<P> Nineteen - year - old Alexandra Paul was cast in the film after audition in New York City; according to Carpenter, Paul was an "untrained, young actress" at the time, but brought a "great quality" about the character of Leigh . According to Paul, she had not read any of King's books or seen Carpenter's films, and read the novel in preparation . </P> <P> Christine was shot largely in Los Angeles, California, while the location for Darnell's garage was located in Santa Clarita . Filming began in April 1983, merely days after the King novel had been published . The film's stunts were primarily completed by stunt coordinator Terry Leonard, who was behind the wheel of the car during the high - speed chase scenes, as well as the scene in which the car drives down a highway engulfed in flames . </P> <P> Although the car in the film is identified as a 1958 Plymouth Fury--and in 1983 radio ads promoting the film, voiceover artists announced, "she's a' 57 Fury"--two other Plymouth models, the Belvedere and the Savoy, were also used to portray the malevolent automobile onscreen . John Carpenter placed ads throughout Southern California searching for models of the car, and was able to purchase twenty - four of them in various states of disrepair, which were used to build a total of seventeen models of the Fury . </P> <P> Total production for the 1958 Plymouth Fury was only 5,303, and they were difficult to find and expensive to buy at the time . In addition, the real - life Furys only came in one color, "Buckskin Beige", seen on the other Furys on the assembly line during the initial scenes of the movie . The Fury also got anodized gold trim on the body and Fury script on the rear fender . In order to bypass the problem of obtaining the rare trim, the cars featured the more common Belvedere "Dartline" trim . Several vehicles were destroyed during filming, but most of the cars were Savoy and Belvedere models dressed to look like the Fury . At least one' 57 Savoy was used, its front end modified to look like a' 58 . </P>

How many cars were used to film christine