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Having generated more than $7 billion at the worldwide box office since 2001, there’s no denying that The Fast and Furious series has become one of Hollywood’s most successful franchises. From the world of street racing to armed robbery and everything in between, audiences have been captivated with high-speed chases, spectacular stunts, adrenaline pumping action and nail-biting vehicular mayhem.
With exotic locations, fast cars, slick editing and action, the popularity of the Fast and Furious movies is unquestionable. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker have become household names from playing protagonists Dominic Toretto and Brian O’Connor, and so too have many cars and manufacturers. As the tenth instalment is released – aptly titled Fast X, I take a look at some of the cars that have featured throughout the series – from American muscle to exotic imports.
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With its classic design and impressive power, there is no car more recognisable from the series than Dom’s iconic 1970 Dodge Charger R/T. Appearing in several instalments and loved by fans, the Charger became the signature of the franchise. Introduced in 2001, Dom vows never to drive his Father’s Charger. Famed for its on screen 900bhp turbocharged V8, the car is called into action as Dom chases down his friend’s killers. At the end, he races Brian in a ‘quarter mile’, just missing a freight train but is hit by a truck. Rolling several times, the Charger is totalled. In reality, three custom rear-wheel Chargers were built and fitted with a 7.2-litre, V8 Hemi powertrain, producing 425bhp, 0-60mph in 5 seconds and a top speed of 145mph. The Charger reappears in 2009’s Fast and Furious, where Dom takes it across the Mexican border in search of a Drug Kingpin ultimately meeting a fiery end during a chase before reappearing in 2011’s Fast Five to break Dom out of a moving prison bus. For the two movies, six Chargers were built with four surviving.
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Resurrected for 2015’s Furious 7, this time modified for off-roading, the Charger is driven out a transporter plane in mid-air. Dom uses it to take out terrorists on a mountain pass before escaping by driving down a cliff – destroying the car. With some movie magic, it’s fixed and used later to take out the villain’s helicopter. Eleven ‘off-road’ Chargers were designed with many being written off. At the end of the movie, we’re introduced to a 1968 Dodge Charger Maximus with a massive 2,000bhp twin-turbo Hemi V8. Producers decided to sedately use this model for the touching finale. 2017’s Fate of the Furious saw the Charger become an “Ice-Charger”, kitted out for Arctic weather, whilst evading missiles and a submarine, and 2021’s F9 saw the customized Charger used in a chase through the streets of Edinburgh, before being transported to Georgia for the climactic chase. For F9, the Charger was fitted with a carbon fibre chassis, a Lamborghini gearbox and an 800bhp Hellcat powertrain!
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Another iconic car from the Fast franchise is the Nissan Skyline GT-R. The R34-generation is driven by Paul Walker’s character, Brian O’Connor, at the beginning of 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious. The all-wheel drive super coupe takes part in a four-way street race, before crashing. If you watch the race closely, you’ll see the intelligent rear-steering system in operation, allowing the car to perform intricate manoeuvres. A 2002 R34 GT-R model was used in 2009’s Fast and Furious. Featuring a 2.6-litre, twin-turbo straight six powertrain, twinned with a six-speed manual, the car was used in an elaborate street chase sequence. The car comes to a fiery end when it’s blown up in an ambush by the villains. Six Skylines were used for production with two being destroyed. The R34 would go on to become the signature car of Paul Walker’s character, Brian, so much so, Walker himself ended up owning the car. With its power and handling capabilities, the Skyline GT-R is considered one of the best cars ever made. Its 2.6-litre, twin-turbo straight six is itself viewed as iconic, with its highly customized powertrain producing 447bhp. Renowned for his driving skills, and a keen race driver in his own right, Walker performed many of his own driving stunts throughout the franchise.
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The third instalment in the franchise – The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift, features an array of cars but one stands out more than others. When Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) arrives in Tokyo to stay with his father he finds him restoring a 1967 Ford Mustang. The American muscle car has had its engine swapped with an RB26 – a 2.6-litre, twin turbo, straight six powertrain, the same used in Paul Walker’s Nissan Skyline GT-R. It’s not often you’ll find the American pony coupled with a Japanese domestic car powertrain. In the final scenes of the movie, Sean takes part in a winner-takes-all drift challenge along a dangerous mountain pass. Pitted against souped up Japanese sports cars with nitro, the Mustang is seen as a laughingstock. However, with the American muscle car flat out and some neat driving, it drifts like a champion beating the rivals. Officially the Mustang produced 340bhp, which is more than the vehicle the powertrain originated from. Six ’67 Mustangs were used throughout production. Despite being capable of going sideways on-screen, all of the actual drifting scenes were done by five specially adapted stunt cars, all of which were powered by a 403 cubic-inch V8 crate powertrain.
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2015’s Furious 7 saw the onscreen appearance of one of the world’s rarest cars – the Lykan HyperSport. The 2014 W Motors Lebanese sports car appeared in the movie for only a few minutes, but its impact was immeasurable. Given the fact that only seven cars exist, the ultra-limited model is one of the world’s most expensive at $3.4million. Dom and Brian put the car to the test when they steal it from within a skyscraper in Abu-Dhabi. The only problem is, they must drive it at speed into an adjacent skyscraper! The car performs the leap admirably but is smashed up in the process. With a top speed of 245mph, the carbon-fibre composite chassis is fitted with a Porsche 3.7 litre, twin-turbo, flat-six powertrain, producing almost 800bhp, which helps project the car from 0-62mph in 2.8 seconds! Its titanium LED blade headlights are encrusted with over 400 individual diamonds, though rubies and sapphires are optional. Thankfully, the producers realised it’s worth and had ten replicas made for production – only one survived. The Lykan made from one of the most exotic cars in the franchise.
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It's not everyday you see a 1970 Ford Escort MK1 RS1600 outrunning a tank, keeping up with muscle cars and performing jumps and stunts, well, in Fast and Furious 6, that’s exactly what happens. Tej (Ludacris) purchases the car from a London auction, and during the centre piece chase sequence in Spain, Brian drives the Escort as part of an ensemble cast trying to stop the villain’s tank. During the tank pursuit, Brian launches the car from a makeshift ramp and across a bridge, to rescue his friend Roman (Tyrese Gibson) from being crushed by the tank. In the daring move, Roman manages to grab onto the Escort and help Brian stop the tank. Oozing cool and swinging 70’s appeal, the Escort stood out in the explosive chase sequence. The popular British car was an unlikely entry into the Fast and Furious motoring world, but one the fans adored. A renowned rally car, the Escort RS1600 featured a 1.6 litre Cosworth, in-line four, rally-spec suspension and chassis along with cold-air intakes, producing 115bhp. Despite being a relatively minor car in the franchise, its appearance made an impact and provided a resurgence in the 70’s model.
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Another remarkable vehicle that features in 2013’s Fast and Furious 6 is the unique flip car. You read that right, a flip car. It’s one of the most out-there vehicles ever featured in the Fast franchise. Loosely based on an F1 car, the flip car was built especially for the production. Two flip cars were made and are driven on-screen by Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) and one his colleague, Vegh. They take part in an elaborate chase through the streets of London, where the four-wheel steering machine flips pursuing cars. Designed with a steep raked metal plate across its front and a low centre of gravity, anything it collides with is flipped over. Dom and crew are their targets as are several police cars which are dispatched with after encountering them and fly through the air. One of the cars is destroyed in the end runway finale sequence. The actual flip cars used a massive 480bhp turbo charged powertrain, with customised framing, V-drive transmission system (which is derived from a speedboat) and suspension from a Chevrolet Suburban. Despite its skeleton like appearance, they weighed almost two tons. All in, quite the mix, but one that made a great impact in the Fast and Furious world, and all the stunts were performed for real on camera.
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At the time of the 2001 original The Fast and The Furious, car tuning culture was huge, and there wasn’t a better car to personify that than the iconic Toyota Supra MK IV. Whilst undercover in the original movie, Brian’s Mitsubishi Eclipse is destroyed by Jonny Tran (Rick Yune) and as such Dom owes him a ’10-second car’. He supplies him with a junked 1994 Toyota Supra MK IV which they restore. What makes this special, is that it plays an integral role in helping build a bond between the two main protagonists. Sceptical about its performance, Brian tests it and ends up beating a Ferrari along a highway. Towards the end of the movie, Brian uses the Supra to rescue Vince – who’s hanging from the front of a semi-truck when one of their heists goes wrong. It’s also used in the showdown of the villain and then raced against Dom’s charger at the end, which ultimately crashes. Brian gives Dom the keys to the Supra and he drives away in it. The MK IV was fitted with a powerful 2JZ-GTE 3.0-litre, inline six-cylinder powertrain which produced over 340bhp with 0-60mph in a swift 4.3 seconds. In a fitting tribute, following the death of Paul Walker in real life, the final car we see him driving off into the sunset in, in Furious 7, is none other than a Toyota Supra MK IV.
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The 1970 Plymouth Road Runner played an important but minor role in the franchise. Although not as well-known as the Charger, the Plymouth appeared in multiple instalments. First appearing in The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift being driven briefly by Dom as he meets Sean towards the end of the movie, it then appears in 2009’s Fast and Furious being driven by Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) as she escapes villains on a mountain road. She’s run off the road and the car is set alight. Reappearing in 2015’s Furious 7, Dom uses the car in a drift race alongside Sean – flashback from Tokyo Drift. Another Road Runner is then used in the same movie, this time in Los Angeles, where Dom uses it to chase Jason Statham’s character. In the showdown, they end up playing a game of chicken without the other moving out the way, resulting in both cars crashing head-on. Several stunt cars were built for the car’s appearances throughout the franchise. With its sleek styling and retro looks the Road Runner developed a mass fanbase. The car was fitted with a 4.2-litre V8 powertrain, producing a mighty 390bhp with 664Nm of torque.
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One of the two more unique vehicles from the Franchise appeared in 2011’s Fast Five and 2013’s Fast and Furious 6 - both of which are driven by Dwayne Johnson’s DSS character, Luke Hobbs. The Gurkha LAPV is a Canadian manufactured armoured military vehicle is used in two important sequences in the former movie. Firstly, when the Diplomatic Security Services raid Dom’s place in Rio – resulting in the Gurkha smashing into Dom’s Charger, and secondly in a street ambush where Dom, Brian and Luke use the Gurkha as cover whilst engaged in a lengthy shoot-out. The 6.7-litre, V8 delivered 325bhp and over 1000Nm of torque. Smashing cars, breaking through walls, and crushing anything that dared cross its path, the Gurkha made from a memorable screen debut.
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The second vehicle is a Navistar MXT – a Military Extreme armoured Truck developed by Navistar Defence. It’s used in an elaborate chase through the streets of London whilst pursuing Owen Shaw in the flip car. Despite its size, it’s agile and nimble enough to avoid on-coming police cars flying through air before Luke jumps from the moving truck onto the flip car. With an operational range of 400 miles and weighing several tons, its 6 metres long and 2.5 metres wide size, made it an unlikely chase vehicle.
You can bet Fast X will bring us equally unrivalled action sequences and for car enthusiasts, be prepared from an array of muscle, exotic and imports to whet your appetite.
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