Author: admin

Another one of my favorite questions - this one shouldn't seem hard to understand, but as evidenced by the flood of messages I get daily on this topic, it's a mystery. Let's Start With Supply and Demand Oh, that simple principal that all first-year economics students learn. As a refreshers, the law of supply states that the quantity of a good supplied (i.e., the amount owners or producers offer for sale) rises as the market price rises, and falls as the price falls. Conversely, the law of demand (see demand) says that the quantity of a good demanded falls as the price rises, and vice versa. How does that apply here? Let's talk exclusively about the R34 GT-R (and if we have to, GTTs). The R34 has not been legal in the USA since the MotoRex scandal back around 2006. If you forgot what that was all about CLICK HERE If you DON'T read the referenced article, you'll have no idea what led to this situation. Regardless, they're not legal until 25 years after the date of manufacture. In other words, if you want any 1999 Skyline, GT-R or otherwise, you're not getting one here LEGALY under 2024. Period. Take this as a fact so that we can

This behind the scenes 2 fast 2 furious video showcases so many of the tricks used to produce this movie. What was really interesting is how primitive CG was beack in 2002/2003. I worked closely with Al Desario in this film (among others) as we prepared the cars for their big stunt scenes. Enjoy the Video            

Dom's Charger specs remain a bit of a mystery to most people. For starters, just as we did with the other cars in this movie, we had multiple copies of the cars. A quick refresher - in this movie, we would have a "Hero" car.  The term "Hero" doesn't mean it's driven by the hero of the film, it means that this was the nicest, prettiest, shiniest car of the several we would use.  As far as this movie is concerned, the "Hero 1" title usually meant it had a modified engine with some nice eye candy under the hood, and the interior might have had numerous mods or accessories not found on the stunt cars. The Hero cars are used in "principal photography - in clear English, they're used for 1st Unit filming. For those who don't know, 1st Unit refers to the part of the film crew that focuses on the sequences where actors will appear. 2nd Unit refers to the film crew that focuses on filming the stunts. It's important to note that for this movie, we typically used TWO Hero cars for each car we cast. In short, for every car we picked, we'd have two pretty Hero cars

Today, we delve into the burning question - one that has baffled fanboys and newcomers to the Fast & Furious phenomena for the last few years. Truthfully, I'm baffled that so many people don't understand that you can't really drive a car with just one brake caliper. So, in order to set the record straight, I'm answering that question once and for all right here. If I directed you to go this post from one of my social media posts, good for you - you're not as lazy as some people. First off, you have to understand what was going on behind the scenes. When filming these movies, we had multiple copies of every major car. For my Supra for example, we had three identical clones. Clones are needed for use as stunt cars. It went like this: The prettiest, shiniest, most modified version of my Supra was my actual car which was called the "Hero 1" car. We made a clone of that car as back up and dubbed it the "Hero 2" car. This car is used for situations where Hero 1 is not available. Another pair of clones were dubbed "Stunt 1" and "Stunt 2."  These cars are used for all the crazy

For starters, it's important to note that the tuner market isn't dead at all - it has evolved. It's important to give a little background for younger readers who weren't there to live through it so that they can make sense of its roots and its evolution.   The 1990s In the 1990s, people really started modifying cars like the Honda Civic, Acura Integra and other imported 4 and 6 cylinder Japanee cars. Many of these people were simply customizing cars that were handed down by their parents or were affordable enough for a young person of modest means to reasonably finance. Like any true hot-rodder, these people wanted to personalize their cars. This tradition goes back to at least the 1950s.   By the late 1990s, several magazines had emerged that would showcase their efforts. Magazines like Super Street, Sport Compact Car, Import Tuner and Turbo, Later on, other titles jumped into the foray including HCI, Modified and MaxPower USA. In Europe, they were already producing great magazines like OptGezet, Redline, MaxPower UK and many, many others. The trend was now global.   Car shows like Hot Import Nights, Import Showoff, Extreme AutoFest and the NOPI show were among the biggest in the USA. NOPI, run

I get quite a few comments week from hardcore car friends who lament my predilection for DCT transmissions over manual transmissions. I feel like I need to explain myself - after all, my readers deserve to hear the cold, hard, truth. This is an argument that I also see raging online and what always confuses the issue is when people who truly know very little about cars make claims not supported by data.   First, a little background on my own personal experiences. From the time I first acquired my driver's license back in the early 1980s, I always viewed automatic transmission equipped cars as rubbish. I wanted to row gears, learn how to heal and toe downshift and blaze through canyons, connected corners and nailing the blip-throttle on each downshift. I've owned 40+ cars. I learned how to race at several racing schools starting with Bondurant in 1988. I just loved shifting gears and still do.   All of the cars I've owned (with except for my commuter cars) were manual transmission cars with two exceptions - my 2002 BMW M3 (SMG) and my current ride, my 2015 Nissan GT-R.When I bought my GT-R, no manual was available and even if it were,

The cold, hard, truth.   For many people replica, building a replica movie car is childhood dream. For those who are brave enough to make such an investment, I wish I could tell you that it;s going to fun and easy. Unfortuately, it's not without extreme challenges. I can't tell you how many inquiries I get a day, often from seemingly desperate people who are at their wit's end, tyring to find that one last, impossible-to-find part. Or at least, that's how they make it sound.   In reality, 99% of them haven't even bother to do a simple Google search and I know it. Perhaps it's different in other markets but when it comes to building replicas of Fast and Furious cars, it seems to be much, much different. I actually had one dude who proclaimed that he couldn't be botthered to search Google because "it's just easier to ask you." Wow. How does one even respond to that?  This person forgets that I've typed the same answer probably 500 times this year alone. I wroted 86,000 words to author my book. There's another 20,000 words on this website and nearly 850 posts on my Instgram with details, specs and pictures - I

  Even for die-hard fans, understanding the Fast and Furious timeline is something that seems to require a secret decoder ring - or so it seems. Let's dissect it and maybe make some sense out of it all. While there are still many plot holes and many things that seem to defy logic, this video does a great job of unraveling the mystery.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i7HWKiuY9Q   The plan developed over time What most people don't know is that Rob Cohen and Neil Mortiz had to fight to get this movie made. When Don Zepfel left Universal, Ron Lynch was his replacement. Ron greenlit the first movie, but proudly bragged he could make the film for $25M.  No way in hell, as this was a $50M by everyone's assertion. By the time production started, the budget was $38M - still a tiny budget, but the movie raked in $211 million.  Anyone with half a brain could realize that spending $38 million to make $211 million is a good profit. By the time Scott Stuber took the reins at Universal, he was looking for movies with franchise potential. I sat in a semi-private meeting with Scott at which time he told me of his desire to turn this into

The Debate That Still Rages: The Supra vs Charger Race In the race at the end of the first movie, there was a lot going on behind the scenes. To understand who won the Supra vs Charger race, we have to set the stage so you understand it all.   For starters, the two cars NEVER ACTUALLY RACED. When you're making a $40 million dollar movie, you don't have time or the inclination to put at risk assets that are crucial to the making of the film. No responsible crew member would do this and if he did, he'd be out of a job right quick.   Second, you have to remember that the two actors didn't actually do the driving - stunt drivers did.   Third, you have to understand that the cars as you saw them in that scene were NOT equipped as you might think.   Both cars we saw in the big drag race were stunt cars. As such, ALL of the stunt Supras were NON-Turbo, automatic transmission cars. Stock, they made 220hp.  The Charger, which was also a stunt car had a Chevy 350. Chevy 350 motors are often swapped into stunt cars because picture car crews usually have a bunch of these laying around

Vince (played by Matt Schulze) made an appearance in Fast Five, but other than that, he's been missing from the franchise. But others seem to have been banished to uncertain end in the Fast and Furious world.   So what happened to Jesse, Vince, and Leon? Let's find out.   Matt's Career I met Matt on the set of the first movie during production in 2000. Since he was driving my Maxima, it was no surprise that we'd at least have some interactions those amounted to little more than exchanging some pleasantries a few times.   I didn't see him much more until after the film was completed when we ran into each other a few times at cast/crew screenings and again at the Hollywood Premier.   My impression of him is that he seemed to be a focused guy of few words, but then again, I'm just a nobody so I wasn't expecting an invite to marry his sister.   His career was moving along a decent rate by the year 2000. Schulze made his big-screen debut in 1998's action film Blade, as the character Crease.   He was also in an episode of Charmed, titled "Dream Sorcerer", in which he went into the dreams of women and killed them.   In 1999, Schulze was cast