NBC Universal Previews the Cars of Fast & Furious 6

With a commercial during the Super Bowl, NBC Universal began its campaign to conquer the world's box office with the sixth episode in the ongoing Fast & Furiousfilm franchise. That campaign continued on Sunday, March 3, when the studio invited select press to picture car coordinator Dennis McCarthy's shop in anti-glamorous Sun Valley, California to view vehicles featured in Fast & Furious 6. "Select press" included us.

Let's start by putting these cars in the context of the latest trailer for the new movie that opens May 24.

How critical an eye you want to apply to that trailer is up to you, but it's obvious that the filmmakers aren't skimping on vehicular mayhem this time either. And they've cast an eclectic group of cars to supercharge the action.

Here's a quick look at the field. More extensive features will follow.

Dom's 1969 Dodge Daytona
Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) may live life a quarter-mile at a time, but he might be better off in measuring the worth of his existence in the number of Dodge Chargers he destroys along the way. This time, however, he's pulled himself out of the 1970 models he has traditionally favored and planted his well-oiled butt in the driver seat of a 1969 Charger Daytona.

No actual Charger Daytonas were used in production of the film, and the movie's machines are subtly different from the legendary winged warrior. The nose is shorter, the deck wing is cut down lower and the pop-up headlights are gone in favor of fixed units behind plexiglas. "Fixing the headlight doors after every stunt was going to be too much hassle," said McCarthy.

As to power, under the hood of the seven Daytonas built for the film McCarthy installed General Motors LS3 small-block V8s.

 
2011 Dodge Challenger SRT8
At the end of Fast Five, Dominic (Vin Diesel) and Brian (Paul Walker) are chilling in some tropical paradise when they decide to start an impromptu race between Dom's Challenger SRT8 and Brian's Nissan GT-R. The sixth movie starts at the moment of that chase, and so Dom's late-model Challenger is back, too.

Essentially a brand-new car, the Challenger has widened front fenders, fender extensions in back and oversize wheels and tires. But mechanically, it's stock including the 6.4-liter Hemi V8 under its hood.

 2012 Dodge Charger SRT8
All these cars do is pull down a cargo plane... and burst through its nose. The production used 10 of these new cars powered by the stock 6.4-liter Hemi V8. 

Source: Edmunds