greg1647545532 Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 15 years on, how many of these cars are still the "go to" ones for the tuner world? Something I never noticed before that would absolutely be missing from a re-film today is the Subaru brand. Maybe I missed it but is there even 1 in the original film? The WRX was barely out at the time and hadn't really taken off with tuners, and in North America Subaru was basically the Outback company. The whole import drag scene never made any sense, even though I was a part of it and I loved (and still love) the versatility and cost to operate of those old Civics. That's one of the things that makes this movie so endearing, I think. There's no Mustangs or Camaros out there making everyone look like idiots for spending 30 grand to run 12s. It's so innocent. The one RWD V8 car in the whole movie is declared to be "too scary for even Dominic Toretto to drive." Even though it'd almost be mundane at your typical Friday night drags. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geeto67 Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 15 years on, how many of these cars are still the "go to" ones for the tuner world? Something I never noticed before that would absolutely be missing from a re-film today is the Subaru brand. Maybe I missed it but is there even 1 in the original film? I didn't make it, on my way out the door I got snagged for a work project and ended up leaving really late. I think there is a subaru 2.5RS in the background of one of the street racing scenes. the movie came out 2 years before the WRX hit the US market and subaru rose to relevance in the performance car marketplace. I think a lot of those cars have just aged out of the marketplace now and you don't see people doing much with them anymore. The one that never made sense to me was the nissan maxima. I think Letty drives a maxima so that's a pretty bold statement that it was a performance car but i personally have never heard of or seen a "tuner" maxima. Were ricer maximas really a thing back in 2001? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg1647545532 Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 The one that never made sense to me was the nissan maxima. I think Letty drives a maxima so that's a pretty bold statement that it was a performance car but i personally have never heard of or seen a "tuner" maxima. Were ricer maximas really a thing back in 2001? Letty drives an S14 (?), Vince the Villain drives the Maxima and does a really sweet FWD burnout while making choo choo noises. Turbo V6 Maxima? Best not to wonder about these things The Jetta also stuck out to me, Jesse's dad's Jetta no less. Visualize the win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geeto67 Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 Vince the Villain drives the Maxima and does a really sweet FWD burnout while making choo choo noises. Turbo V6 Maxima? Best not to wonder about these things That somehow makes it hilariously better and worse at the same time. Thanks to google here are the specs on the actual car and two things stand out: 1) the price of the mods (if the link is to be believed) are as much if not more than the actual car, 2) Stillen had a shit ton of performance parts for a 4th gen maxima http://maxima.org/forums/4th-generation-maxima-1995-1999/36531-here-specs-maxima-fast-furious.html The Jetta also stuck out to me, Jesse's dad's Jetta no less. Visualize the win. I had friends that were MKIV VW people so actually that is more believable to me. Actually, now that I think about it one of my old buddy's girlfriends was way into a MK2 jetta GLi (with factory recaro seats!!! she always used to remind me). Whatever, VW people are weird. Jesse was I think the most relate-able character to teenagers in that film. They all wanted to be Vin Diesel or Paul Walker but they really were Jesse. I got the feeling that Jesse's dad was a little absentee and probably an alky considering he let his kid ride around all day in his car and jesse lived in mortal fear of being around him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg1647545532 Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 I had friends that were MKIV VW people so actually that is more believable to me. I guess not so much the fact that it was a Jetta, but more the fact that he was supposed to have any credibility while drag racing a full-weight street Jetta on rubber band street tires and expecting to do anything but get stomped. Like, just swap his car with the yellow R33 driven by the no-name 5th member of the crew and everything makes a whole lot more sense, the only thing that Skyline does is hold the police scanner up off the ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geeto67 Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 I guess not so much the fact that it was a Jetta, but more the fact that he was supposed to have any credibility while drag racing... seemed appropriate: you realize you used "credibility" in reference to TFATF right? Like, just swap his car with the yellow R33 driven by the no-name 5th member of the crew and everything makes a whole lot more sense, the only thing that Skyline does is hold the police scanner up off the ground. So it becomes more believable that jesse's alky abusive dad drives a rare collectible, impossible to import gray market skyline that they share to get around in (even though jessie's dad doesn't work because he never seems to need the car). What ever happened to Leon? curiosity got the better of me and google showed me again that the yellow skyline may have been crushed back in 2012: http://jalopnik.com/5914204/big-bird-skyline-going-to-the-crusher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg1647545532 Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 you realize you used "credibility" in reference to TFATF right? Heh, just let me have this So it becomes more believable that jesse's alky abusive dad drives a rare collectible, impossible to import gray market skyline that they share to get around in (even though jessie's dad doesn't work because he never seems to need the car). Just get rid of Jesse's dad, he's participating in frequent armed robberies, just say he bought the damn car himself and let's skip the daddy issues. What ever happened to Leon? Damn, good question. Even Vince has made a reappearance in the movies. Apparently Leon's career went down the shitter and never recovered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Alex- Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 the movie came out 2 years before the WRX hit the US market and subaru rose to relevance in the performance car market. Movie was released in 2001, WRX came here as a 2002 model. I'm sure there were some already here at the time of filming for testing and marketing. The second movie was released in 2003 and had an Evo in it. If I remember right, they converted Lancers to film with since they knew the Evo would be available when the movie premiered or soon after. I believe it was originally planned to be an SRT-4. Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
99StockGT Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 Completely agree with the why wasn't the R33 more of a star car, especially given it should stock for stock monster just about anything else they roll with. Not to mention it would be near impossible to actually see on the streets of the US at that point. So many of the cars that were featured in this movie have gone on to become highly desirable highly valuable and iconic. Many people KNEW the FD RX7 was awesome, and the MKIV Supra.. but after this movie the lust grew immeasurably. My earlier point about the Subarus, there were a few 2.5 RS out there in those days running JDM swaps but very very few I'm sure. Even if you "overnight parts from japan" you didn't have many people who understood the potential in the platform. Remake this film today.. and what are your star cars? I'm sure at least ONE of them involves some sort of massively modified Subaru Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeitgeist57 Posted June 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 Can we not all agree that the studio had no clue TFATF would take off like it did? You guys making comments about the cars really being able to do what they did with the owners that the movie said owned them...lol. Even the people making the movie didn't think any of it would be that relevant down the road! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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