Fast and Furious' Toretto family is obviously a Mopar family. Every installment in the car franchise features a Dodge muscle car. The upcoming ninth movie showcases three Dodge Chargers. Nearly every Fast film also includes a Plymouth--Dodge's Chrysler-corporation cousin. Dominic Toretto and Letty Ortiz take a Plymouth Barracuda to California's race wars, and Dom builds a 1,000 horsepower Plymouth GTX while on the run in New York City. But the most common Plymouth model in The Fast Franchise is the Roadrunner.

Fans will never forget Vin Diesel's cameo at the end of Tokyo Drift, signaling his return to the Fast Franchise. [Spoilers ahead!] In the final scene, Lucas Black arrives at a parking lot for a drift race to find a huge 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner waiting at the starting line. Dominic Toretto is at the wheel, admits he knew Han, and challenges Boswell's character to a race.

In an homage to this first Roadrunner, Letty drives a gray 1970 Roadrunner throughout the next film: Fast & Furious. [More spoilers] She is working as a smuggler for a Mexican cartel until her boss orders her executed. In the most heartbreaking scene of the franchise, the bad guys run her off the road, flipping her car over. Then they shoot her and set the car on fire. This incredible stunt destroyed a Plymouth Roadrunner clone. But because the stunt team nailed the wreck in the first take, the remaining stunt car, used in both Tokyo Drift and Fast & Furious, survives to this day. A Hollywood insider--production designer Jamie Vickers--bought the ex-stunt car and transformed it into a stunning restomod: behold the "Furious" themed Plymouth Roadrunner.

This is where the Plymouth Roadrunner from Fast & Furious 4 is now
Via: Roadkill Customs

Like the Dodge Charger, the Plymouth Roadrunner is a large, two-door muscle car launched on Mopar's B-body chassis in 1968. To differentiate their midsize muscle car from the Charger, Plymouth paid Warner Bros. $50,000 to use the Road Runner cartoon character's name and likeness. The company spent an additional $10,000 developing a whimsical "beep, beep" horn for the car. Despite comical badging, the Roadrunner was a muscle car to contend with. Because of its full size, the Roadrunner was available with a range of powerful big-block engines. This lineup included the NASCAR-developed high-compression 426 cubic inch (7.0L) Hemi V8. The 1970 Roadrunner had very similar styling to the first two years of production, with slightly upgraded trim. This car was the basis for the legendary 1970 Superbird. To this day, a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner is an affordable no-frills piece of muscle car history.

This is where the Plymouth Roadrunner from Fast & Furious 4 is now
Via: Autotopia

Plymouth Roadrunners appear throughout the Fast Franchise. In 2006's Tokyo Drift, Dom appears in a cameo at the film's end, driving a Roadrunner. In the 2009 film Fast & Furious, Letty crashes a Roadrunner while working as a smuggler for a Mexican cartel. In 2015's Furious 7 (which takes place at the same time as Tokyo Drift), Dom visits Tokyo, driving the Roadrunner originally seen in Tokyo Drift. Later in Furious 7, Dom drives and smashes a different, burnt orange roadrunner while chasing villain Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) across Los Angeles.

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This is where the Plymouth Roadrunner from Fast & Furious 4 is now
Via: Roadkill Customs

As the Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift production crew planned the Vin Diesel cameo that would herald Dominic Toretto's return to the franchise, they knew it would be at a street race at the film's end. Previously, Dom's most memorable car had been the Toretto family's 1970 Charger R/T. The crew wanted him to reappear in a Mopar muscle car with the same size and presence, so they opted for a Plymouth Roadrunner. They chose one of the most famous Roadrunners on the planet: a custom 1970 pro-tourer with an aluminum 3rd-generation Hemi engine swapped by Steve Strope of California-based Pure Vision Design. The muscle car is nicknamed "Hammer." Hammer debuted at the SEMA show and was featured in Mopar Muscle Magazine. The film crew could not afford to damage the show car, so they also secured a second 1970 Roadrunner for stunts.

One Roadrunner Survived Fast & Furious

This is where the Plymouth Roadrunner from Fast & Furious 4 is now
Via: Autotopia

Hammer's appearance won the approval of die-hard Mopar fans. As the picture car coordinators brainstormed a car for Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) to drive during Fast & Furious, they decided upon another gray 1970 Roadrunner. They modified two Plymouth Satellites as Roadrunner clones for the film. They also re-used Hammer's Tokyo Drift stunt double for some of the action scenes. Filming the Fast & Furious stunts and Letty's dramatic crash destroyed both Satellite cars entirely. The backup car, the Roadrunner that had originally done stunt duty on Tokyo Drift, had been prepared for shooting the second take of Letty's crash. But when the filmmakers pulled off the scary stunt in one take, this car was spared.

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Building A Furious Tribute Roadrunner

This is where the Plymouth Roadrunner from Fast & Furious 4 is now
Via: Autotopia

After Fast & Furious wrapped, a production designer named Jamie Vickers bought the Roadrunner stunt car. He went over the vehicle's every system, restoring it and modifying it into one of the most ambitious resto-mods on the road.

The vehicle's new powerplant is a 426 Hemi bored out to nearly 500 cubic inches by pioneering race engine-builder Keith Black. This drag-race-ready engine turns out more than 760 horsepower. At the same time, the monstrous big-block produces 800 foot-pounds of torque. Behind the engine is beefed-up Tremec five-speed manual transmission. Vickers had to completely redesign the hood, building a tall cold-air intake to clear the air filters perched atop the huge engine. He modernized the car's stopping power with Wilwood's six-piston disc brakes. The suspension now boasts a lightened K-frame and front coil overs as well as swaybars front and rear. Finally, Vickers reshaped the rear fenders to fit wider, track-worthy tires.

This is where the Plymouth Roadrunner from Fast & Furious 4 is now
Via: Roadkill Customs

The roll-caged interior is barebones with supportive race seats and simple gauges set in a carbon-fiber dash. Vickers kept a consistent look throughout the masterpiece vehicle, using flat paints or bare metals and rhino-coating the trunk and matching toolbox. He paid homage to the Fast Franchise and his Roadrunner's stunt car heritage while building a tuned pro-tourer. The end product is a furious race-ready and highly driveable Mopar muscle car. The Torettos would be proud.

Sources: Overview: Fast and Furious fandom Tokyo Drift Plymouth: Barrett Jackson Auctions, Pure Vision Design. Fast & Furious (4) Plymouth: 20screws, Hot Rod Magazine, Roadkill Customs, and Autotopia on Youtube, Fast and Furious 7 Plymouth: The NewsWheel, Orlando Park Stop, Mecum Auctions

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