Nothing may seem impossible in the Fast and Furious universe. Jumping off a skyscraper in a hypercar with rubies in its headlights? Check. Racing a moving train in a Chevrolet? Check. Outrunning a tank and using cars to destroy it? Double check. In fact, the franchise has featured so many wild stunts and situations that seem too impossible to believe.
Though the films stopped being about racing a long time back, there are still some crucial details about the movie which are not completely off-base. Some stunts and some developments, irrespective of how insane and crazy they feel, actually make sense in the franchise. Here’s just a list of things in the franchise which are wild but plausible.
Dom's Preference For Muscle Cars Over Sport Cars
It may seem totally ridiculous that Dom prefers muscle cars over traditional sports cars for racing, picking some fantastic but seemingly impractical vintage muscle cars like the 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback or the 1970 Dodge Charger R/T. But it actually makes a lot of sense because American muscle cars usually have V8 engines and a much better torque, which makes them ideal for drag racing.
Muscle cars also rev up faster and accelerate quicker than sports cars. Sports cars are actually more about the luxury and experience, whereas properly handling a muscle car in a cutthroat street race requires a real pro behind the wheels.
The Laws Of Drifting
Drifting is the racing sport which mainly relies on intentional oversteering because drifting involves a controlled slide through a sharp turn, which aims for a straightaway with a minimum of steering. Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift marks a shift from the franchise’s loyalty to streetcar racing, since drifting traditionally takes place in closed-circuit tracks and not open streets.
Fans have remarked that during chases, driving in a straight line would be much more useful and it makes no sense to chase a car through turns, but it was actually a tactical move to bring out the challenges in drift racing. This is also why the chases in most of the other movies are along open roads which run in straight lines, but not in Tokyo Drift.
The 10-Second Car Theory
Believe it or not, Dom’s obsession with finding the perfect ten-second car -- a car that can run a quarter mile drag race in 10.9 seconds or less -- is not just a plot device. Dom and Brian's inside joke sounds too good to be true, but it is actually a popular benchmark in street racing which body-makers focus on when building race cars.
A ten-second car is basically the most efficient race car, there are good cars which run in less time obviously, and some of them can be modified into a ten-second car.
The Hypercar With The Crazy Price Tag
A car worth 3.4 million Dollars? You could score a mansion in Los Angeles for less, but the hypercar is just that good. Most fans assumed that the car’s legacy was just being fluffed for the film’s narrative, but the sleek red automobile seen in Furious 7 is a bona fide hypercar.
The sleek and unmissable Lykan HyperSport which Dom drives out a window costs 3.4 million Dollars and has diamonds and rubies in its headlights. It also has a mid-rear positioned, twin turbocharged Porsche engine that generates 750 horsepower and 960 Nm of torque, and could go 0-6 in less than three seconds.
The Money Situation
When the crew isn’t engaging in heists they're racing for cash. Several fans have commented that taking out heavily souped up cars to a race causes enough damage that could use up the prize money they get. Also, the prize money for racing is usually 10 to 15 thousand Dollars at best. With these in mind, how do Dom and crew somehow keep their decked-out cars in top condition and have money to spare considering at every race, a car is totaled? The answer: insurance.
In extreme sports, there are several insurances drivers can opt for. This is especially true in Los Angeles, where not only every car has to be insured by law, but there are several insurance companies which cover damages for heavily modified cars. Factually speaking, Dom and Co. would probably insure their supercars before taking it out for a big race.
The Power Of NOS
In the Fast and Furious universe, nitrous oxide or NOS is a magical substance that can make all your car troubles go away and make cars fly. Fans and racing rookies have often questioned the effectiveness of NOS because it seems to be Dom's go-to option for any kind of racing trouble. It may sound crazy but in reality, NOS is crucial in racing because it lets the engine burn fuel and oxygen effectively, resulting in a powerful combustion.
In fact, after a certain point it can give the car easy access to oxygen. When NOS is injected into an engine, more fuel can be added as well, thus increasing its horsepower. The term NOS stems from the initials of the company Nitrous Oxide Systems, which began developing nitrous oxide injection systems in cars.
The Extreme Modifications
It may seem wild that everything in a car from a frame to the gear can be modified to win a race, because it would imply that someone could make a super car that would be virtually unbeatable. In The Fast and The Furious, Brain tells Dom that Hector is planning to run three Honda Civics with Spoon engines with T66 turbos with Nos, and a Motec Systems exhaust, implying that Hector would essentially be unbeatable because spoon engines are designed specifically for racing.
Fans have often called all these huge modifications a bit too extra. But it turns out that all this is quite common in the racing world though there are, of course, certain rules and limits when it comes to racing with purpose-built cars.
That Insane Train Stunt
The train stunt in Fast Five is all kinds of wild - Dom drives his car off a moving train, lands into the desert, and is somehow able to coordinate with Brian so he could jump on the car just in time to avoid being hit by a metal bridge. Though the stunt isn’t totally unrealistic, Dom pulling this off in a ‘63 Chevrolet Corvette is very, very hard to process.
While fans have often ranted about how it’s impossible, it actually is if a car is modified just right, in which Dom just happens to be an expert in. Technically speaking, a tricked out suspension and some work on the torque could make it happen, irrespective of the chassis.
That Insane Yacht Jump
When Brian and Roman fly their car into a yacht in 2 Fast 2 Furious, it probably made for a breathtaking moment on the big screen. And though fans have claimed that this stunt looks too crazy even for their suspension of disbelief, turns out it’s not as wild as it looks.
Roman and Brian were driving a Yenko Camaro, a performance car that is very flexible and has impeccable torque. Plus, they had a lot of road to pick up enough speed. The exhaust and air intake was obviously souped up, letting the car fly off an elevated plane and stay in the air long enough to land on the moving yacht.
Dom’s A Secret Physics Genius
A lot of fans have talked about how a street car racer can’t be as gifted in physics as Dom is. More than once and against all logic, Dom proved to be a total savant not just automobiles but in physics. It may seem ludicrous but it's actually one of the most plausible things about when looking at the skillful detailing each of Fast heist needs.
Most of their heists are master-minded by Dom and since they're all high-stakes jobs, an inch of miscalculation can cost millions of dollars or even get them behind bars. Dom’s genius is a big reason why the crew is able to pull off such perfect jobs. Plus, he’s also a body-maker who builds purpose-driven race cars, and one can’t do that without a very keen sense of precision and scientific acumen.