Living life a quarter mile at a time can require some improvisation. In making the sixth Fast and Furious movie, filmmakers actually made their own car, a special “flip-car”, that was designed for some key sequences.
A report from Jalopnik has it that the producers on Fast and Furious wanted something that was versatile and quick, but could still make other cars flip over and take a battering. No easy task, but Dennis McCarthy, who was part of the production’s car team, set about making something that could do all that. He wound up with the flip-car, a four-wheel drive buggy with a low-down wedge at the front so any oncoming traffic will essentially use it as a ramp.
The engine is an LS3 V8, if you’re into that sort of thing, a speedboat’s V drive system is employed for that extra oomph. The exhaust was apparently the hardest thing to get right. It weighs near 4,000 pounds, and yes, it is driveable, though the handling took stunt drivers a few days to get to grips with.
If it’s been a minute since you caught 2013’s Fast and Furious 6, Luke Evans drives the flip-car through London, in a sequence that sets up Owen Shaw as someone for the crew to worry about.
Police cars are going left and right in the sequence. The flip-car looks incredibly convincing, and it’s regarded as a custom vehicle in the adventure movie. Of course, you’d need to with that thing, it’s not exactly conspicuous.
In the present, Fast and Furious 10 is currently filming. Now that Sung Kang is back as Han, we wait with bated breath for the flip car. Hopefully, that’s how they get to space this time – they take one of those prestigious muscle cars, go down the other end of a runway, and just pile into the flip-car full tilt.
Look, I’d pay any cinema prices for that.