Deconstructing the Final Race in the Fast and the Furious Franchise

by "Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig" (AndySheehan-StreetsideStig)
Published 05/23/2017 at 17:03

No Tags
STARS: 4

The Fast and the Furious franchise is not what it once was. It probably never will be again, though it may stretch beyond our living years, when Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson have used their immense riches to replace their withered forms with abnormally huge androids. After seeing The Fate of the Furious , I know that this is no longer a car franchise, but a superhero franchise with cars. Racing scenes have tapered off in recent movies, replaced by The Rock doing Captain America things, but Fate offered one token street race that very well may be the last in the franchise. I have thoughts.

Spoilers ahead, but nothing you couldn’t have predicted.

In fair Havana we lay our scene, and it isn’t a poverty-stricken Communist wasteland, but a magical place full of immaculate American cars and empty streets. Dom’s cousin (Dom has cousins?) is a fledgling taxi driver who borrowed money from a shady character called Raldo to buy a ’50 Chevy. He hasn’t made enough as a taxiest to keep up the payments, and Raldo is going to repo the Chevy as a result. Dom gives his little cousin a stern talking-t0 about keeping your word, and everything is after-school G.I. Joe PSA until Raldo starts running his mouth and insults Letty. Dom promptly challenges him to a street race, and Raldo accepts, as long as he agrees to race the Chevy against his ’56 Ford restomod. Winner takes both cars.

The only problem is that the Chevy is the “slowest car on the island,” disregarding the countless Ladas and Fiat 126s crowding the real streets of Cuba. Of course, Dom agrees, pledging that “It’s not what’s under the hood that counts, but who’s behind the wheel,” or something like that. Which is totally untrue. In the real world. But Dom starts modifying the car, which is when I got interested. I’m down for a little automotive fantasy.

Using his herculean strength, he starts ripping off body panels. Or maybe they were held on with zip-ties. You don’t know in F&F or Cuba. Either way, it’s great. Kids, if you want your car to be faster, make it lighter. I like it. Dom grabs his cousin’s Coca-Cola™ can and pulls off the pop-tab, jamming it onto the waste gate vacuum line. Oh right. The car has a turbo. According to Dennis McCarthy, the real life guy who supervises all of the movie car builds for F&F, this is because the V8 under the hood was pulled from a boat, but that’s not explained in the movie.

Anyway, Dom needs boost. Pinching the vacuum line to the waste gate will open it more than usual, offering that boost. Bad for the engine, but good for power. This actually is explained, in precisely 3.2 seconds. Dom also runs a bit of wire from the tab to the cabin, so he can totally pull the hose if he needs to, slamming the gate open completely and throwing the system into full boost. No, there’s no telling what 30 pounds of boost would do to an ancient boat engine, but I allowed it. Dom is working on a car and not backing one out of a plane at 30,000 ft.

Next, Letty appears with an ancient looking bottle of nitrous oxide. In a Youtube video, McCarthy explains that this was borrowed from a nearby dentist’s office, but this bit of plot was cut from the movie as well. Medical nitrous does not equal car nitrous, but who cares? This is fun, fantastical car stuff. This is my jam.

The race begins, Dom uses his emergency boost pulltab and laughing gas nitrous, and his engine, of course, catches fire. I like this for two reasons. Firstly, because it’s far more realistic than Brian’s floorboards falling out in in the first movie because there was too much NOS. And secondly, because since I was an embryo, I’ve been seeing hot rods with flames painted down the sides, and now Dom’s car has the real thing . Rock and roll, boomers.

Dom and Raldo reach the final strait, neck and neck. The fire belching out of Dom’s engine bay is so hot it shatters his ancient glass windshield, flying in his face. If you work for Corning or something, you can speculate on the viability of this. It’s not a problem for Dom. He spins the car around, rams open the throttle, and wins the race in reverse. The engine seems to explode in the last split-second, giving Dom the rocket boost he needs to beat Raldo across the line.

Oh, the fire under the hood has melted the brake lines, so he can’t stop the car and has to ditch it over the seawall into the Caribbean.

I sat back in my cinema chair and frowned in thought. That was a pretty fun race . Not particularly realistic, of course, but at least a tree that grew out of the soil of reality. I thought the reverse victory was really dumb until I did a little more research. According to McCarthy, the ’50 Ford has a tractor transmission, which had 4 forward gears and a gear that reversed the entire transmission, all 4 gears. So yes, the car could go as fast in reverse as it could forward. I don’t know if tractor gearing allows for those speeds in general, but I do know that it wouldn’t be unusual to see such a setup in Cuba. It was a real thing. What a great scene!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

But thinking on it more now, I can’t help but theorize that it was probably an ending. We know that there will be at least two more Fast films. We know that there will probably be a franchise spinoff soon starring The Rock and Jason Statham. And we know, thanks to this hilarious and excellent article at Bloomberg, that the franchise has featured less and less racing and more and more Brosnan-era James Bond craziness.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

I want to believe that future Fast films will still feature racing, but I can’t. The movies don’t want to discuss cars, or car modification, anymore. Gone are the days of “2JZ engine, no ****!” or a bunch of kids building a drift-ready Mustang. Instead, they’d rather save their time for keyboard-frenzied cyber battles and completely bogus car hacking. Sadly, F8 was glutted with that. Almost everything cool I learned about Dom’s cousin’s 1950 Ford Fleetline I had to find out from interviews with the actual car’s builder. It was all really cool stuff, just not cool enough for Hollywood to let it into the final cut.

The Fate of the Furious almost seems ashamed of its gearhead heritage, and this scene proves it. Why not let someone explain the tractor transmission? The boat engine? Maybe take more than the blink of an eye to explain the waste gate? The deletion didn’t even make the movie better as a whole. There are swaths of boring, transparent techno-babble later on, along with enough villainous, groaner one-liners to feed Mystery Science Theater 3000 for a week. Can we spare a few minutes for the car enthusiasts who funded this franchise?

Maybe they want to distance themselves from street racing. This would make sense, since street racing is extremely dumb and dangerous, and illegal driving literally killed the headline star of the franchise. The Cuba scene even features a pair of motorbikes dive-bombing into busy streets to halt traffic, as if this is safer somehow. But surely there are more ways to work genuine gearhead interest back into the franchise.

Sure, there are cool cars later on. A featured Lamborghini Mercielago, a Howe & Howe sportstank, and even a C2 Corvette coupe inspired by a real life autocross champion. But none of it is elaborated upon too much. They’re not so much cars as they are action devices. Like torpedoes, gas-powered circular saws, remote machine guns, jet packs, nuclear missiles, conventional missiles, heat-seeking missiles, grappling hooks, and Dwayne Johnson’s inhuman biceps. Yes, all of those things are prominently featured.

But what are producers to do? They have to go with what works. The Fate of the Furious grossed more on its opening weekend than Star Wars: The Force Awakens . People love these movies, and they especially love the ones with less racing. I get it. It’s business.

However, I do have a charge for Universal Pictures. Keep a slow burn going. Keep racing in these movies. Maybe offer a little more car stuff with each successive movie. Maybe you’ll say that people aren’t into cars as much as they once were, and that’s probably not true. But even if it is, you have the power to change that. Countless gearheads around the world became gearheads because of 2001’s The Fast and the Furious . You can create new gearheads with your films , too. And it’s a smart plan, because pretty soon, your franchise is going to have very little to differentiate itself from Transformers , G.I. Joe , and any number of boiled-thick action franchises vying for summer weekend slots. Fans will become fatigued with another loud, anonymous, explodey action series, and yours will need to stand out.

Car culture built The Fast and the Furious , and car culture can keep it alive.

Full disclosure: This is really late, but we just got it posted on StreetsideAuto.com today because we switched blog platforms. What’s there to say except, “You’re welcome?”

Replies (23)

"Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW!" (theduckduck)
05/23/2017 at 17:15, STARS: 2

I most likely not watch the future movies. At least not in theatre. They are too far gone. I mainly want to see the cars and YouTube has pretty much all I want and need for that part.

"crowmolly" (crowmolly)
05/23/2017 at 17:16, STARS: 4

Medical nitrous does not equal car nitrous, but who cares?

Splitting hairs, but medical grade N2O will behave the same. It just doesn’t have the 100ppm sulfur dioxide that Speed grade stuff (Nitrous Plus) has to prevent abuse.

"StudyStudyStudy" (jesterjin)
05/23/2017 at 17:21, STARS: 1

I hate to be “that guy,” but the result should be closing the waste gate no? Pinching the waste gate line sends less boost signal overall to the bottom of the diaphram to assist to overcome the waste gate spring which one open allows the exhaust to bypass the turbo resulting in less boost, so pinching the line keeps the wastegate closed longer = more power. Pulling the line off completely sends no signal to the bottom of the waste gate so it has to overcome the spring all by itself.

Regardless, your point of the franchise is valid. My sister who is a couple years older really likes the first couple movies, she grew up when the guys at school were into that genre and it was interesting to see it on the big screen. The new ones she watches and forgets immediately. No connection to that era at all, just an action flick.

"Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig" (AndySheehan-StreetsideStig)
05/23/2017 at 18:00, STARS: 0

Yeah, I don’t really know the difference, I’d just heard that once.

"Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig" (AndySheehan-StreetsideStig)
05/23/2017 at 18:00, STARS: 1

Yeah, I’ve liked the last couple because I’m a sucker for dumb action movies, but even I have my limits. The above scene was definitely my favorite in the movie.

"Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig" (AndySheehan-StreetsideStig)
05/23/2017 at 18:01, STARS: 0

I figured I’d screw up that language somehow. I’m definitely no expert on wastegates.

"HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles" (hondasfordsvolvo)
05/23/2017 at 18:16, STARS: 0

So just as much bang, not as much laughing gas

" The Compromiser" (charger)
05/23/2017 at 18:18, STARS: 4

I turned to my wife during the airplane battle and said, “ I could watch a whole movie of Jason Statham and the baby.”

"Speed" (raggedrides)
05/23/2017 at 18:32, STARS: 3

Word. Those two need a spinoff.

"just-a-scratch" (just-a-scratch)
05/23/2017 at 18:52, STARS: 3

That sounds a bit like what’s done with denatured alcohol (ethanol). Add a bit of a chemical that makes the product far less useful outside its intended purpose.

"just-a-scratch" (just-a-scratch)
05/23/2017 at 19:02, STARS: 0

I never understood that bit in the movie. I guess I don’t know much about waste gates. It’s my impression that vacuum lines aren’t typically used with a waste gate. In a forced induction system, no part of the intake system is typically under vacuum. Further, I thought it was typical to use the difference in boost pressure and atmospheric pressure to control waste gate (valve) position/opening. As such, the typical implementation would be to reference one side of an actuator (diaphragm) to atmosphere, and the other to boost pressure. The difference in pressure can drive a spring & diaphragm to different positions. Consequently no vacuum would be used.

What am I missing?

"crowmolly" (crowmolly)
05/23/2017 at 19:04, STARS: 1

Yup, same with a lot of stuff that has alcohol in it.

"TheBimmerGuyWhoNowOwnsAChevy" (thebimmerguy)
05/23/2017 at 19:15, STARS: 2

I absolutely hated the end of that race but with the tractor transmission, I’m okay with it now. And some would say that the boat engine thing was explained too, a few scenes earlier a is guy showing off his car and Dom says it’s a boat engine by looking at a part and then they hug because if the “spirit of doing what you can” after the guy explains parts are hard to come by or something like that, so with a giant leap if logic you could imply other cars had boat engines, otherwise I won’t defend it any farther.

"StudyStudyStudy" (jesterjin)
05/23/2017 at 20:00, STARS: 1

No worries, once you see a plumbing diagram it makes sense. Once you get into the turbo efficiency and exhaust sizing you can get lost again though.

Also medical grade nitrous would actually probably work, usually to prevent people from using automotive use nitrous recreationally they spike it with another ingredient. I believe laughing gas just is more or less the pure form. So you can use medical grade nitrous for cars, but you cannot use automotive use nitrous for medicine.

Pressure, chemistry, and gasses are kind of my area of knowledge :P

"StudyStudyStudy" (jesterjin)
05/23/2017 at 20:03, STARS: 0

The laughing gas would act as an additional source of oxygen, so more boost plus nitrous would definitely supply as much air/oxygen needed, the problem would be that an engine like that probably wouldn’t have the fueling to keep up with it. So end result more boost, more nitrous, one big bang.

"StudyStudyStudy" (jesterjin)
05/23/2017 at 20:22, STARS: 1

This is gonna be long TL;DR below.

They are called vacuum lines, but that is usually just to denote the fact that they are not really suitable for fuel/oil/coolant for example. If we were being really technical there are areas of vacuum, while on boost you have vacuum on the turbo intake (air feeding into the compressor housing). Off boost you have vacuum in the intake manifold, potentially some of the charge pipe depending on the routing and pressure differential across the intercooler.

Actually almost all turbo systems have vacuum lines running to the waste gate. Basically the wastegate is usually a FASOR (Forward Air Spring Operated Return) type arrangement or maybe a FOSAR (Forward Operated Spring Air Return). The spring is actively holding the waste gate shut, the force of the exhaust will eventually push the spring open unless the spring is set higher then the max exhaust pressure. To control the timing of the waste gate opening they usually use a sealed diaphram on the bottom (not spring side) which is fed a boost signal via a vacuum line. Once the boost+exhaust force overcomes the spring the waste gate opens. To control boost level one usually intercepts or bleeds this signal (hence the term bleed valve for some boost controllers).

Most factory style systems are what is known as a single port waste gate. It only has the boost reference port at the bottom (not spring side), so technically the other side could be considered atmosphere. Most aftermarket units are two port, one on the bottom (not spring side) and one on the top (spring side). That gives you more control as you can now balance the values on either side.

TL;DR vacuum lines are called vacuum lines, but not only used for vacuum. The wastegate really only has two positions, open and closed. The boost level doesn’t dictate where the wastegate sits, it usually is a signal that delays or quickens the point when the wastegate opens.

"just-a-scratch" (just-a-scratch)
05/23/2017 at 20:54, STARS: 1

Not so much Too Long, I Did Read. Thanks.
I gotta go studystudystudy some schematics for turbos, or as they call them in my industry Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams and Process Flow Diagrams.

"Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig" (AndySheehan-StreetsideStig)
05/23/2017 at 20:57, STARS: 0

Yeah, someone else mentioned that. Auto nitrous tends to include additives or something.

"Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig" (AndySheehan-StreetsideStig)
05/23/2017 at 21:01, STARS: 1

Yeah, I remembered when he said that, and afterward I wondered why that line wasn’t moved to the Chevy mod scene. He could’ve even said, “It’s another boat engine, so at least we got a turbo,” or something like that. Those are the kind of lines I’m looking for that would keep the gearheads interested.

"TheBimmerGuyWhoNowOwnsAChevy" (thebimmerguy)
05/23/2017 at 21:30, STARS: 0

Who knows, from what I can see the franchise became more action than car focused around the 3rd, maybe 4th movie

"Andy Sheehan, StreetsideStig" (AndySheehan-StreetsideStig)
05/24/2017 at 08:19, STARS: 2

Well, the 3rd was arguably the most gearheaded movie of all, though it had the worst acting and script. Four was pretty gearheaded. Five at least had more racing and that whole bit with finding the right cars for the job. Six was when I think the trend really started. Plenty of cool cars (we’re in the UK and we have to find pre-EFI cars), but also lots of silly action and a 27 mile runway.

"Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW!" (theduckduck)
05/24/2017 at 08:38, STARS: 0

I agree but, the whole part in Cuba felt like I was watching a tourist destination video with a race thrown in it. Like this was the only way they were allowed to shoot here is if 90% shows the wonders of Cuba.

"StudyStudyStudy" (jesterjin)
05/24/2017 at 12:39, STARS: 0

Well I appreciate you slogging through that. Like a lot of things once you look at the diagram or hold the part in your hand much easier to get. It is funny though, if you search online you can find posts by people looking for boost lines, and people recommending vacuum lines and fighting over it.