Underglow neons, Nitrous bottles, body graphics, Japanese imports, and street racing — this was exactly what the early 2000s car culture looked like, which was perfectly depicted in the 2003 film 2 Fast 2 Furious, the second installment to what is now one of the most iconic movie franchises of all time. They've gone from the streets of LA, stealing DVD players, to evading Miami's Finest, and now, the latest F9 movie features military-grade weapons and a Fiero spaceship. The series has come so far, both literally and figuratively.

The cars in the movie franchise, especially in the earlier installments, have gained a cult following in the aftermarket scene, with most of the Fast and Furious cars emerging as great collectibles that now fetch huge amounts of money when posted on auction sites. But there have been quite some interesting stories about the cars of the iconic movie franchise that people didn't know about, and we're taking a look at some of the cars from 2 Fast 2 Furious.

10 Brian's Skyline Was A Legit GT-R

R34 (fastandfuriousfandom)
via fastandfuriousfandom

As mentioned earlier, the 2 Fast 2 Furious movie came out in 2003, and the Nissan Skyline was still illegal in the United States. So how did the producers get away with it?

r34 (pinterest)
via pinterest

There was actually a company that legally imported JDM Nissan Skyline GT-Rs into the United States called Motorex, who federalized R34s to pass the required NHTSA's tests. However, it was short-lived, and only a few GT-Rs made it through the US legally, including one used in the film by Paul Walker.

RELATED : The Wild Tale Behind Skyline GT-R Importer MotoRex And What Went Wrong

9 Suki's S2000 Belonged To Johnny Tran

s2000 (reddit)
via reddit

It's hard to forget the iconic hot pink Honda S2000 driven by Suki, Devon Aoki's character in the 2 Fast 2 Furious movie. But if you've seen the first two movies and look closely, there is something similar between Suki's and Johnny Tran's car — the front bumper.

s2000 (s2ki)
via s2ki

It's because it's the very same car, only repainted to suit Suki's character in the film. Back then, the producers still had a limited budget to buy completely new cars, so some of the cars in the first movie were recycled to appear in the second film.

RELATED : 10 Things You Should Know Before Buying A Honda S2000​

8 Slap Jack's Supra Belonged To Brian

supra (hotcars)
via hotcars

If you still haven't noticed, the winning cars from the first film appeared in the second film's first race, with only the Skyline brought on as a new addition. Brian's closest challenger that race was Slap Jack, who was driving a Toyota Supra.

supra (fastandfuriousfacts)
via fastandfuriousfacts

Like the S2000, the Supra was a recycled car from the first film, and only had a different bodykit and graphics. The main feature of Slap Jack's Supra is the plexiglass hood, which exposed the engine inside.

RELATED : 10 Things People Forgot About The Fast And Furious Supra

7 Orange Julius' RX-7 Belonged To Dom

rx7 (hotcars)
via hotcars

Orange Julius was the guy who drove the Mazda RX-7 in the first race, and largely raced against Suki in the S2000. What people don't know is, the orange car used to be red, and it was Dominic Toretto's car in the first Fast and Furious movie.

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via youtube

It was repurposed and restyled to conform to the aftermarket trend of car customization back in 2003, and no longer featured sound systems and chrome wheels.

6 Roman's Eclipse Spyder Sounded Like A Subaru

eclipse (jalopnik)
via jalopnik

Back in 2003, Roman Pearce's Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder looked great. But looking back, we can't help but see how much of a ricer it really is. Just look at the ride height, the chrome wheels and the graphics. This was one of the cars from the franchise that didn't really age well.

eclipse (picsart)
via picsart

The worst thing is, the car sounded like a Subaru boxer engine, and that's because the sound mixers of the movie used an Impreza STi just to give the car a meaner exhaust note.

5 Brian's Evo Was Imported From Japan

evo (fastandfuriousfacts)
via fastandfuriousfacts

When the 2 Fast 2 Furious movie was made, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution was not yet available in the United States, and Mitsubishi wasn't planning on selling the Evo VII there either. However, the Japanese manufacturer intervened in the movie and made the car look like the incoming Evo VIII with the black and red taillights modified by TYC.

evo (motor1)
via motor1

The Candy Lime Gold Evo VII driven by Paul Walker actually came straight out of Japan, and was intended to be used by a rally team in Austria, hence the left-hand drive configuration.

4 Brian's Yenko Camaro Packed Serious Power

yenko camaro (deviantart)
via deviantart

To be honest, in real life, the Evo VII and the Eclipse Spyder wouldn't have stood a chance in the pink slip race against the Orange Dodge Challenger and the Blue Yenko Camaro.

yenko camaro (mecum)
via mecum

It's because the Yenko yanks out about 450 hp from the 427 V8 engine. It wasn't just a movie line when Brian said the car "could snap the speedo in about 5 seconds flat", it was really a fast car.

3 The Crushed Saleen Mustang Was Not Legit

saleen mustang (motorious)
via motorious

At the time of 2 Fast 2 Furious' release, the Saleen Mustang was at the height of its popularity. The producers wanted to mix it up by adding muscle cars in the movie to go up against the Japanese imports.

saleen mustang (svtperformance)
via svtperformance

During the highway scene, a Saleen Mustang was crushed when it was sandwiched between two semi-trucks. However, the crushed car fortunately was not a legit Saleen S281, instead, it was a Mustang GT with an automatic transmission.

2 The Viper SRT-10 Used To Be Red

viper (gulfcoastmotorworks)
via gulfcoastmotorworks

Another car that appeared in the highway chase scene was a Dodge Viper SRT-10. It was one of the first batches of the new SRT-10 version, which saw a redesigned front bumper and headlights, together with a few performance enhancements.

viper (bestmoviecars)
via bestmoviecars

These were loaned to the producers of the film with a stipulation of bringing them back in the same pristine condition. As a result, the producers painted the cars yellow for the film, then returned it back to the original red color once they finished filming.

1 We Never Saw Suki's 350Z

350z (my350z)
via my350z

In the scene where Brian was showing Roman around Tej's garage while Tej is hosting a jet ski race, we could see Suki sketching the graphics of her new 350Z, calling it "a work in progress".

350z (keithbryanburns)
via keithbryanburns

However, we didn't get to see the actual product throughout the movie, even in the big scene at the end where a lot of cars came out of the garage to confuse the cops where Brian and Roman were. It's such a shame, as the 350Z sported what looked like a set of Nismo lightweight alloy rims similar to the ones used on the Skyline GT-R Z-Tune.