Fast Five - the machines

The latest Fast and the Furious movie is up for release at the other end of this week. Here is a look at some of the machines that are going to be racing between the edges of the big screen this weekend.

1966 Ford GT40

The original GT40 that was built to annihilate Ferrari at Le mans. In 1962 Enzo Ferrari was trying to sell Ferrari and Mr Ford was right up there to have the whole cake. Then at the last moment Mr Ferrari decided to back out of the deal. This made Henry Ford very angry and he told his designers to build a car that would annihilate the Ferraris on the track.

What they came back with was the GT40 which won Le Mans four times on the trot. Today the GT40 is back in production and because it costs so much less than the established range of supercars it is called the blue collar working class hero. Let’s see if the movie can do the car justice.

1966 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport

The Chevrolet Corvette Stingray was launched by General Motors in 1963. Chevy raced it in the 1962 Riverside Grand Prix only to see that the much lighter Shelby Cobra was way ahead.  GM's Engineer Zora Duntov, the father of all performance Corvettes, knew a lighter Stingray would be needed immediately and thus the Grand Sport was conceived.

The 1966 Stingray had received a facelift with an eggcrate grill. It came with two engine options a V8 390 bhp and a V8 425bhp engine. As for the Grand Sport edition only three were ever made as information leaked and the project was brought to a halt.

1970 Dodge Charger

Powered by a HEMI engine it was the king of muscle cars in the era. The one in the movie comes with an optional three double barrel carburettors in hood cut out mode. This option was known as the 440 six pack. It was also massive in size and made any other car look puny. If you wanted to drag race between the lights you either had a Dodge Challenger or you didn’t. The challenger also featured in the original Fast and Furious movie. We guess it’s Dom’s same one that is back. Hope there is race between the lights again.

1970 Ford Maverick

The Maverick was Ford’s replacement of the Falcon. It was a two door rear wheel drive muscle car. It was designed to be inexpensive to build and own. In 1970 a muscle car themed package called the Grabber was introduced. The package included unique graphics and trim, it also came with a spoiler. Within two years of existence it outsold the Ford Mustang by a significant number. Its popularity as an affordable pony car justifies its presence in the movie from the muscle car era. 

1972 Nissan Skyline

The Nissan Skyline is a car enthusiast still look to buy. It is a craze amongst performance car enthusiasts and street racers worldwide. Ever present in the street racing scene the already fast car is always made to go quicker with upgrades. Some Skyline models were sold in GTR variant had significantly higher power upgrades compared to the standard car. It is known for its trademark round taillights. Nissan started production of the Skyline in 1957 and continues to sell it till date. Today it is known as the Nissan GTR.

1972 Pantera Detomaso

The Pantera which is Italian for panther was creative mix of American muscle, Italian engineering and an Argentinean racing driver. One cannot help but mention that a lot of the design cues look like those on Lamborghinis of the time. The engine which was from a Ford Mustang featured deep-breathing heads patterned after the very successful Boss 302 design with 4-barrel carburetion. The engine was mated to a ZF fully synchronized 5-speed transaxle from the Ford GT40. The car featured a limited slip differential and had 310 BHP on tap.

1996 Toyota Supra

The Toyota Supra is a legend amongst motoring enthusiasts. The car had great looks, great engines and great handling. In short it was the perfect street racing machine. The kind of modifications that went into the car were out of the world. The 320 BHP engine could be tuned to deliver in excess of 500 BHP. In short it was a tuner's all time high. What made the Supra different from cars of its time were the amount of features it came laden with, it made the competition look barren. The Toyota Supra was a proper Petrolhead’s car and always will be.

Dodge Challenger 2010

The 2010 Dodge Challenger has a sound that can start earthquakes. It sounds like a proper muscle car. It looks like a sinister henchman. And it definitely drives like a proper muscle car. The original challenger was born in the muscle car era while the current car is born in the hybrid era. Kudos to Dodge for stepping out of line. Of course the car is not as big as the original but just look at it. The car has a long waiting list of customers and the movie is only going to make that list longer. And let’s not forget the Challenger featured in the epic film Vanishing Point, the movie really has a lot hanging on its shoulders.

Lexus LFA 2010

Lexus as a brand makes impeccable and boring executive cars. The LFA however steps out of the boring line and runs from the line to the other end of the field before anyone can say Lexus. The V8 engine is only the size of a V6. But the most amazing thing about it however is the way it revs. Get this, the engine picks up and loses revs so quickly that an analogue rev counter would simply break, so they had to fit a virtual computer controlled LCD rev counter. Forget the speed of the thing and everything else, for that reason alone the LFA deserves to be in the movie.

Ducati Streetfighter

A slice of Italian passion in the form of the Ducati Streetfighter features in the movie. The Streetfighter's Superbike soul combines street fighter attitude and naked sophistication to create pure adrenaline. Ducati’s naked street bike takes a stripped out bare essentials motorcycle and puts it in a blender with state of the art race technology. The exhaust note of the Ducati in the movie is sure to make men feel like boys again.