What is a “Hero” Car?
You'll see this term mentioned online, on this website and in my book. When we're referring to a "Hero" car, what we mean is that it's the prettiest and most complete version of a car we use in a movie whenever we have to build clones (or replicas) as backup cars. I'll explain further. In every movie where you see cars being use, chances are that there are multiples of any one car. For example: In The Fast and The Furious, Universal would need multiple cars because we'd be shooting stunt scenes as well as primary scenes. In any case where stunts will be done, a movie studio will have multiple stunt cars depending on how much footage is needed of any given car action sequence. For Tokyo Drift, there were 10 Mustangs built. They needed so many because on any given night, they could have fender benders multiple times in mulitple cars. For every movie, there are basically two production teams – 1st Unit & 2nd Unit. 1st unit handles most of the footage involving the actors. 2nd unit handles the stunts. It's not uncommon for 1st and 2nd Unit to have a need for the same car, at the same time but
My Movie Cars
I get this question almost daily, despite the fact that this information has been public for more than 18 years. I have to remember that a lot of people have only recently become fans of the Fast & Furious franchise and my efforts on Instagram might have just become known to them. For those who don't know, I owned the following cars that were used in the first two movies: Brian's orange 1994 Toyota Supra Vince's blue 1999 Nissan Maxima SE Brian's silver 1999 Nissan Skyline GT-R All of these cars were owned by me personally before the movie. Universal rented each of the cars from me to use as "Hero" cars, then changed things like the graphics, body kit pieces and/or wheels, to suit their preferences. We built four (or more) replicas of all the Hero cars for use in stunts and as backup cars for use during production. The cars were then returned to me after film production wrapped and I was free to do with them what I wanted. BRIAN'S ORANGE SUPRA In the case of the Supra, I left it as-is (more or less), then sold it about 18 months later. By this time I had changed the seats, updated the
How I Got Started
I’m often asked how I got involved with the franchise. I’d like to say that I had been working towards a goal of landing a career in the motion picture industry, or that I knew somebody who got me that big break, but none of that would be true. In the simplest of terms, my involvement came from blind, dumb, luck. In fact, other than briefly majoring in Film and Television in college, I had long since given up on that dream of even being in show business. It’s probably no surprise to anyone that I’ve been a passionate car guy from a very early age. Like many teens of the era, by bedroom wall was adorned with pictures of Porsches and Lamborghinis. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine that I would someday own cars like the ones that distracted me from my studies. I had been bitten by the bug. By 1997, I was a die-hard American car guy. I was all about the big V8s and forced induction was a dream that my pocketbook couldn’t really afford. That all changed one day in 1998 when I lined up against a stock-looking, 1995 Toyota Supra. The Supra left me like