Monday, April 18, 2011

Fast and Furious Fast Five Cars - DRIVEN (Autoblog.com)

Video: Inside line drives a trio of Fast Five cars

1965 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport
Fast Five 1965 Corvette Grand Sport – Click above to watch the videos after the jump

The fifth installment of the Fast and the Furious series, Fast Five, is ready to debut this summer, unleashing another round of "nos"-fed hilarity. In anticipation of the promised vehicular mayhem, they guys at Inside Linecaught up with Dennis McCarthy, the man behind the stable of hot rods featured in the movie.

The first is a one-off, tube-frame monstrosity of an offroad car hauler lovingly dubbed "Mongo." Mongo was designed to assist Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in filching exotic cars from a moving train. To our eyes, Mongo looks ready to do just that, sporting a 600-plus-horsepower 502-cubic-inch Chevrolet V8, 7:10 gears and 18 inches of suspension travel. According to McCarthy, Mongo did his own stunts, completing a 75-foot jump and driving away unscathed. Wow.

The next sample on today's palette is possibly the most famous car to come out of the Fast and the Furiousfranchise, Dom Toretto's 1970 Dodge Charger. Though the car in the film sports a 900-horsepower supercharged Hemi, keeping costs low dictated a slightly tamer set up for the actual workhorses of the film. In stuntman-ready trim, the Charger sported a 400-hp Chevy small block (sorry, Mopar fans...) capped by a gutted BDS blower just for effect. According to IL, it's loud, scary to drive and uncomfortable, just the way any self-respecting mock up should be.

The final car on the list is the star of the show, a replica of a 1965 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, build by Mongoose Motorsports. It features the ubiquitous Chevrolet 502 big block, backed up by a Borg Warner Super T-10 four-speed stick. The combination rides on C3 Corvette suspension, which struggles to handle nearly 600 horses stuffed into a featherweight frame.

After weeks of abuse at the hands of Hollywood, none of the cars are feeling as healthy as they once were. That said, they all still run, which can't be said for hundreds of other cars used in the movie. Added to that, they'll all still burn up the rear tires with poise, showing they still have their dignity. Click past the jump to see all three cars in action.

[Source: YouTube via Inside Line]

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