24 Jun 09
To celebrate the quarter-century anniversary there's the release of a Blu-ray version of the film and a video game. The game is voiced by the original actors and the action is set in Manhattan.
To give the whole Blu-ray/video game project the necessary PR push Sony tracked down a replica of Ecto-1 and sent it to the remains of the motor racing circuit at Brooklands, Surrey - a venue supposedly not short of the odd ghost itself.
But I ain't afraid of no ghosts and only a fool would turn down the opportunity to drive one of the greatest movie vehicles of all time. After accepting the invite I found myself behind the thigh-scrapingly enormous wheel of Ecto-1 - well, not exactly Ecto-1 but as close to the real thing as you're likely to find without jumping the fence at a Sony Pictures studio car pound.
Worth around £ 80,000, this Ecto-1 - like the original - is a rare dual-purpose ambulance or hearse conversion of a 1959 Cadillac Fleetwood. Only 500 or so were ever made and this one was found rotting in a barn in deepest Europe before being restored to ghostbusting form.
