Continuity mistake: When Dean Martin's car passes the military-looking Imperial, his red Corvette is suddenly a red and silver Dodge Daytona. It switches back to the red 'Vette in the car's next shot.
Continuity mistake: This is a mistake that goes on through the entire movie; mix-up with cars. There is, for example, a very special yellow sports car parked at the beach where the start of the race began. Later in the movie the two girls borrow this car from a mechanic, who is obviously not in the race, and would not have been at the beach. Even later the yellow car breaks down, and the two girls borrow a tow truck, leaving the yellow car behind. Some scenes later, there is a shot of a medley of cars coming down the road, and the yellow car is one of them. But how can this be, since the yellow car broke down a few scenes earlier? There is also a shot of Fenderbaum and Blake passing J.J. and Victor in their Dodge Daytona. The problem is that for the entire movie Fenderbaum and Blake was driving a Corvette, NOT a Daytona. The Daytona, however, is the car that Frank Sinatra uses for the last 10 minutes of the movie.
Continuity mistake: The car that JJ and Victor use in the race is a specially modified Chrysler Imperial. In a couple of scenes, the car changes from an Imperial to a Cadillac Seville.
Continuity mistake: Just before Martin and Davis Jr. do a 180-degree turn in front of two patrol cars, the police are driving Dodge St. Regis sedans (seen from inside through the back window). But the following exterior shot shows the patrol cars are suddenly Chevrolet Caprice sedans. Also, the scenery to our right goes from open desert with low plants along the road, to very tall plants and lots of telephone poles. (00:58:10)
Continuity mistake: Fred Dreyer's police car has a Code3 light bar with a red driver's side and blue passenger's side in the longer shots of Fred driving it. Each time the shot changes to a close-up of Fred and his partner through the windshield the light bar changes to a Federal Twinsonic which is visibly not running, and the passenger-side dome is yellow.
Chosen answer: It's called a "Nova" (but not as in the Chevy Nova). It's a kit car, in the U.S. and for the film, it was made by the Sterling Sports Car company. Although the Nova kit car originated with the English company Automotive Design and Development Ltd.
Bishop73