This is a rare car crash sound effect that is believed to be in the 20th Century Fox Sound Effects library. It's sometimes called the "wilhelm scream for cars" by some who know anything about it, but anyone who has played Driver: You Are The Wheelman on either PS1 or PC will know it as the crashing sound used in game.
The earliest known title that it's heard in is The Pink Panther, which was originally released in 1963. Despite this, there's a chance that the sound effect was around for a longer period of time than that. At least about half of the known early titles it showed up in are 20th Century Fox titles, indicating that 20th Century Fox was probably the main production company that utilized it within the early years of its existence. It would not be until 1968 that the earliest known movie it was heard in (Lady in Cement in this case) would be released. The latest known usage for it was in the 1988 MGM film "Killer Klowns from Outer Space", but that's not really to say that this was when it was last utilized in any movie/TV Show.
To this day, it's not clear whether or not the sound is still copyrighted, but what is known about it is that there's one individual known as Doctor Danno, the Creator of the YouTube channel 77Pacer, who knows more about the sound than anyone else in the world. He has a copy of the PC Port of "Driver: You Are The Wheelman", which apparently 'drives' his love affair for the sound. He loves it so much that he not only adopted the sound for his own sound effects library, but he even utilized it in his own movies (including Return of the Black Thrasher: The Movie). He even has it as the default notification sound on his Android mobile phone.
NOTE: The reason 20th Century Fox is believed to be the original owner of the sound effect is due to the fact that 22 out of 44 titles the sound effect is used in are 20th Century Fox productions. 13 of the titles also have American Sound Effects engineer Theodore Soderberg (1923-2012), who was originally believed to be one of the guys who owned the sound. To further prove this theory, Soderberg's Wikipedia article states that he was active from 1970 to 1986, which happens to be about the majority of the same time frame as the releases of the Movies/TV Shows in which the sound byte was heard. However, this was disproven on March 23, 2022, when it was found in the 1966 Batman episode "Batman Makes The Scenes", but luckily it's still believed that it's a 20th Century Fox sound effect. However, one other sound effects engineer who went by the name of Don J. Bassman (1927-1993). Bassman was active as a sound engineer from 1958 until 1992, and was even VP of Special Sounds Projects at 20th Century Fox. He was even the ONLY sound effects engineer of The Kansas City Massacre (1975), in which the sound was heard 10 times. Bassman's earliest known contribution was in the original Addams Family TV series (1964-1965), which may hint that that the sound effect could be heard in at least one episode of that series.
Used in[]
TV Shows[]
- Batman (1966)(heard in "Batman Makes The Scenes") (earliest known appearance)
- Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972-1985)
- M*A*S*H (1972-1983)
- The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show (1980)(heard at the beginning of the episode "Get Along, Little Jerry").
- The Fall Guy (1981-1986)(heard in the Season 3 episodes "Dirty Laundry" and "The Last Drive").
- Cagney and Lacey (1982-1988)(variant/possible alternate take)(heard in the Season 3 episode "Unusual Occurrence" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79ef8...)
- Stingray (1985-1987)
Movies[]
- The Pink Panther (1963)
- Lady in Cement (1968)
- The French Connection (1971)
- Vanishing Point (1971)
- Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
- The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
- The Last American Hero (1973)
- The Seven-Ups (1973)
- The Towering Inferno (1974)
- Race With The Devil (1975)
- The French Connection II (1975)
- The Kansas City Massacre (1975)
- The Devil's Rain (1975)
- Cannonball (1976)
- Gator (1976)
- Silver Streak (1976)
- Damnation Alley (1977)
- Smokey and the Bandit (1977) (original mono soundtrack only)
- Wizards (1977)
- The Driver (1978)
- Hooper (1978)
- The Soldier (1982)
- The Terminator (1984) (original mono soundtrack only)
- Commando (1985)
- Mischief (1985)
- The Man With One Red Shoe (1985)
- Death Before Dishonor (1987)
- Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
- Return of the Black Thrasher: The Movie (2009 original and 2017 Improved Edition)
- Bonestyx's Return (2020)
NOTE: Each title in bold text is a 20th Century Fox production, titles produced or distributed by other production studios are normal text.
Video Games[]
PlayStation 1:
- Driver: You Are The Wheelman (1999)
- Driver 2: The Wheelman is Back (2000)
Trailers[]
- Vanishing Point (1971)
- A Reflection of Fear (1972)
- Shaft's Big Score (1972) (high pitched variant)
- The Mechanic (1972)
- The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
- The Seven-Ups (1973)
- 99 and 44/100% Dead (1974)
- The Towering Inferno (1974)
- Race With The Devil (1975)
- Silver Streak (1976)
- Smokey & the Bandit (1977)
- The Hunter (1980)
- Eyewitness (1981)
- Impulse (1984)
- Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986)
- Maximum Overdrive (1986) (Trailers)
- Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
- Return of the Black Thrasher: The Movie (both 2009 and 2017 versions)
- Bonestyx's Return (2020)
YouTube Videos[]
- PINTO MADNESS: A Case Study in Ethics (heard at 0:55 in video)
Audio Samples[]
This is a version of the Driver crashing sound which has been spliced together with the second half of the equivalent second half heard in the trailer of "The Seven-Ups" (1973) to better match the original master of the sound effect, giving the sound the correct tailoff that is commonly heard in its earliest movie/TV Show appearances
The original crashing sound file from the PC Port of "Driver: You Are The Wheelman". Originally in .WAV format, but was later converted to .OGG for uploading. Compared to the sound effect listed above, which is supposed to represent the original master, this one is a bit truncated at the end. This particular version of the sound was actually recorded from the parking garage scene in The Driver (1978).
An alternate recording of the sound that was found on a sound effects website back in 2010. This particular sound file was originally titled "crashit.wav", but it was changed to "Crash-hit.ogg" instead, as to avoid the name being suspected to have a curse in it despite the original name being the 2 words "crash" and "hit" mixed together.
An audio file containing a seemingly closer to master copy of the sound, recorded from the ending of the movie Vanishing Point (1971). The original .wav file was in the Cinesound Sound Effects Library, hinting that it could also be a Cinesound sound byte.
Clean, Full Length and Unedited Link to the Sound Effect[]
So far the closest to the original master copy as anyone can get on Sound Effects Wiki, or anywhere on the Internet for that matter. If anybody has a much better sounding version, PLEASE let me know. Thank you very much.