Every Car In 'Fast & Furious' Series Explained By The Guy Who Built Them | WIRED

Hi, I'm Dennis McCarthy, the guy behind the vehicles in the Fast and Furious franchise. I'm going to talk about all the important cars from the 95 Eclipse franchise, yeah, that was Brian's car in the first movie, I think at the time, you know? the paint was great,

every

thing about it, I think it really fits his character and I think it's a car that, you know, Paul Walker would have driven a '70 Dodge Charger. I mean, this is a car I can drive for hours . I think that car is really more of a character in the franchise than just a vehicle, it's a car with the supercharger, the bug catcher.

Over the years I've tried to always keep that

them

e consistent with

every

thing Dom drives as part of the franchise and definitely part of Dom, so the 94 super is also a car that I think is very iconic for the franchise. . I mean, you know, it seems like the cars that get a ridiculous amount of attention would be that uber and Dom's charger and it really all comes up. From that final sequence of those guys facing off, I love the pitch. I love watching the tires wrinkle on Dom's charger and that the Supra had pretty much everything you could do to a Supra at the time.

Mazda RX7, I think the rotary engine was unique. uh RPM capabilities are one of my favorite imports. I'll bring him back to the franchise later. My favorite aspect was when uh Dom lifts up the seat cushion and has the multiple miniature nitrous bottles. I thought it was awesome. moment in the very first 97 Nissan 240, yeah, that was a cool car, you see yourself racing that thing in Race Wars in the year the first Fast and Furious came out, that car was huge, it was nice. from that transition from muscle cars to the beginning of the import scene 1994 Acura Integra very easy to modify car there were a lot of parts available that you could buy, you know, intake kits, exhaust kits, camshafts, clutch kits, that It's a car that was really part of that big import racing movement in the '90s, the Hauna 2000, the first movie was so heavy on imports and that's what it was really about, the S2000 was another car, it was very agile, very

fast

. it ran great off the assembly line from the factory but with just a few minor modifications you got a real bright purple 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse, it had these gigantic polished wheels on which I think Roman or actually we'll say Tyrese, you know , was very involved in I.

I think they went through three or four different wheel options, although the car doesn't fit my personal taste. I know that car was exactly what Roma wanted to drive, and as far as the movie goes, I have to say it was a perfect 69 Yanko when I saw Fasty Fous. I'm going, man, now that thing is absolutely incredible and it's sitting here with us today. The car has been restored from front to back. It has more than 500 horsepower. It has a Bor Warer super T10 12 bolt. All key ingredients. Historic muscle car, the GTR I. I think there has been a GTR in every movie.

It's one of those cars that was ahead of its time. The performance is incredible. All-wheel drive, as I said, is something that is part of the franchise from the beginning to who knows another Honda. S2000 was modified beyond normal, it actually had a supercharger and that car can literally burn the tires during the first three and a half gears. I don't really like being seen driving a pink car, but the power makes up for it. So the Mitsubishi uh Lancer Fast and Furious franchise really helped launch that vehicle to be so popular that it went back to switching from all-wheel drive to rear-wheel drive, maybe 20% rear-wheel drive.

You know, we've done a lot. of work with those cars, hopefully one day Mitsubishi will come out with something similar again because somehow they got away from that performance, I feel like the originals, you know, the lancers and the evos had, but, great car, the S15, this It was a perfect car, I mean, when we went to do Tokyo Drift we went to Japan, basically, every car show we went to, every drift event we went to, it seemed like 40 50% of the vehicles there, you know, they would be an S14 or an S15 syvia, they are very easy to make. drifting or going

fast

or doing whatever you want to do it's almost basically like the car was designed to become a drift car and today if you go to a drift event, they're everywhere, they put LS Motors on these things, they put everything in

them

, so the Veilside Mazda RX7 was everywhere, it was in all the magazines and we were able to make a deal with Veilside for their one and only hero car.

The sad thing is of course we had to change the color so it's almost painful when you get a car that probably has a $3 $40,000 paint job the orange worked great it actually showed up on the screen we ended up building I think six other replicas of that car I take into account, we

built

nine, we had to build another complete set for Japan too, but the only car that was our hero card that came directly from Veilside had around 600 horsepower and​ ​a gigantic turbocharger and I just remember one night in the lower Grand where I literally had that car on its side just blowing out the rear tires.

Probably for 300 feet, so once again, we bring back the Evo in Tokyo Drift which, like I said, was just a car we had to have and that was the one that was completely converted to full rear-wheel drive, it just didn't happen. we did. I got to do a lot with the engine, I mean we did some computer work, some exhaust work, but other than that it ran great as is, the '67 Mustang when I read the Tokyo Drift script, the Mustang opened up a great opportunity to do something different, in fact we used the R34 engine in Han in Silia.

The interesting thing is that we actually

built

this car, it was 100% functional, we actually did a lot of drag racing testing, you know, and it worked. Think about a 130 at 114 mph, 130 doesn't sound that impressive, but you have to realize we had tires set up for drifting, they were very hard compounds, so they burned the rubber for, you know, for half a quarter of a mile like I said. that everything you see on the screen is real, the shots where the cars are driving without hoods, we have the camera, it was a shot that I begged for just because I said, look, no one is going to believe that this car really works unless you We actually showed up with the hood off, so you know we were pretty proud of ourselves because it was a unique vehicle in Tokyo Drift.

We actually had a VW van and this car was for Twinkie Twinkie was a little guy, you know, he looked like. harmless enough, but when you make him mad he goes crazy, so that's really the story behind the VW truck, the Buick Grand National from Fast and Furious, it's a car that was built in an era when American performance was really at one of the all-time lows, but the Grand National somehow broke through with its turbocharged V6. It was a car that with very minor modifications could achieve 12C quarter mile times and what we really did was just lower the car to the ground.

A little further, I put some black NASCAR type wheels on it and it became one of my favorites, so a quick four of us jumped into another Subaru for Brian. I read the script and said: Hello, they're driving in Mexico. Through dirt roads I said oh hey, this has to be a rally car. Subaru came over and said, hey, we'd love to help you, we basically put in a roll cage, you know, changed the paint, wheels and tires, removed the whole computer. things that prevent us from doing the stunts we need to do and boom, we're ready to go, so everyone survived until the end, where we had to throw them out of a tunnel.

I think we pretty much destroyed everyone we had, but uh, you know, the car ran perfectly, like they always do, the R34, you know, once again, this car just keeps going around and around and around and around and around and around. one reason why they are so cool, I mean the horizon. the GTR I think is at the top of the list Paul Walker himself actually had one. He has a 1970 Chevel SS R34 that is one of my favorites. I drive a 68 SS Chevel myself. It worked for his daily tram when the challenge arose. to enter the race he had to modify it, you know, once again overnight, it basically became the gray primer version with the American Racing M Wheels car that featured a big block four-speed manual, pretty cool on all levels , the 71 Skyline, one of the worst positions. you can put yourself as a launch car coordinator to have a vintage car that needs to be run and driven every day and that's exactly what we did because it was obviously a car that I couldn't duplicate unless I know, I flew one from Japan. everything we could to prepare the vehicle and we were driving that car and you know, I think it was 100° hot, you know, it falls into that category of uh, the perfect car for that scene, the girka military vehicle, this is a car that when uh Hobs is introduced into the franchise in five.

You needed something that fit his character and when I saw Girk I thought: you know, man, it's not going to get any better, this is perfect, he's big, he's burly, he's mean, he walks through walls. drives through houses we actually had one that was legit and then we had a couple that were basically fake without all the armor and everything else just made them a little more agile so we had a couple of you know what I'll do. We called lightweight stunt versions to go with that, so 2011 Dodge has always been a big supporter of the franchise and they had just released a whole new model and we were basically working with a lot of prototype cars, if you notice. one car has the red and the blue, you know, and uh, that wasn't written, somehow they just turned on by mistake, but you know, later, looking at the pictures, you know who Roman would be the guy who turned red. and blues on, so we leave it as is to enter our Heist Chargers vault.

We basically assume that the team has taken the police cars that they have stolen and, you know, turns them into these vehicles to drag that Vault through uh. through the streets of Rio, which were actually the streets of Puerto Rico and I tell you about those moments in the franchise in which we destroyed a ridiculous amount of things that are there at the top. I think the fate of the Furious might surpass that. the zombie car scene, but I'm telling you we probably put over 150 cars in the junkyard filming that segment here, we open and they're on Mountain Road and this was an amazing scene where we filmed this on Tanner Reef.

On this road that was much more dangerous than it actually looked and seemed quite dangerous, it was actually quite a contrast. I think about GTR and Chan going toe to toe with Domond, Dom and Bran, which is different. than the usual, you know, Fast and Furious StraightLine Drag Race. So the Dodge Daytona, this is a car that I really wanted to build. I've mentioned it several times in the past. I didn't really get anywhere with it, but when it came to this. movie, there was a brief moment when we were going to go out on the Autobon.

I said, do you know what happens if we go on the Autobon? We have to have a Dodge Daytona, it's a car that has the aerodynamics to keep up with, you know, the European super. cars I said that makes a lot of sense, well the story got diverted, the locations changed, but the car still remained, it's not a replica of an original charger, it's kind of my own version where we stick our nose back, obviously, we hit the car against the ground. it just simplified everything to six, we had a scene where it was like a government version of a charger, so I had a lot of fun with that, we basically did something like a battleship gray paint scheme, you know, once again we lowered them, we change it.

Until you like a 20 inch Mopar wheel, there's really not much you can do to the outside of that car because they're great as is and you try to modify them and they just don't look right and eh. It looked like a car that Hobs would have built at the military facility for the crew, so the Ford Escort Mark 1. This is a car that is one of my favorites. When I went to the UK I realized very quickly that it's like the Dodge Cuda of the UK, these cars are so popular there that when we got our pit crew, which were the local guys, I couldn't get them to work on anything more than that car, if we used the set, maybe we would have a Dodge Daytona. an Enzo Ferrari and we would have the escort, all the local fans, you know, and the people walking the streets would instantly flock to the escort, so I will say that the UK team made those cars as authentic as they look on the screen, I mean everything.

Right down to the correct valve cover, folding car, this was a really interesting car. I mean, there are cars that we build that are, you know, a modification of something else and there are cars that we built from scratch and that's Sly, one that came from scratch. Justin came. To me he said: Hello, I want to build a car that can run its vehicles and launch them into the air. I told him, it's amazing, it's a great idea and they were completelyfunctional. They had a 500 horsepower LS engine and a 400V triple drive unit. So the side of the engine in the rear, uh, supplied power to a Dana 60 front axle from a Chevy truck and the rear steering was basically a system which, you know, they stole from the monster truck industry, where you had a toggle switch that could uh, self-center or hold that angle for as long as you want.

I think it was ideal for Shaw to drive it. It kind of showed Shaw's technical side and what he really was about the Jensen Interceptor is a car that Michelle Rodriguez still gives me. I had a bad time today she really didn't like that car at all she said this car is ugly I don't want to drive it I said look this car is perfect there is nothing better you are in love Lon you have lost your I remember there was no other option. I was totally alone. I was set dead. I said this has to be in the movie, it's the right car, there is nothing that matches your character at this time and in this location more than the Jensen Interceptor, so the Navaar military truck, it cool with that truck it was real. one that was loaned to us from Navaar had every single part or modification you would discover in the middle of a hostile military environment that required a ridiculous amount of abuse.

I mean, you'd be surprised what they put in that truck and it never, you know, never flinched once the Ford Mustang this is a car that was originally built by Pure Vision. That car probably cost anywhere from $700,000 to a million dollar vehicle. We had to build several replicas, but hey, the hero. the car that you see in all the close-ups the hero car that you see with the hood off at the team headquarters, you know, the headquarters was the real, you know, Anvil Mustang built by Pure Vision, the car. The community recognizes them, they know the car, they know where. it came from what they saw at the SEMA show, they saw it in magazines, so it's cool that there are cars like that, you know, from other builders that we can borrow to, you know, keep it exciting, so, uh, 2012 GTR at the end of Fast 6 this is the moment, you know, the end of the movie there's not a lot of action.

I want to go out and try to find the best par car I can and the only problem arose when we arrived. to the set and they said, okay, we want, we want Brian to pull into the driveway and it was like, oh God, the driveway was just a gnarly approach angle and we made it, but then of course, you know, when I saw the movie, that part was cut. but we made it happen, the 67 Camaro. We did a lot of modifications to make this car off-road worthy, you know. Millan, uh, did the roll cage, the seats, the suspension of the rally car, we had to give this car more boost, basically, while we were filming the sequence at Pikes Peak, where we were obviously starving for air, we turned up the Boost as much as Could you know that we still use the original internal engine components?

You know, as always, that the car was impeccable, it never misses a beat, it starts every time, compensates for the altitude and gets the job done. I think it would disappoint all fans of the franchise if Brian wasn't in a GTR at some point in the movie Brian is a little mature now he's a little older so we toned down the modification we just did a little minimal carbon fiber treatment uh we changed the seats we changed the exhaust system A good friend of mine, John, comes in and reprograms the system to basically divert 90% of the power to the rear tires and 10% to the front, which is strictly his so we can get those huge scam scenes characteristic of the supervisor.

I've always had in the franchise the Toyota Super uh 95 it's a car that was a really significant moment for me because this was after Paul Walker passed away, filming wasn't completed and the scene where you know, the script was basically rewritten where I had this kind of separation between Dom and Brian, so it was essential that I found the two best possible cars I could, one of them being the Maximus Charger, which I saw in its raw, widened and bodied finish that had more than 2,000 horsepower. The only downside was that it wasn't finished yet, the Supra was actually Paul Walker's personal car and I think it was the right ending for that movie to have Dom and Brian and those two vehicles, the Challenger and seven that Lety drives. it's a car that, you know, once again takes Lety to her Mopar routes, they were basically a six-speed SRT8 manual transmission, as we added a locking differential, a better clutch just to handle the abuse of all the stunt work , some aggressive bumpers. raising the stance to handle the plane falling and the wing at the rear was basically an afterthought, it was a story point.

I love the car. Michelle Rodriguez loved the car and she definitely looked great on screen, so she hypersported this car. It was really difficult for me, you know, when I read the script, I think, Oh my God, this is Dubai, these guys, you know, they drive a Lamborghini Aventador, you know, they go to Starbucks in the morning, what am I going to present? What can I put in this guy's? You know, Penthouse, someone on the team did it. Look at this. I went, my God. I read about the car. There is nothing better than this. It is the first supercar produced in the United Arab Emirates and they are only going to build seven.

The high T price, I think $3.7 million, but it was really disappointing that only seven were produced and only seven guys were going to have it, you know, once I met the guys at uh, you know from Lyen, we had a meeting to discuss the car. what they could do for us, we really had no way to create these cars because we had no mol, we had no CAD data, so they actually built us, the bodies gave us some rollers, you know, basically, on a Porsche box or chassis , everything was. Real production quality, uh, right under the skin, it was, you know, it wasn't a 200 mph car, but luckily we only drove inside a building, so I think 35 was the fastest we ever had.

The fleet line is Chevy. One of my favorites. I really love the Fastback body style. You know, it just sets it apart. Doms, the underdog, arrives at this situation. You know, half the horsepower of your competitor and all you have to rely on is your handling. skill and his knowledge of cars we have the nitrous gag we have the valve we show how Dom hooks it all up and it all makes sense so the ice charger is another one of these uh none of these vehicles that are basically partially designed by the task at hand I thought , okay, cool, we're on Ice, you know what we can do, what we can do, what's the right car with dom, you always gravitate towards you, you know the 68 to 70 Charger is kind of a home base shape, right? and?

Can I do to that car to make it just bad and then the other key factor is of course making it all-wheel drive? You know you can nail tires, you can do it if you can, but a two-wheel drive car comes at a huge cost. Disadvantage on ice: All ARs are custom made. Basically, the engine is moved almost 2 feet away to make room for a front differential. We had to widen the track to make room for the CV axles. The final product really did exactly what we wanted to do. It's one of the few cars that we took to my first test session and, of all the cars that I built for the franchise, it's probably my, you know, my new favorite of all time, so the circular saw is something that I had seen in In the past, uh, I had seen YouTube videos of this vehicle in action.

When you look at the Ripa, it's actually not that big. I mean, it's probably smaller than a Chevy Suburban. You know, it's like, we always have cool cars and trucks. but now we actually brought him a tank, so like I said, it was fun, so there you have it. I hope you enjoyed going over a little history of the cars in the franchise, be sure to check out the destination. of the Furious you're going to love it