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This 1967 article out of the Quebec Telegraph highlights a jeep accident during flaming that hurt star Christopher George of Rat Patrol.
Years ago, while on vacation, I traveled to Miami to look at a jeep for sale at a car dealership. The jeep was reported to have been used in the filming of The TV series. The dealer sold exotic cars, and claimed it had come from a muesum. There was no documentation, but the jeep was in good condition (non-running) and did have some modifications. The only one I remember was one to keep jeep from being turned to sharply to prevent roll-over. I think they wanted a couple of grand for it, but I did not pursue it because of logistics to get back to the midwest.
Interesting story Mark, I remember watching this TV show as a kid, To this day, always wonder what happened to these semi famous TV vehicles. The big name vehicles always have a big price, but the lesser known vehicles just seem to drop out of sight.
If you look up Christopher George on Wikipedia, you will find that he apparently died years later of injuries he received in this accident.
Frank, I missed that detail! Thanks!
I too had a Rat Patrol ‘brush with a celebrity’. I was a Deputy Sheriff from 1979 – 1981 in upstate Chenango County, NY. I stopped a speeding car and once pulled over found the inspection was also out of date. I gave the guy a break for speeding and just wrote the Bad Inspection ticket.
The driver: Lawrence P Casey. I was a big Rat Patrol fan, and had I known who he was, would have sent him on his way. I found out who I wrote when the Sgt was reviewing the road patrol work at the end of shift.
All the Rat Patrol episodes are on youtube. Found them one day by chance.
I loved Rat Patrol as a kid and recently watching it on Netflix. It was a hoot to watch because of the fact that 4 guys in 2 Jeeps could beat the entire German army, and all of the Jeep inconsisties that I noticed on the show.
The jeep accident occurred filming the jumps used in the openings of every episode. That’s the reason observant viewers notice that it’s the same Jeep twice.
After just now watching the beginning of the episode “The Darers goes First Raid”, I had to search “how many stuntmen got hurt on the Rat Patrol?” and this article popped up. I looks like it was extremely dangerous tv show to produce… looks like their heads and necks were going all over the place. Must of been fun, too.
I actually bought the Rat Patrol jeep for a fellow employee that worked for Pacific Bell in 1970s from a body shop in Los Angeles. He wanted me to buy it and bargain for it as he wasn’t good at it. Now this was a long time ago and if my memory’s serves me right, I paid $500.00 for it. He actually died in that jeep later on from a accidental gun shot wound.
Thanks for the interesting story JV!
I wonder if any of the “star” Jeeps survived?
There is all kind of information, some of it contradictory, online about the series.
Some say that CJ-3s were used and some had V-8s.
Sadly, being very common vehicles (i.e. Not built by famous film car builders like George Barris or Dean Jeffries), no one kept any records.
When it comes to film cars, there are ALWAYS contradictory stories, even with well known cars by famous builders.
I have a rare TV car built by George Barris (long story) and I still see wrong information about it online, even though I have tried to correct the record for the last 20+ years.
It’s almost like some guys go out of their way to muddy the history of Like to pass on 3rd hand information.
And of course you get willful disinformation where people try to pass off a vehicle for what it isn’t.
There is a guy in Hollywood that has a loose knit group of TV car owners. Some of the cars are former stars, others are just painted to look like screen cars. There was a group that billed itself Rat Patrol reenactors, the trouble is, they drove YJs! But they were green and mounted replica guns. So, in their minds, close enough!