Hello, everyone,

These may seem like rather inane musings but I watched The Fast & the Furious again last night and a few things are puzzling me (and I bet people here have an explanation):

1. Near the beginning the undercover cop complains he can't get more than 140 mph from his Eclipse. But the Eclipse should almost do 140 without any modifications. The cop was referring to getting more than 140 in the quarter mile, right?

2. Torretto's Mazda-RX-7, massaged as it was for maximum performance, wouldn't have 150+ lbs of sub-woofers and audio equipment, would it?

3. When they look under the Eclipse's hood and admire the mods and say "A nice way to spend $10K " but then say the black S2000 has $100K of work done on the engine something seems way out of whack. Just a careless mistake or could the S2000 really have $90K more mods than the already heavily modded Eclipse?

4. When they first see the junk Supra TT they immediately say it's junk. Then, just because they discover it has a J... engine (a Japanese domestic version, I assume) they are in awe. C'mon, would the JD engine really make that much of a difference?

5. And lastly, the race with the Ferrari. I can't remember exactly what model it was but I think it was a Mondial (actually a 355 Spider). I think most Ferrari owners would know that a Supra TT - stock, never mind one so obviously modded - would blow that vintage of Ferrari away. Except...wouldn't the Supra TT, being optimized in the pursuit of 1/4 mile glory, have a rear end geared totally for acceleration and, in that case, the Ferrari would initially fall behind but quite quickly make a distant spec out of the Supra?

Thanks for the clarification!

 

The entire movie is filled with inane things. It is clear that the movie was targeted at people who don't know much about cars.

- NOS is a brand, not a system.
- the 1/4 miles last 30 seconds or more.
- several times, the driver is seen upshifting during the 1/4, or shifting through 6-8 gears. Most cars in the 1/4 never see 5th, some barely make it to 4th.
- there are references to double-clutching the 1/4, something you'd never do.
- there are numerous other cases of lingo/jargon talk that does not fit with what one would actually do.
- Oh, and the blatant racism? Don't even get me started.

I could go on and on... but to answer your questions (I think)

1. Stock eclipse is probably good for about 130-135. Nitrous and more boost would get you into the 120-130 range for a trap speed, so your assumption is probably right.
2. It's all about image and style - the "ricer" way.
3. Again, a line that an average non-car person wouldn't even notice as being faulty. The S2000 is more exotic, so most people probably assume more can be done to it cost wise.
4. The JDM engine is better, but not much. Again, lingo.
5. Actually ferraris could keep up with a stock TT, especially if they went past a 1/4. But having the ferrari say no wouldn't be much for a plotline, would it?

 

VooBass,


thats why its only a Movie if the S really had 100k of mods, it would of blown the doors off that VW.

 

I agree with the inanity of FnF. However, I don't think 100k of mods it that far out of the ballpark. I was watching a documentary on the Tokyo street racing scene (included with Tokyo Extreme Racer Zero for PS2) that seemed to indicate that it was normal to be dropping tons of money in mods. I mean TONS. Of course, this is assuming the documentary itself isn't bogus.

 

Regarding the 100K in mods, does anyone know about the scene in the garage where Johnny Tran is ruffing up his fence 'cause he has no engines? Is the engine in question for the S2000, or is it for something else? Can't remember. If they were dropping new engines and totally doing a custom job, maybe 100K, but man that seems like a lot of money even for that.

 

jvils: Is the engine in question for the S2000?

I believe the engines were for a couple of Civics, definately not the S2000.

Thanks everyone for your replies (I accidently have this thread running in Street Racing, too, so there have been lots of comments, almost all of them extremely critical of the movie). I must say I'm surprised by the near hostility towards the film. The most common critisicm, that the race in the beginning took 30 seconds, seems to miss the intent entirely. It's obvious that this wasn't real time but sorta like 'bullet time' in The Matrix, a warped time that extends the viceral impact of the sounds and sights along the way to the finish line. I don't have a problem with that at all (although the too-frequent shifting shouldn't have been included). The irritation over the Jetta vs. the S2000 seems a bit misplaced, too. The S2000 DID blow the doors off the Jetta and, besides, at that level of modding I think vehicles end up being transformed into something a far cry from their former selves, to the extent comparisons based on their original spec are pointless.

 

3. When they look under the Eclipse's hood and admire the mods and say "A nice way to spend $10K " but then say the black S2000 has $100K of work done on the engine something seems way out of whack. Just a careless mistake or could the S2000 really have $90K more mods than the already heavily modded Eclipse?

Right before the comment 'Not a bad way to spend $10k.' Jesse says something like 'He's got an independent fuel management bla bla bla.' I believe that is the thing he was referring to as being $10k alone, not all the mods put together.

 

[B]teqneek:I believe that is the thing he was referring to as being $10k alone, not all the mods put together.[B]

Ahh, that makes sense, as long as an 'independent fuel management system' could cost $10,000. This helps explain a later reference to the Eclipse being an $80,000 car (the car + $10K FMS + all the other mods)

 

What I don't get is why would they have to jack a truckdriver while it's in motion. Wouldn't it be a lot easier if you just jumped the truck driver at one of those diners/restareas. And save all the trouble of jumping on the truck,etc. HEHE I know it's only a movie but it's just too illogical! Like they say no stunts=no movie..

 

Well for that matter, why would anybody driving a vehicle heavier than a Suburban (let alone a loaded Semi) not just push all those little Civics out of the way like the annoying little gnats that they are?