CARRIE'S DEN


The Many Faces of Carrie


Car buffs may have noticed that American "muscle" cars featured regularly in Steve Kingston's Carrie. Kingston's own passion for them meant that whenever a car was featured in a Carrie tale he invariably chose to illustrate a muscle car. One of the early "Kingston Carries" - the Sealed Knot - features a 1970 red Mustang Mach 1.

For a number of adventures Steve gave our heroine a bright red Chevy Corvette 454, (an L88 he believes it was called). Later he dropped it as he thought it looked just a little too masculine for Carrie, and she was seen a couple of times in a yellow TR7 - the colour scheme for which was always the red, yellow and black colours in Carrie's logo.

Back in 1979 Steve was the (very) proud owner of a white 1973 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am 455, complete with blue "phoenix" on the bonnet - as he puts it "7.5 litres of sheer brute force and I loved it." It was this car that splashed Carrie in the story 'Carrie and the Old Ladies', and it was featured again in Carrie's 1981 Gainsborough calendar (November/December).

"What I wouldn't give to own it now!!!!" says Steve, "I've loved this type of car ever since I first saw Steve McQueen drive his Shelby Mustang in "Bullitt", chasing the "bad guys" in their menacingly powerful black Dodge Charger, to Barry Newman driving a supercharged 1970 white Dodge Challenger across a few States in the cult film "Vanishing Point".

There was a whole lot of muscle going on in the November/December panel of the calendar. A mechanic, working under the bonnet of a blue Mustang Mach 1, is momentarily distracted by the sight of Carrie's beaver. (The mechanic was Alec, who had serviced Kingston's car for several years and continues looking after the artist's cars to this day. "He really is a great guy," Kingston says, "I don't know what I would have done without him").

Also featured is a red Chevrolet Camaro Z28.

Boys sometimes have to shelve their toys as the responsibilities of life crowd in on them. By the time Kingston's daughter came along in 1985 the family car (depicted in Carrie's "The Christening") was a humble Capri. Even though it was a 3 litre V6, he still hangs his head in shame to this day.



CARRIE TRIVIA POINT
The number plate of the white escort in the Motor Rally story belonged to another Kingston car - 208 DVB, was the registration number of Steve's wife (Cheryl)'s car. If nothing else, Steve clearly believes in keeping it in the family.


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