Car coordinator Dennis McCarthy is no stranger to the Fast and the Furious franchise. He was the picture car coordinator on Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious and returns for the hat-trick on Fast Five. The latest installment will feature a hefty 21 cars, including Dom Toretto’s trademark Dodge Charger.
In the last chapter of Fast Five week, we take a look at the many cars of Fast Five during an interview with the film’s car coordinator, Dennis McCarthy. If the last three films don’t give him enough credibility, McCarthy is also the man behind the vehicles of Green Hornet and Death Race.
McCarthy kicked off the interview by telling us the selection of cars is “a lot different” than the previous films. Nearly every cast or crew member interviewed during our set visit mentioned the new look of the cars in Fast Five. Each film has possessed its own vehicular identity, but now that Dom, Brian and the gang are on the run, their car selections are bit less high profile. Of course, low profile cars for car junkies like them aren’t so low profile.
Dennis McCarthy: It’s due to the location and the circumstances. They are down to their last pennies. They’ve transferred all the way from the U.S. on the run down to Brazil, so they don’t have the money to buy a brand new Skyline. So it was just character, environmental, and based on their means.
Now that we know a little more about the relevance of the cars in Fast Five, let’s check out what vehicles will catch some screen time. Of course, some cars are more prevalent than others. Certain characters are attached to certain cars, but other vehicles make brief appearances.
Car Coordinator Chris McCarthy on set of Fast Five in a 1966 Corvette Grand Sport
McCarthy gave us a crash course on the wide range of cars that appear in Fast Five:
DM: Okay so at the beginning of this film the vehicles would be: We have a Pantera – a Classic 1971 Pantera. We have a GT40 – the original one. We have a Corvette Grand Sport – a 1965 Corvette Grand Sport. Those are the first three cars that you see in the opening sequence.
We have a vehicle built – basically we call it the “Heist Truck”. It was kind of a one-off, custom-built vehicle. Big tires. Almost a kind of monster truck style but built for a specific purpose. No flash, no cosmetics, just pure function. That was probably the most challenging sequence of the film, just because we were out in the middle of the desert at 120 degrees, in the sand and the dirt. Just keeping things running in those conditions is always tough.
We have the Charger back. We have the ’70 Charger back. Basically when you first see the guys down in South America, Vin [Diesel]’s in his Charger, as you’ve seen it out here. It’s not quiet the same. It’s not as flashy. It doesn’t have the motor. He’s trying to make it a little bit more inconspicuous so he could make it all the way down. That’s when you see Paul Walker in the ’72 Skyline. Another car you see down there is the character Han has a Ford Maverick, which seems like another odd choice but if you look at the cars of South Polo, and Rio, the car culture there, Maverick is one of the top muscle cars. It’s just one of the cars that Ford’s produced down there. So you have Maverick, which is another hot car. Unfortunately we tried to get one here. We have a car called the Chevy Opala. That’s like your Chevy muscle car and your Ford muscle car in South America…
We have a 370Z. We have a brand new Subaru, which Subaru basically donated to our cause. Those cars are once again modified by Rhys Millen. They’re all used here. There’s a sequence where they are zipping through the auto plant, kind of like an obstacle course. We have a Porsche GT3, which is basically something that we cloned. We did bring back a Toyota Supra. Some of those right hand drives are back in. Early Skyline, we have a 2010 Skyline in the film. We have a Lexus LFA, which I was very happy to get.
McCarthy’s car knowledge is unrivaled on the set of Fast Five. Even car enthusiast and star of the film, Paul Walker, has nothing on the experienced car coordinator. Even though CGI has been used to enhance the car chases of the Fast and the Furious franchise, it is important to have a wealth of car knowledge on set to create the most realistic portrayal of the characters we have grown to love.
If the expansive run-through from McCarthy is too bulky for you, check out our condensed list of the Fast Five cars below. He also didn’t mention every vehicle in the film and some of the years are off, but Universal gave us the official dossier and images of each car. Unfortunately, they’ve asked us not to share the photos in an effort to keep the essence of Fast Five under wraps. Rest assured, the cars look awesome and are worth the wait.
- 1963 Ford Galaxy
- 1966 Ford GT40
- 1966 Corvette Grand Sport
- 1967 International Scout
- 1970 Charger
- 1970 Ford Maverick
- 1972 Nissan Skyline
- 1972 Pantera Detomaso
- 1996 Toyota Supra
- 2002 Porsche GT3
- 2006 GMC 2500 Yukon
- 2009 Nissan 370Z
- 2010 Dodge Challenger
- 2010 Subaru STi
- 2010 Lexus LFA
- 2010 Modified Vault Chargers
- 2011 Dodge Charger Police Interceptor
- Gurkha LAPV
- Ducati Street Racer
- Train Heist Truck
- Koenigsegg CCX
There are quite a few cars in Fast Five, but it wouldn’t be the same without them. Even though the cast and crew have mentioned that Fast Five takes the spotlight off the vehicles a bit, it will still bring in plenty of car lovers. Needless to say, they won’t be disappointed.
Fast Five Week is officially over and this concludes our coverage from the set visit. Stay tuned as the release date nears for new trailers and TV spots. If you missed any of our coverage from this week, catch up with the franchise with the articles below:
- Fast Five Director Justin Lin: “CGI Never Replaces The Real Thing”
- Paul Walker Talks Being On The Run In Fast Five
- Vin Diesel Says Fast Five is Part of a New Furious Trilogy
- Dwayne Johnson Talks Fast Five: “I’m Still Kicking Ass”
- Fast Five Set Visit Report
Fast Five slides into theaters on April 29th, 2011.
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There IS A SKYLINE , I Love It .
The Fast and The Furious ( * * * * * )
This was a good movie, from the start to the end. The drag racing was good, the cars they used were good and so were the acters. Dom drives off in the Supra but finishes across the desert old school.
2 Fast 2 Furious ( * * )
Their goes the neighbourhood. They totaly lost the plot. Where’d Dom go to? Did he drive out of the movie? And it ends off landing on a boat – I thought I was watching Transporter.
Tokyo Drift ( * * * * )
Yey we enter the drift zone. Doesn’t make sense though. Where’s Brian??? Dom gives us that evil look and pulls away.
Fast and Furious ( * )
Underground racing in a mine? What? Nevermind the neighbourhood – their goes the town!
Fast Five ( no rating )
So whats with the old cars? Is this for old people only? Is the drag and drift racing?
Strongly Agree with you on that 1! the furious 5 should bring us back on time and fix it all up with the confusions
I’ll have to disagree with both of you, Fast and Furious is probably the best movie out of the series in terms of cars. Less rice burners and more muscle, that’s how it should be, I HATE the sound of fart cans, let me hear the rumble of 8 cylinders!
And no, it’s not only for old people, it’s only for people who actually know something about cars and know that an old GT40 or Shelby Cobra will outrun any retarded riced up piece of crap with a fart can and a big wing any day of the week.
I have to disagree my friend. I know extensively about automobiles and while both, the GT40 and Shelby Cobra are undoubtedly awesome cars, I’m sorry to burst your bubble but there is plenty of rice burning, fart can toting, piece of craps that will eat either one alive. V8s sound good & I completely understand why people feel the need to defend em all the time. When a V8 gets smoked by a tiny lil 4 cylinder, it blows there minds & they cant seem to understand the logistics of what just happened!!!!!! Does that sound about right guys?
What you smoked a stock dodge ram and you’re happy about it?
LMAO, seriously? Since you brought up logistics, you realize that these 4-cylinder cars that are “smoking” V8′s on the quarter are not quite stock right? Here are some logistics for you, but since you know extensively about automobiles I’m sure you already knew this, but those cars EASILY have $10,000 in modifications under the hood. But often times the total spent in upgrades is closer to $20,000. Here’s a little homework assignment for you. Spend the same amount of money to upgrade a 4-cylinder and a V8. Bring them to the strip, see which one is faster. Thank me later for the education.
Nobody is claiming small cars cannot be fast, they actually have a clear advantage, WEIGHT. Only ricers cite horsepower per liter, what really matters is torque per pound of total vehicle weight, since getting the car to move is the main idea. So, sure you can make a small 4-cylinder car insanely fast, a lot of people do. The question here is, well, like you said, logistics. How much would it cost to do that? They got the weight part down, with cars weighing in at just a hair over 2200 pounds sometimes, now all they need is the power to match it. Have you ever heard of the saying that you get out of it what you put into it? Well, if you start out with a more powerful engine, you’ll come out with a more powerful engine. Simple logic. Yep, that sounds about right…
Did you ever think to bring in consideration the original price of either type of vehicle? Pertaining to modern time and/or vehicles from the same era; a car with a V8 engine is likely to cost $20,000 MORE than a car with 4 cylinders(or an equivalent amount of money for the time period). A 4 banger could be purchased and upgraded to leave you in the dust with the same amount of money as it would cost to purchase a V8 with no upgrades. This should bring new meaning to your little saying “you get out of it what you put into it.” If you were given $40,000 to either buy a car with a V8 or a car with 4 cylinders and then use the remaining money to modify the engine… The 4 cylinder would win every time and in the end you’d probably even have some cash left over. Check the MSRP on a corvette or a cadillac compared to a honda civic.
Stop saying trash…. It’s a physic law. Bigger is the engine, more is the power you have.
And have you ever notice at the end of each F&F movie? The big block always win.
For sure L4 doing well. I have one and I’m very satisfied. But you can’t campare it to V8 (and more). By the way, how many cylinder you have in a V8? Yes, 8! That’s the DOUBLE of a L4. You think L4 are powerfull. Imagine an engine that have the double.
Really? So you’re saying you can’t find a V8 car for under $10,000 on craigslist or autotrader?? I never knew every V8 will cost you $40,000 or more thanks for informing me, I feel so schooled…
And I didn’t know there is a $20,000 difference between 4 cylinder and V8 cars. Man, someone needs to tell these people to update their websites:
Honda Civic SI Coupe $22,205
http://automobiles.honda.com/civic-si-coupe/
Ford Mustang 5.0L GT $29,995
http://www.ford.com/cars/mustang/pricing/
Or if you want even more bang for your buck, notice the Ford Mustang V6 is only $700 more than the Civic at $22,995 and it’s already at 305hp with 31mpg…
That Civic doesn’t look like such an awesome deal anymore does it?? Civic has 197hp with 29mpg. Wow, so for $700 more you get more horsepower and better gas mileage. I don’t know, which one would I buy??? The decision is soooo hard!!!
except ford is bad altogether
LMAO, ignorance really is bliss isn’t it?
http://www.jdpower.com/news/pressrelease.aspx?ID=2010099
@Ken J…..well played good sir. You speak the truth and cite your sources well haha!!
I totally agree with u on that one, you read my mind and what u said just made me laugh cuz it was so true, thank you for talking sense!
I have never seen it before so wy should you say that for from whats going to happen WTF…. really
1 star for Fast and the Furious? I think it’s the second best in the series to the original film. I agree that 2 Fast 2 Furious is terrible. I think it’s by far the worst in the series, despite having Eva Mendes in it. The race sequences were poorly done, and the car designs were just awful. I find it barely watchable.
AH finaly someone who post something that make sense! (Ken J)
Although you all have good points about the changes that would seem better for the movie as for the cars line up…. you have to look at the factors of movie vs. reality. They have to have a certain look and feel to keep the audience interested. For tuner heads like most of us we would already know the limits to which the cars we would use could be pushed. in the movie the limits of their chose would be over or under the reality of the car making for the suspense of the movie.
Cool cars!!!! Great taste and great job
I would like to remind everyone that the fast and furious movie series is originally about Japanese imports, not American made muscle cars. It really makes no difference which type/make of cars you think are better or faster because guess what, imports and muscle cars are in two different classes. Therefor both of which shouldn’t even began to be compared. Although for those of you who still wish to compare the two completely different class of automobiles think about this; American made V8 muscle cars are suppose to be fast, that is their claim to fame. Just the fact that one can modify a crappy 4 cylinder Japanese car and in turn make it faster does not bode well for the “LOGISTICS” of a V8. Muscle cars better be fast as **** straight off the production line, they have 8 cylinders, that is twice the engine of a 4 banger. But honestly that is really besides the point, if you’re complaining about there not being enough V8 muscle in these movies, then I’m sorry man you are watching the wrong movies(that’s just like saying “this orange tree should have apples on it because I think they taste better”… ). Granted they have integrated a good amount of old school muscle cars in these movies, if thats not sufficient enough for you go find an apple tree.
Do you know if the EVO is going to be in the movie?
Brian should drive off in the end in an Eclipse.
Yep, spewing smoke out of the engine compartment if it’s more than 4 years old like the real ones do…
Whats up with people carrying on about skylines not having any more than 6 cylinders? Yeah they had 4cyls in some models, who cares. If you want an 8 get one. You probably still won’t be able to beat one, my 1998 r34 SMOKES chev 6.0l v8s with the same mods as my car
Also an r31 coupe would be sick in a f&f film
Hella Bad Ass Movie!!!!! Cool Cars tooo!!!!!!!! Damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can’t wait to see Vin Diesel & Dwayne Johnson 2gether along with the wheels!!!
the fabulous actor cum gr8 personalities r bouth in same movie, and this movie gonna be rocking movie of 2011 n thanks to “Justin Lin”
If you’re close by, come check out some of the actual cars from the movie as well as several of your favorites including a gt40 clone, Skyline r33 and r35, Supras, and more:
http://www.huntsvillecarscene.com/calendar.php?do=getinfo&e=2204&day=2011-4-29&c=1
wow man really owesome cars i’ve ever seen….. M dying to watch the movie…
I love this movie it soo cool all the car and girl
Nice history, just one correction…
When he says “We have a car called the Chevy “Impala”. That’s like your Chevy muscle car and your Ford muscle car in South America…” He meant Chevy “Opala”, wich was a brazilian Muscle Car built in the 70′s The “Impala” never was built in south america.
Thanks Dan. Made the change.
’72 Skyline… OH HELL YEAH!!!!!
I’d rather see an old 1987 Buick Grand National GNX than a Skyline, but of course that’s every ricer’s wet dream so gotta have it…
Ricer? the 72 skyline is a japanese legend, without it, theres no R35 GTR, besides, they had a GNX in fast furious 4.
damn this is hot needs a cold beer
You definitely forgot to mention the amazing Nissan GTR at the very end.
i thought i liked the fast and the furious cuz that had one of my favorite cars was the green one very bad ASSSSSSSSSS!!!!
The green one… yah… I like the blue one myself.
Hey what is the Honda at the very beginning of the movie where they tip the bus. Its really bothering me cuz I cant figure it out.
Who cares? It’s a Honda… My mother has a Honda, it gets the groceries quite well…
I’m going to bet that your mother doesn’t take an NSX to the grocery store.
If she had more money she would… Cute little car.
Honda NSX?
It’s a honda prelude
its a nsx
its a Honda NSX
In honor of Fast Five… a story so good, it could change your life: “My Fast
and Furious Life” http://astanduplife.com/money/my-fast-and-furious-life
I went to Universal Studios this past week (I live in Orlando), and they had the 70′s Charger, the Porsche 911, and the 370Z on display from the movie. It was pretty awesome. I absolutely LOVED the movie and so did my 60 year old mother who has never seen the other movies.
yo i live in nyc and i watched the movie and the dodge charger srt8 was there both of them the ones that towed the vault so beet that fukaaaa
A lot of talk about the speed of this car vs that car,in the movies that were about racing they say its not the cars but whats under the hood if you seen the movies thay show- talk about cash spent and rebuilding to make this and that car more powerful than the next man car,so unless we’ve seen these cars head to head from the factory its all TALK
Fast 5 Was Stunning..
how about some real cars,not toys.a farrari fxx evo,lambo merc.enough of cute little cars that do 0 to 200 in 2 seconds and with nitrous over 400 mph…please!!
This movie ruled. So many awesome cars. The cars were incredibly cool.
There’s an incredible in-depth analysis of the entire Fast and Furious franchise over at Partial Objects that relates to the characters growth and relationship, and how the characters personalities are reflected by their cars: http://partialobjects.com/2011/04/the-fast-and-the-fatherless