It’s been 23 years since The Fast and the Furious blazed throughout film screens. Let that sink in for a second, then pour one out for Letty’s purple Nissan 240SX. More than one was used throughout filming, however arguably crucial model is gone perpetually.
Craig Lieberman, a technical advisor for the vehicles within the early iterations of the Fast franchise, shared the destiny of the Nissan that Michelle Rodriguez drove within the first movie in a latest video revealed to YouTube. If anybody is an professional on the Fast star vehicles, it is him.
According to Lieberman, the movie used three vehicles to play Letty’s 240SX. Two of them have been stunt vehicles, designated Stunt One and Stunt Two. Under the hood they retained their inventory drivetrains, however have been dressed the half to seem for the position. The most important hero automobile was way more attention-grabbing. It was rented by the manufacturing crew from its proprietor, James, who had a constructed SR20DET beneath the hood making 400 horsepower, based on Lieberman. The movie crew put in a Zeal physique equipment and painted the automobile a shade of purple, although it appears magenta within the film because of the filters used for the cameras.
The excellent news: The two stunt vehicles are alive and properly. They made encore appearances (albeit with completely different paint jobs) as extras in 2 Fast 2 Furious, and sit within the palms of Furious Garage on YouTube. They’re at present being rebuilt to movie-spec as seen within the first movie, with the channel chronicling the progress.
The most important hero automobile, nonetheless, wasn’t so lucky. As Lieberman explains, it went again to the proprietor after the primary film was completed. He returned it to silver, and it lived a glamorous life in his care with quite a few journal options to its credit score. From there the 240SX jumped from proprietor to proprietor till 2009, when the final proprietor purchased it, stripped the powertrain, and bought the chassis to a junkyard.
If this was a plot level in a latest Fast movie, we would say the automobile is not useless, as Fast characters have a historical past of miraculously coming again to life. But this is not a film. It’s unknown precisely the place or how the automobile met its finish, however as Lieberman says within the video, it was “turned into a beer can.” Bummer.