‘Fast X’ Garage: Behind the Scenes of Making the Film's Coolest Muscle Cars and Motorcycles

Dennis McCarthy has what many would call the best job in show business. For the past eight Fast and Furious films, his team at Vehicle Effects has been in charge of acquiring, transporting, and tricking out all the shiny toys we see onscreen. The original started with modded cars from the world of street racing, but since then the franchise’s fleet has expanded to include almost anything you can imagine with a motor, from muscle cars to motorcycles.

For McCarthy, the process of sourcing vehicles starts early, sometimes before the script is even finished. The first information usually comes from the directors and producers, who tip him off to plot points that'll include some hot wheels. Almost as important as what the machine needs to do, is who’s driving it. Each member of the cast has their own distinct personality, and their rides need to reflect them. Such is the case in Fast X, with everyone’s cars matching their personal aesthetic, including Sung Kang’s fan favorite Han Seoul-Oh, who returns in a 1974 Alfa Romero 2000 GT.

“I’ve always been drawn to older cars,” says Kang, a motorsports enthusiast before joining the franchise. “This Alfa Romero is the grandfather of the modern sports car, and is about 50 years old. That makes it around the same age as me, and I feel a responsibility to show it off in the right way. The orange and black are definitely Han colors as well.” The actor enjoyed the car so much, he bought it for himself. Just another indicator that McCarthy is good at what he does.

Here, in his own words, McCarthy gives us a peek inside the Fast X garage and shares a little backstory on each car and motorcycle.

2022 Harley-Davidson Pan American

Driven by Jason Momoa as Dante Reyes

This was a super fun build (shown above). Jason is a huge Harley Davidson fan so obviously he was really invested. He was calling and FaceTimeing me all the time to see how it looked during the process and get the latest. This is truly a pared-down version of the Pan American. We stripped away anything we could from the windshield to the blinkers. This bike was all about speed and power, which meant we wanted it as raw as possible. What you see in the movie is really different than what you see when these bikes are delivered new. Because he has a lot of experience riding, Jason was able to really ride this Harley in the movie. Since the scene called for him to not wear a helmet, you can see that big smile.

1970 Dodge Charger

Driven by Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto

I tried to go back to the first Fast movie with this one. It’s a stock-body Charger. I did change the wheels a little bit, because I’ve always hated the wheels in the first movie. The old ones were Keystones that weren’t even cool in the 1970s. I was able to create the perception that Torretto Sr. had his street wheels and his race wheels. For the latter, I went with these Centerline wheels from the '80s.

The ride height was the same, as well as the seats. Everything was a match to what people see in the first film. We probably went through 30 sets of tires filming that first scene with it. We filmed in the Dodger Stadium parking lot, which has this old, nasty asphalt that was tearing up the tires. The wheels would only last 10 or 15 minutes at the time with the burnouts we were doing. That was a fun day—nothing but burnouts and donuts.

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The cars had over 500 horsepower with an LS motor and Turbo400 transmission. They were up to the task of being used and abused all day long. In a real drag race setting, those cars are taking a few hours to break between being used again as the other cars race, but not ours. They just get hammered for performance, but they stood up against the wear and tear.

1974 Alfa Romeo 2000 GT

Driven by Sung Kang as Han Seoul-Oh

My friend Alex King helped source and build this car. It was done with a Ford EcoBoost supercharged engine. This car is extremely fun to drive. I had a chance to drive it myself when it was here at the shop. It’s very fast and very nimble, just like they describe in the movie. The car was a true performer and I think it would have prevailed if they actually raced it against Lamborghini Gallardo in the city like they were hinting to in the movie.

The car seems like it doesn’t fit with many of the others we've seen in the Fast and Furious world, but it’s really perfect for those streets in Rome you see it driving in. Plus, it’s an Italian car, which makes it even more fitting.

2006 Lamborghini Gallardo

Driven by Tyrese GIbson as Roman Pearce

This is one of those cars you see and just know what character it’s for. This is no doubt a Roman Pearce car. There really isn’t much we needed or wanted to do to the car at all. Of course we wanted to make sure the color reflected Roman, so we put it in this Roman Gold wrap.

2022 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat

Driven by Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto

It goes without saying who's going to be driving any Charger we see. These cars will always perform like rock stars, and we were lucky enough to get to play with a few of them pretty early. They're hard to improve on, because they're durable, look amazing, and are always imposing. The grills have gotten a little more narrow, the lights have gotten cooler, and the spoilers have changed a little. The biggest thing for me is the wide body design, which I think is a huge improvement. The slight amount of work we did with them started with some computer modifications and an independent brake system.

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The biggest deviation we made was the Whipple supercharger, which we tried to tie into the Dodge theme of the shaker hood. There’s a more mechanical aesthetic there. I was bummed because Whipple was going to build us our own supercharger with all the specs we needed, but we ended up not having enough time to get it done. So we had to throw one together that was still functional, but not exactly the authentic one we were hoping for. The sequence in Rome is no joke, and what we do is ridiculous as always, but with the Charger you believe it.

1966 Chevrolet Impala

Driven by Jason Momoa as Dante Reyes

This car was originally scripted as something else, but when Jason got involved he made it clear he wanted something big and badass. We went back and forth on a couple different options, but when he saw the 1966 Impala, he absolutely loved it. I think the car was perfect for that drag race scene because back in the day it was an old 9-second drag race car. It had wide tires and was designed for straight line. There was a discussion on whether the race was going to turn into one that a had lots of turns in it, because that would not have been ideal.

As for the color, we were on one of our FaceTime calls and Jason mentioned that he wanted the car to be painted the same as his fingernails were. He shared a photo of his nails with me and I started the process of trying to match it as close as possible. I went to the paint shop to have them make a custom shade that matched the lavender he had on his nails. Eventually we got it right, sent it out to him, and he confirmed we were ready to go. He was stoked!

I think it was the perfect car to have go up against Dom’s Charger. I think it made for a cool race. The race was only enhanced by the other cars we had racing like the 2015 Porsche GT3 and the 1975 Datsun 240Z.

1970 Dodge Charger Hellraiser

Driven by Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto

Every movie there's one Dodge Charger we put everything into. We want to surpass the Chargers before it. We'd gone so far out with the off-road Charger, ice Charger, and mid-engine Charger. This 1970 Hellraiser was more in line with the classic Chargers we’ve seen. That said, there's very little of the original. The body is probably 90 percent after-market. Every exterior panel on there is carbon fiber with a little foundational structure that we pulled from some rust buckets we purchased out in Wisconsin.

This is truly the hero car. This is an after-market Salvaggio Designs chassis with carbon fiber built by Salvaggio. The car has a manual six-speed transmission with a sequential shifter. I get this Ken Block vibe with a shifter where you see the digital readout. The suspension is mostly made up of Detroit Speed components. There is high-angle steering and coilovers. For each Charger the ride height needs to be just right, and I stretched the wheelbase around two and a half inches. I like to move the front wheels forward, because I've always felt they have too much of an overhang typically.

Part of the job is fixing the cars during the process, and you understand quickly that not all the cars are going to make it out the other side. There's always one car that’s especially hard to see get wrecked, I would say this was the one for me on this movie. We made a lot of these, but only three survived. But seeing the finished film, they did their job and that means I did mine.

Fast X is now playing in theaters