With still another sequel to the “The Fast and the Furious” movies due out any day, the Internet is abuzz with balloting for favorite car movies.

The consensus seems to be the furious Mustang-Charger chase in “Bullitt.”

It was the second-best car chase movie of all time, after all, and we all loved that roaring 1968 Mustang Fastback, especially when it was driven by hypercool Steve McQueen.

The best car chase scene, of course, is in “The French Connection” when Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) races an elevated train, of all things. I can still see that lady with the stroller walking in front of the determined and speeding Doyle. It was the best car chase, but it was done with a comparatively drab 1971 Pontiac LeMans which was, of course, smashed to bits.

Weak.

A close competitor in car movies was the totally original “Mad Max” which introduced mainstream audiences to Mel Gibson (He refused an interview when he was in Rockport. Not one of my favorites.) to people outside Australia. For the record, those souped-up police cars were Australian Ford Falcon coupes, of all things. Only Gibson could make a Falcon cool.

You had to love the battered 1974 Dodge Monaco in “The Blues Brothers” that led the entire Chicago police force through a shattered mall, but that was more satire than serious. And we are serious people and serious voters.

When they get my ballot they will realize just how old I am.

For me, the best car movie was “Rebel Without a Cause.” The cars co-starred with such luminaries as James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo and even Dennis Hopper (honest to God). We were all just getting our first cars then and you had to wear a leather jacket if you had any pretensions to cool. Dean invented cool.

When Jim Stark (Dean) goes to a new high school, he meets the local gang and, naturally, gets to show just who is boss. In those days, the boys stole cars for a “chickie run” to settle arguments. This activity concludes with the hot cars flying off a California cliff into the Pacific. The idea is that the first one to jump out is a “chickie.”

In a scene I have seen 100 times now, Dean races the gang leader “Buzz” (Corey Allen) to certain death. Dean rolls out of his 1946 Ford Super Deluxe but Buzz gets a strap from his leather jacket caught on the door handle and he can’t get out of his 1941 Chevrolet Special Deluxe before it disappears over the edge.

Dean gets up laughing and asks: “Where’s Buzz?”

All right. Compared to today’s computer games, it is tame indeed. But you had to be there. In its day, it was as good as the car chase in “The French Connection.” All right, I am old.

Another favorite movie car which burned its way into my fevered brain was another Mustang, a 1965 Mustang GT 289 driven in the classy “A Man and a Woman.” Race car driver Jean-Louis Trintignant puts his beloved on a train to Paris, then races to meet her at the other end. The fact that the woman is the staggeringly beautiful Anouk Aimee makes his urgency understandable. The soundtrack helps too. Bon.

Another classic pairing of car and soundtrack was the 1966 Alfa Romeo 1600 Spider driven by Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate.” The car and the song “Mrs. Robinson” are forever connected in my movie brain. We all wanted an Alfa, but settled for assorted and battered MGs and Triumphs when we could find them and afford them.

I told you I was old.

It was hard leaving those wonderful movies in my 1955 black and yellow Dodge with bullet holes (real) and going back to grim, grim reality.

But those movie cars made it fun while the fantasy lasted.

The ballot, please.

Send complaints and compliments to Emmet Meara at emmetmeara@msn.com.