What Really Happened To Fast & Furious' Most Iconic Cars

Eight orange Supras were used in 2001's "The Fast and the Furious" throughout the filming. One was the hero car with modified engine parts, one was a backup for the main car but only on the outside, and six were stunt doubles. This is the 10-second car that Brian owed Dom, the wheels that set the franchise up for its never-ending road race. The 1994 Supra cost $24,000 new and received extensive customizations to almost every part of the car. The engine was filled with custom parts from Greddy, HKS, Turbonetics, and NOS, bringing 544 – 569 horsepower before nitrous (the range is because it was tested on two dynos, with differing results). The exterior got a makeover with that sweet neon orange and custom Troy Lee graphics, the tires and suspension got upgraded, the interior was decked out in carbon fiber and blue suede, and a roll cage was added.

The original was owned by Craig Lieberman, technical advisor on the first two movies, and had achieved modest success at car meets before its catapult to stardom. He kept hold of it for a year after the movie but got an offer he couldn't refuse from a private collector in the Netherlands. The hero car with its modifications was sold for a tidy $185,000 profit. Four of the stunt cars received a gold exterior for the sequel. Two of those were returned to the orange livery and went on to be sold at auction to private collectors, one for $185,000 in 2015 and one for $550,000 in 2021.

For "Fast and Furious 6," the producers wanted to bring cars from more nations into the mix. Two British-made cars were pulled into the lineup for this sixth movie outing, a 1971 Jensen Interceptor driven by Letty and this third classic car driven by Brian – a Mark 1 1972 Ford Escort RS1600. Thanks to Craig Lieberman, we know how the producers sourced and built the cars used for one of the biggest stunts in the movie. All five of the Ford Escorts built for filming had to be purchased in the U.K., as none of the Mk 1 Escorts that made it to the U.S. fit the necessary specifications. Some had period-correct 1.6-liter Ford Kent engines with DOHC Cosworth heads and double Weber carbs, while others had 2.0-liter Vauxhall Redtop engines from Opel, with all five rebuilt in the U.K.

Two of the five were stripped to be used in the bridge jump scene during the tank chase sequence. One of the jump cars was written off immediately after flipping while the first half of the jump was filmed. The second jump car survived but was a twisted wreck left in storage for many years. A British collector bought the mangled chassis and spent the equivalent of $90,000 in British pounds restoring it to its former glory.

The Torettos love some Mopar action, with every Fast franchise installment featuring at least one Dodge muscle car. They also have a lot of love for their cousins at Plymouth, showing that their love for family extends to steel and chrome. The gray 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner first shows up at the end of "Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift," bringing a short cameo from Dom Toretto, bringing him back to the series. Skip a few installments ahead, and the same Roadrunner appears in "Furious 7" concurrent with "Tokyo Drift's" timeline. The gray Roadrunner is next in "Fast & Furious," being driven by Letty Ortiz while she is working for a Mexican cartel. Two Plymouth Satellites were made to look like Roadrunners for the stunts in the movie. 

They also had a backup Roadrunner, which was the stunt car from "Tokyo Drift." Between the scene where Letty's car gets flipped with her inside, and the other stunts, both Satellite cars were totaled. The second stunt car survived unscathed, as the team nailed the stunt in one take. Jamie Vickers, a Hollywood production designer, now owns the restored 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner, which he bought as one of the two stunt cars from "Fast & Furious." It's been resto modded to feature over 760 horsepower from a custom, bored-out big block 426 Hemi.

[Featured Image by Greg Gjerdingen via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0 ]

Suki, played by Devon Aoki, had one of the most instantly-recognizable cars in the whole franchise. The hot pink Honda S2000 with an airbrushed paint job and neon under glow is every bit as loud and fiery as the character who drives it. It was also part of one of the biggest stunts in "2 Fast 2 Furious," with an insane bridge jump during a four-way road race. The stunt car was a replica of the actual S2000 and only suffered minor radiator and bodywork damage. It also featured in "The Fast and the Furious," in a more subdued paint tone. When it appeared in the first movie, the S2000 was driven by villain Johnny Tran and had jet-black paintwork. The car was owned by R. J. de Vera at that time, and it was rented by the production. The producers bought it outright between the two movies and turned it into the hot pink princess-powered rocket in the second movie outing.

The Honda S2000 from "2 Fast 2 Furious" currently resides in the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California, where anyone can go and see it and take pictures. That's a fitting end for one of the most outlandish paint jobs that any car in the "Fast & Furious" franchise sped across our screens wearing.

The eighth outing for the franchise, "The Fate of the Furious," took the team globe-trotting before culminating in a race across the ice toward a Russian nuclear submarine. Dom has gone rogue, but everyone, including the viewer, is in the dark as to why until the final scenes. Dwayne Johnson reprised his Luke Hobbs role, known for his larger-than-muscle cars, which echo his physical stature. For the furious driving over ice, Hobbs' had a specially modified Dodge Ram that instantly joined the ranks of some of the wildest vehicles from the franchise. Instead of wheels, the Ice Ram has four triangular tank tracks, one on each corner. The tracked terror also had a huge ram, which could flip down in front of the Ram for flipping, well, anything in front of it.

The Ice Ram was an off-the-showroom Dodge Ram, with Mattracks' 150M1A2-SAs instead of wheels. While we're not sure what became of the Ice Ram used in "F8," anyone can have one in their garage as the company who created it sells conversions to consumers.

The opening heist of "Fast Five" has Mia, Vince, Brian, and some accomplices stealing three cars from a train outside Rio de Janeiro. Those include a Ford GT40, which later drives the plot further by containing a computer chip with details of a wide-ranging criminal organization, a De Tomaso Pantera GTS, which overheats in 75f weather and is one of the rarest cars in Elvis Presley's collection, and one even-rarer vehicle, the 1963 C2 Corvette Grand Sport. This rarest of Corvettes had only five cars built, and they are all owned by private collectors that wouldn't part with their unicorn 'vette. The five prototypes were built to compete at Le Mans, but General Motors canceled the project and wanted to trash the prototypes. The chief engineer, Zora Arkus-Duntov, sold them to private buyers before that happened, preserving a piece of racing heritage that never made it to the track.

For "Fast Five," the production team turned to replica maker Mongoose Motorsports. Twelve 1963 clone C2 Corvettes were produced with custom tubular chassis, air-cooled Volkswagen engines, knock-off wheels, and coilover suspension. The filming was hard on these cars, considering they needed to be jumped to create the stunt. Only three are known to survive, with Volo Auto Museum having the best-preserved version, as it was the one used for close-ups and was mounted to a rig in front of a green screen. The same Corvette Grand Sport went up for auction in April 2021, but Volo still lists it in their inventory, so maybe the sale was called off. If you want your own, Mongoose Motorsports is an officially licensed GM manufacturer and sells the Grand Sport for under $100,000.

The insane hypercar built by Lebanese automaker W Motors costs upwards of $3.4 million, with headlamps that use real diamonds and rubies. 420 15-carat diamonds are inset in the titanium LED blades of the lights, and the roof is gold-plated. Truly a luxury of luxuries for a hypercar that still only has seven production models. As noted by Gulf News, one of those seven is owned by Vin Diesel, added to his already impressive collection of cars.

In "Furious7," the Lykan Hypersport was a major plot point, holding a computer chip the team needed to go in and steal. The scene ended with the Lykan jumping between the Etihad Towers before falling to destruction. The hypercar used for the close-ups wasn't used in the stunts. Maybe that's the one Vin Diesel now owns. W Motors made ten replica cars for the production team, with TopGear reporting they used 300 horsepower Porsche Boxter engines. One of the ten replica cars built by W Motors for the stunt in Furious7 is still hanging in W Motoer's showrooms as a showpiece. The other nine didn't survive the filming.