a mainstream and cult following is the former Canadian comedy and mockumentary series Trailer Park Boys. The series premiered in 2001, just the same year when September 11 attacks happened and the first writing jobs online became available. Created by Mike Clattenburg and starring his close friends and co-writers John Paul Tremblay and Rob Wells, what started as a simple black-and-white short film blossomed into two feature length movies and a 7-season television run as well as spinoff music albums, comedy tours, and more.
The show actually began as a short film in 1998 starring the two and directed by Clattenburg titled One Last Shot. A feature film followed the next year, based on the original and thanks to the success of One Last Shot on the Canadian film festival circuit. That feature film, Trailer Park Boys, began the mockumentary style used throughout the series and added several characters that are now seen as staples of the television series. That film’s success on the festival circuit caught the eye of Barrie Dunn (who also plays Ricky’s father Ray in the series) and began the move to television.
Throughout the television series, there were several cars featured in the show. Some remained throughout, changing in look but not make or model and became the signatures of each character. Others changed regularly, with Julian in particular having a different choice of ride each season. Side characters also often appear in signature cars as part of their persona. Most of the backdrop vehicles seen in the show are either owned by cast or crew or are owned by actual trailer park residents in one of the several parks the Trailer Park Boys used until the fourth season when they purpose-built a trailer park just for the show.
Most of the vehicles showcased in The Trailer Park Boys are Detroit originals, though some are the Canadian versions. Here are the vehicles most regularly seen and tied to characters in the series.
The Shit Mobile
The most iconic of the cars in the Trailer Park Boys, the “Shit Mobile” also has the most history with the show. In the pilot episode, it was actually Corey and Trevor’s car (it had all of its doors and parts at that point). Then in the first season, it is Julian’s car, an inheritance (along with his trailer) from his late grandmother (the right door was now missing). The car, it was said, was so beat up because she was always drunk and half-blind, so it was smashed into a lot of immobile objects. In that first season, Julian and Ricky repair the car so it can be moved after threats from trailer park supervisor Lahey. Julian then gives the car to Ricky, who had been living in it in Julian’s yard. The car appears in almost every episode for all seven seasons.
The car has more history to it. In real life, the car is a 1975 Chrysler New Yorker that was owned by the show’s creator, Clattenberg. He and his wife actually owned and drove the car through to the second season, when it was deemed too ugly to stay in their driveway and was consigned to the show full time. The car is often confused with a Chrysler Newport as the New Yorker and Newport shared a body, but had different tail lamps, fenders, and engine options.
Lahey’s Trailer Park Supervisor Car
The only other car to be a permanent fixture in almost every episode of The Trailer Park Boys is Jim Lahey’s 1976 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham. The car appears nearly new (or at least in great shape) in the first few seasons before a drunken Lahey flips it on its roof, at which point it becomes a convertible for the remainder of the series. The car is a perk of the Trailer Park Supervisor’s job and was given to Lahey by his ex-wife Barbara, who owns the trailer park. It is also often driven by Randy, the Assistant Trailer Park Supervisor and Lahey’s boyfriend.
For a brief time in Season 4, Lahey received a black Cadillac of unknown model year by the International Association of Trailer Parks, Trailer Park Supervisors and Trailer Park Superintendents that disappeared after that episode without explanation.
Starting in 1976, Chrysler began calling the New Yorker the New Yorker Brougham to upscale its name and denote its higher trim level than the other, similar sedans in its lineup.
J-Roc’s Roc-Pile Mobile
The station wagon J-Roc is most often seen driving in Trailer Park Boys is actually his mom’s. Being the hard core gangster rapper that he is, living at home with his moms in the trailer park, J-Roc pimps around in her 1984* Pontiac 6000 wood-sided station wagon. This car is also seen in nearly every season.
*Note: the year may be different as these looked the same for 3-4 model years.
Julian’s Rides
Nearly every season and even mid-season, Julian is seen in a different vehicle. These are usually “cool guy” cars and souped up sport models. At various points in the first few seasons of Trailer Park Boys, Julian is seen driving a Ford Bronco, Mustang Convertible, and a 1975 Pontiac Firebird.
Starting in season 5, Julian is seen in various iterations of the Chevrolet Monte Carlo Sport Coupe, usually the 1987 model (1981 shown above), which lasts through to being sunk in the river in the last season. This car is the one most-associated with Julian in the Trailer Park Boys. Below, you can see it with the special spoiler modification made out of hockey sticks thanks to J-Roc and crew.
Where Julian gets his cars is usually a mystery, though the Mustang and Firebird were purchased as part of the story line in the early seasons.
Cyrus ‘Vette
Occasional arch-rival/villain Cyrus was a staple in several episodes of the Trailer Park Boys and was always seen in his 1978 Chevrolet Corvette, usually with the T-tops removed. The red ‘Vette matches his black leather jacket and propensity for swinging around a pistol and talking like a tough guy.
Cyrus appeared as the rival who’s taken over the trailer park in the first episode of season one. He re-appeared several times, including above in season 4 when the Trailer Park Boys vandalized his car after Cyrus failed Grade 10 thanks to Ricky turning him in for cheating.
Other Notables
Sam, the veterinarian who loses his license thanks to Ricky telling the jail medic who did his stitches, and who then shows up at the trailer park to try to take over the place and have the guys removed, lives in a 1971 Dodge Sportsman B-300 Four Star.
Most of the police cars in the show are 1980s Ford Crown Victorias and Chevrolet Caprices.
The carpeted and base-gray painted 1975 Ford Econoline that Bubbles occupies after his shed burns down in season 2 actually appears in several scenes in the show and in all seven seasons with various paint schemes and rear window changes or coverups.
Ray, who plays Ricky’s dad and is also the producer responsible for getting the Trailer Park Boys on television, is an ex-trucker who at one point lives in a truck sleeper cab the boys rescued from the landfill. As he says in the episode, it’s the sleeper from a White Western Star (now just called Western Star), though the 1972 year he gives is incorrect as it’s a 1980s model.
Comments, other notable vehicles I missed, or just general “love that show” mentions? Leave them below!
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Doesn’t J-Roc drive a black Volvo in the first few episodes?
Good question. I don’t remember one, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there.
It was a black ’86 Volvo 740.
Barb Lahey drives a mid-1980’s Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.
What was the blue 2 door car that Barbara drove in the Big Dirty movie? I’ve been trying to look it up because I thought it was either a Monte Carlo from the 70s or a Chrysler Cordoba from the 70s.
I can’t even remember a blue car from that one. I didn’t really include TPB: The Movie in this list, though. Now I’ll have to watch it again to find the car. lol
Great article, though I noticed one slight inaccuracy – Julian’s Monte Carlo was not ditched in a lake behind the trailer park in Season 7, but rather, somewhere very close to the New Brunswick / Maine border during the mission where Jacob and his two friends laid down the railway track for the weed transfer.
Thanks for the note and you’re totally right. I’ve fixed it.
Also the black caddy that is given to lahey for supervisor of the year is a ’91 which the guy states as he is presenting it to lahey i love the old cars in this show im a car enthusiast of sorts
Hey, thanks for sharing these information about the cars.
I one episode, J-Roc is making a music video and a BMW E32 shows up. Something around 1986–1994.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_7_Series_(E32)
Two notes:
– It’s the “International Association of Trailer Parks, Trailer Park Supervisors and Assistant Trailer Park Supervisors”
– It’s not a lake where Julian’s Monte Carlo sunk. It’s at the border Canada/USA.
Anyway, thanks for sharing so many information about the cars on trailer park boys.
Lahey gets given 1991 cadillac brougham
In like season 8 ep. 1 j roc n his posse are driving that 6 door car but I don’t know it that matters or not
See the 2004 Christmas special. The Shit Mobile is in perfect shape, Ricky puts the first few major dings in the car after being picked up from jail and while “Christmas shopping.”
As to help find about the 1984 – 1987 Pontiac 6000 station wagon, it might help to know that the 86 and 87 models have a center factory-mounted rear brake light (Canadian cars). 1984 & 1985 don’t have it.
Good luck on trying to find that detail when viewing the DVD !
Even more history of the Shitmobile is shown in the Trailer Park Boys Xmas Special which takes place years before the 1st season chronologically.
What happened to that sweet blue mustang J-Roc gave to Julian?
Wasn’t the car that was given to Lahey by the president of the IATPTPSATPS flipped over immediately after he gets it and destroyed by Ricky, in a front end loader that they were giving bucket rides in for Community Day?
Julian’s Delorean
-Julian stole the ’87 Monte Carlo from Cyrus’s crew, which was also driven into a river separating the Canada/US border, not a swamp..
Also, theres an incomplete orange Caddy from the ’90s that was seen various times, ex. the dump Ray lived in, Ricky’s barrier around Julian’s trailer
The car that Lahey is driving earlier in the series is not the same car as the one with the roof ripped off. The one in the earlier shots has keyguards around both doors and the driver door is crushed in where it meets the rear door. The car with the roof ripped off has neither of these things. As beat up as it is, the door isn’t damaged in that area. In the parts of the show where Ricky steals the hood and door off Lahey’s car and puts it on his, it’s obvious the door is from Lahey’s car since the scratch guards are on it.
what is the car that J-Roc has at the start of the 4th season that bubbles says to say ” Can we please say we got this car as a gift to Julian?”
and what about Tom Collins 69 CAAAAA-MAAA-RRRRRO ???
Don’t forget Bubbles’ Go Kart
Love Julian’s black 1989 Cadillac Brougham in seasons 11 and 12. Most of the police cars are from the 1990s because Caprice Classics and Crown Victorias were boxed shaped in the 1980s and very early 1990s. In the early 1990s the body style changed to the bubble shape like you see in the episode who the hell invited these idiots to the wedding. In the episode Halloween 1977 Jim Layhes car that runs into the trailer is a late 1970s Ford Fairmont police car.
Season 3, Episode 7 – there’s a very small, silver 2 door car with a small wing shown in many scenes, alongside a blue, seemingly derelict hatch back (maybe an old Cavi?) – I’d love to know what make and model car that little silver car is. I’m pretty sure it was in Gran Turismo 3 but I feel like seeing a Daihatsu or something along those lines in Nova Scotia is pretty rare… Do you know what kind of car this is? Please email me if you do!
J-Roc should have gotten a iROC-z as the letter “I” could have easily been converted to a J.
Ricky giving Trevor lessons on driving the Shitmobile: “Now this is a little different than most transmissions. First up, drive doesn’t work but third does. Neutral is park, reverse is second. If you want to use reverse, put it in drive. And the accelerator sticks too, so be careful. But don’t be afraid of it – you gotta give it to her or it’s gonna stall.”