Welcome to Thursday Trivia where we offer up a historical automotive trivia question and you try and solve it before seeing the answer after the jump. It’s like a history test, with cars! 

This week’s question:  What notable Silicon Valley tech icon had a bit part in the cult car movie Vanishing Point?

Make the jump to see if you’re right.

The 1971 action flick Vanishing Point is indelibly burned into the minds of most car nuts, both for the high-speed shenanigans and the laconic personality of its anti-hero protagonist, known only as Kowalski.

Here’s a fun fact about Vanishing Point, the actor who played the pill-popping and law enforcement-evading lead – Barry Newman – went on to be the voice of that paragon of safety and sobriety, the Automobile Club of Southern California. It’s nice to know at least that Kowalski finally made it to the Golden State.

Another interesting piece of trivia about Vanishing Point is that a giant of the emerging ’70s Silicon Valley tech industry appeared as an extra in the film.

From MacWorld UK:

In 1971, Woz appeared briefly as an extra (he played a hippie) in car chase movie “Vanishing Point”.

Steve Wozniak – builder of the Apple 1, circuit designer extraordinaire, and the only one of the two Steves who founded Apple Computer that pretty much everybody liked –  also had the notable experience of appearing (uncredited) in one of car culture’s most revered films.

Back when Vanishing Point was made, fully 43 years ago, the icon of personal freedom was the car, and teenagers couldn’t wait to get their license and a set of wheels. Today, the image of freedom and socialization is no longer the automobile, but the Internet and the many social networks that it has engendered. That makes Woz, and his bit role in Vanishing Point, a fitting totem for the change in social conventions.

Image source: nndb