The 1981 film No U-Turn is a car-centric romp with an 8-minute illegal race as its centerpiece action sequence. In it, an orange A20 Toyota Celica races a “who’s who” lineup of performance cars of the era, including a BMW 2002, Opel Manta, Ford Cortina, Mini, and Subaru Leone. However, its greatest rival is, inexplicably, a Daihatsu Taft. According to reviews it’s not a great movie, but the automotive choices are second to none.
No U-Turn tells the tale of a cab driver that spends his days behind the wheel of a Datsun 220C/Nissan Cedric taxi while driving race cars on his time off. There seems to be some sort of romantic plot in which he must win back the affections of a woman by competing in an illegal race that takes place in a rock quarry.
The protagonist’s main rival — you know he’s bad because of the telenovela-style mustache he’s sporting — drives a Daihatsu Taft that in theory should have been absolutely smoked by the other cars in the race. Speaking of which, the contest turns into a no-holds-barred death match where drivers are apparently free to run each other into ditches.
Since No U-Turn is a Hong Kong production, the filmmakers had access to a rather diverse assembly of cars from every country but the US. In addition to the cars in the race, we see excellent secondary vehicles. The bigwig behind the illegal match is seen with a silver Datsun 260C. And when the hero is injured, his three mates whisk him away in a first-gen Honda Civic (though stuffing an injured man in half the back seat would seem medically irresponsible).
The primo vehicular selection extends beyond this one scene. In a commercial for the movie, the camera lingers over a beautiful Datsun 280ZX, which would have been a high-end sports car in Hong Kong then. In other scenes cars like a Toyota Starlet, SA22C Mazda RX-7, Alfa Romeo GTV, Ford Escort RS, and many more get featured. There’s even a Celica with works fenders given prominent visibility.
It’s an excellent roster of cars that don’t typically get a lot of screen time. And of course, like in any Hong Kong movie of the era the background cars are just as rich. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to watch No U-Turn, which is sometimes called by its Chinese title Bu Zhun Diao Tou. If anyone has seen the entire film or knows how to access it, please let us know.
