Same with me. I wish there are movies that manage to adopt the real passion of a car enthusiast. I see almost all car movies made with the purpose to market them to the car enthusiast but the makers of them have no affection towards cars and the final result is always a frustrating one.
I can recall only few movies with a good car chase and "...
I think it's kinda hard to involve cars in the main plot of a movie. Regardless of how we like them, they're tools after all, unlike the robots in the Transformers movies or in the Japanese cartoon shows where the robot itself becomes almost humanoid or a part of the character's personality.
I've just remembered about the Need for Speed movie that was released about 5 or 6 years ago. I only saw the trailer, which was enough to say that it's a facepalm experience.
The best thing that has been done so far is involving cars in chasing scenes or heist movies just like you mentioned in Ronin, which I agree with as I like that movie a lot.
The legendary "Bullitt" is too obvious, I suspect. A bit more obscure: "The 7 UPS" of 1974 starring the late Roy Scheider and...the "Bullitt" stuntdriver who drove the "bad guys" black 1968 Dodge Charger (this time in a "bad guys" black late model Pontiac Bonneville).
There was a good number of classic chase movies. Again, I didn't have the chance to see Bullitt (the great escape is among the very few movies of McQueen that I watched!), but I hope to be able to watch it someday along with Le Mans.
Among the movies that I know of but didn't watch it as well is "Vanishing Point" which I remember reading about in Motor Trend long time ago, which is about a driver delivering a Dodge Challenger that turns out into a national chase across the states.
Another movie about cars that I remember watching is "Duel" which was one of the early movies of Spielberg and tells the story of a mysterious yet crazy truck driver who had a road rage against a salesman in a Dodgeor a Plymouth car on the freeway. It was fun and the scenes were good.
Unfortunately I'm on my phone right now and I don't know how to share a video here. I'll try to put a couple of them once I'll get access to my laptop.
The original "Italian Job" of 1971 was pretty cool as well. Sinister mafiosi in sinister black FIAT Dino coupes...and a bunch of Carabinieri Alfa-Romeo Giulia sedans getting totalled !
Again, I didn't watch this one but the 2003 remake. It was good as I like most of the cast that was involved, but I saw it only once long time ago.
