[Beentherebefore]

I had to rub my eyes in disbelief, but there was "Fast & Furious #6" star Vin Diesel on the "Tonight Show" yesterday showing a clip from the movie of himself outracing a bunch of hopped-up pursuers while he's at the wheel of a 1970 Winged Mopar (Sorry, couldn't tell Daytona or Superbird - it went by kinda fast).

Hard to believe since this is the series that alledgedly made "rice-rockets" famous. Hopefully, the free publicity will get some attention from the performance publicity staff at Chrysler. Anyone wondering about how investments in Nascar can pay off many years later, here is a good example.

 

[Dave Z]

Chrysler's subsidizing the movie, which is one reason. The original had a beautiful black Charger, as I recall, only used in the final scenes, and crashed.

 

[Mike V.]

I had to rub my eyes in disbelief, but there was "Fast & Furious #6" star Vin Diesel on the "Tonight Show" yesterday showing a clip from the movie of himself outracing a bunch of hopped-up pursuers while he's at the wheel of a 1970 Winged Mopar (Sorry, couldn't tell Daytona or Superbird - it went by kinda fast).

Hard to believe since this is the series that alledgedly made "rice-rockets" famous. Hopefully, the free publicity will get some attention from the performance publicity staff at Chrysler. Anyone wondering about how investments in Nascar can pay off many years later, here is a good example.

It's a highly modded Charger Daytona clone. Chrysler also sponsored the last one.

 

[Mike V.]

Chrysler's subsidizing the movie, which is one reason. The original had a beautiful black Charger, as I recall, only used in the final scenes, and crashed.

Throughout the series, many custom Mopars have been used as "hero" cars.

The 70 Charger that never seems to die
A 70 roadrunner was used in three of the movies
Multiple Challengers (E and LC)
Multiple LX Chargers

I think Chrysler signed up for 7 too...

Mike

 

[dana44]

In thinking about it, I remember a few Chevys, like the Yenko Camaro and Chevelle (or Malibu/Nova or whatever), a Chevy truck dually, a black Monte Carlo (I think), but for the life of my I don't remember seeing any Fords. Just thought of one being in the Tokyo movie that was a Mustang with a Mazda (?) turbo engine, but that's the only one I can think of.

 

[moparbob]

Why is this topic in the racing thread??? It's a movie?

I had to rub my eyes in disbelief, but there was "Fast & Furious #6" star Vin Diesel on the "Tonight Show" yesterday showing a clip from the movie of himself outracing a bunch of hopped-up pursuers while he's at the wheel of a 1970 Winged Mopar (Sorry, couldn't tell Daytona or Superbird - it went by kinda fast).

Hard to believe since this is the series that alledgedly made "rice-rockets" famous. Hopefully, the free publicity will get some attention from the performance publicity staff at Chrysler.



Anyone wondering about how investments in Nascar can pay off many years later, here is a good example.

This movie has really nothing to do with the NASCAR or racing . Please STOP inciting more rumors just to create another *itch thread at Chrysler for being out of of NASCAR or to satisfy your obvious need to constantly stick it to them. I don't know how many times we have asked members to STOP putting up threads like this one attacking Chrysler!


If I am wrong in my assumptions, you have my apologies!


Dave is correct Mike V! Chrysler is subsidizing the movie, just recently saw the dealer ads that have F & F 6 in them.

 

[Dave Z]

Moved to Chrysler Chat from Motorsports.

 

[Beentherebefore]

It's a highly modded Charger Daytona clone. Chrysler also sponsored the last one.

I gathered that. The original winged Mopars were almost ungainly, they were so long. This thing was whipping around city streets like a Mini from the little bit that they showed. I'm guessing that it's a 3/4 or 7/8 scale clone - not too hard to do for Hollywood special effects. Anyone can replicate the rear wing and the "nose" was probably grafted onto a standard '69 or '70 B-body. I haven't watched any since F&F2 so I wasn't aware that Chrysler was sponsoring them. That was confirmed by article on the movie in yesterday's "L.A. Times". They also mentioned that the value of destroyed vehicles in this movie was "8 figures" and over 300 cars. Destroying or damaging an original winged Mopar would be insanity...........a special effects clone, not so much. Regardless, good publicity for the company and a nod to it's Nascar history and I'm not changing my opinion about that.

 

[mrneuro]

Anyone wondering about how investments in Nascar can pay off many years later, here is a good example.

You'd have to prove that the people who watched the movie bought Chrysler cars because of the movie (and generated enough profit to overcome the costs Chrysler sunk into the movie). I'm not holding my breath for your data...

I'm guessing that it's better to invest in more targeted advertising and research/testing that actually benefits your products. I'm not convinced pouring money into antiquated stock cars pays off.

 

[Beentherebefore]

You'd have to prove that the people who watched the movie bought Chrysler cars because of the movie (and generated enough profit to overcome the costs Chrysler sunk into the movie). I'm not holding my breath for your data...

I'm guessing that it's better to invest in more targeted advertising and research/testing that actually benefits your products. I'm not convinced pouring money into antiquated stock cars pays off.

Well, I find it very interesting that this is basically a movie series that is supposed to feature high tech, sophisticated race cars (the protagonist races around in a Nissan GTR) and Chrysler, backing the production, could feature any of it's current model lineup, and what does it choose?...................................a (famous) 44 year old "antiquated" stock car from a series that it doesn't even deem worthy of continued support.

 

[Dave Z]

Oh, and Dart.

 

[Beentherebefore]

Oh, and Dart.

That series had some good looking girls in the few that I saw. They do need something for them to drive...............

 

[66coronet]

Oh, and Dart.

Automotive news, Chrysler is hoping Fast & Furious 6 will be kind to the Dodge Dart.

Dart isn't in the movie so why should anyone in Chrysler think it will help Dart sales? I know I sure don't.
Match Kia on warranties then that might sway a few people.
Edit- I just watched the Dart commercial of the dart at the autoblog link. That explains the why.

"For most of the cars that we build - the Daytona, Jensen, flip cars, Mustangs, stunt cars - we ran with a 500bhp Chevy LS3 V8 motor. And all the cars used this same motor, transmission and differential, so everything was interchangeable." Dennis pauses, as if to pre-empt my next question. "Believe me, 500bhp ismore than enough for what we're doing, but yes, we do have the occasional hero cars that we've sourced from friends or that we've rented. The white Mustang you see is actually an 850bhp car, and the hero car in this movie is running close to 600bhp.

Apparently the supply of 1970 Chargers is finally starting to run a little low, so the Universal NBC crew switched to 1969s and did them up to look like Daytonas. The headlights were fixed for stunt purposes and the signature nose cone and wing were shortened down. Hardcore Mopar fanatics might want to not read the next sentence: All Seven Daytona replicas are powered by Chevy LS3 crate engines.

Well, I find it very interesting that this is basically a movie series that is supposed to feature high tech, sophisticated race cars (the protagonist races around in a Nissan GTR) and Chrysler, backing the production, could feature any of it's current model lineup, and what does it choose?...................................a (famous) 44 year old "antiquated" stock car from a series that it doesn't even deem worthy of continued support.

2011 Dodge Challenger SRT8: – You’ll remember this car from the end of the last movie. Essentially it’s just a new Challenger with a front and rear wide-body conversion and big wheels. The power comes by way of a bone-stock 6.4L 392 Hemi.

2012 Dodge Charger SRT8: – These are just work-horses in the movie, and not really anything all that special. They are all powered by a stock 6.4L 392 Hemi. The production team did however use a total of 10 cars filming the cargo-plane take down scene.

So there you have it – a look at the cars worth looking at in the upcoming Fast and Furious 6. So did the production crew do a decent job picking makes and models? How about the fact that they used LS3 power in essentially every muscle car that wasn’t a brand-new Mopar or didn’t belong to them?

 

[MoparNorm]

LS3's... Looks like Hollywood has the same problem getting engines out of Mopar, as regional and NASCAR racers do...

 

[Dave Z]

Maybe the LS3 is just cheap and the engine/transmission combination is relatively small and fits into a lot of stuff.

 

[MoparNorm]

Maybe the LS3 is just cheap and the engine/transmission combination is relatively small and fits into a lot of stuff.

It's both inexpensive and plentiful, with tons of aftermarket support.
Mopar continues to dwindle support and price parts very high.
It makes it very challenging to be a supporter and user of Mopar Performance.
They used to think they were untouchable and could demand any price, but their market size for performance is slowly eroding, as they force more and more racers and builders into the ford and GM camp.
Hopefully when they have their fiscal house in order they can focus on this, but they will have a big hurdle to win back hearts and minds.

 

[Dave Z]

Norm, isn't that the way it's always been? I remember the same complaints in the 1980s. I suspect there was a time between the 392 and stronger Wedges that people were saying it.

One does need to be consistent in racing support, I think, and you are absolutely right that Chrysler is not.

 

[dak4x4]

Think of all the General Lee 1969 Chargers that were wrecked in filming the show, the Dukes of Hazzard. Through the history of the show, an estimated 309 Chargers were used; 17 are still known to exist in various states of repair. A replica was owned by John Schneider, known as "Bo's General Lee". In 2008, Schneider sold "Bo's General Lee" at the Barrett-Jackson automobile auction for $450,000. The show also used 1968 Chargers (which shared the same sheet metal) by changing the grille and taillight panel to the 1969 style, and removing the round side marker lights. These Chargers performed many record-breaking jumps throughout the show, almost all of them resulting in a completely destroyed car.

 

[Curtis Redgap]

Hey fellas..........c'mon..........itsa movie! The engines were the stunt doubles for the real thing. Don't want to endanger a real character actor when a clone sort of device is available.... even if it is a bit wheezy in comparison.

 

[Beentherebefore]

Norm, isn't that the way it's always been? I remember the same complaints in the 1980s. I suspect there was a time between the 392 and stronger Wedges that people were saying it.

One does need to be consistent in racing support, I think, and you are absolutely right that Chrysler is not.

I may go back farther than you do, Dave, but I can tell you that back in the 60s and early 70s, under racing "Tzar" Ronny Householder, there was enthusiastic company support for Chrysler racers in Nascar, USAC (the #2 stock series @ that time), ARCA, Nascar East & West, IMCA (now defunct), Sprint cars, and, of course, NHRA. There was even a factory backed effort to run a Chrysler small block in IRL when stock blocks were encouraged. Any Chrysler racer with a reputation coud get through to somebody in the company racing heirarchy for tech information and a line to hard to get parts/pieces. The wins and championships in the afforementioned series were literally "a dime-a-dozen" (subject for another thread?) and the company still lives off the "performance" reputation today that it garnered in those years. Even after Mr Householder retired and the company hit some hard times, his legacy lived on with the "Direct Connection" program which gave Mopar racers direct access to performance engineers at the company well up into the 80s when the head of the company decided that it would be better off being known as the "minivan" company. Even then, there was factory supported activity - Jimmy Sills won a Silver Crown sprint car championship for Mopar in the 80s and Mark Kinser won a World of Outlaws championship w/Mopar power in 1999, if this tired ol' memory is still serving me correctly.

So, no, it's not the way that it's always been. This time period, right now, is the worst that it has ever been, imo, at least in my lifetime. There is literally ZERO, ZILCH, NADA competitive Chrysler participation in any major US racing series except NHRA and the Viper program. This from a company with a whole division and brand dedicated to "performance".