OK---F & F now has a Daytona?

[1974dodgecharger]

Dude we need more NOSSSSS!!!!

you already got a heavy foot your car wont handle it.....


no man I need two of these by tonight!!!!!!!!

[Mike DC]

Huh Huh? Did you miss the pic I posted above? The one where there's about 5 feet of air between the ground and the front bumper and room to spare in the back?

I said "if they had actually used stock tires."  

I was picturing the stock rear suspension too, which rides lower than a drag car.  And the rear leafs should compress at least a little bit when you put the whole car's weight onto it.  In this scenario the rear valance will hit the pavement when the front end is still pretty low.  The whole thing makes for a disappointing visual compared to the dragsrip-type wheelstand that people are used to seeing.

===============================

And with multiple takes required for everything, that hydraulic thing makes it so much easier on the film crew and car that I imagine the Dukes crew would be upset they never thought of it if they have seen what F&F did.

Both the wheelstanding methods in the F&F movies have needed CGI effects to erase equipment visible on the car.  Not an option in 1985.    

The only time I've seen wheelies effectively done without CGI effects is in the old "Herbie" movies.  In the first 1969 movie they crane-lifted the front end of the car with wires.  In the 3rd movie they actually built a wheelstander Beetle.  Fiberglass body shell, big rear tires, more clearance on the rear end, etc.  It helps that old Beetles are rear engined to begin with.  



IMHO an effective wheelstanding General Lee prop-car might be feasible without CGI fixes.  But it would have to be a more extreme single-purpose vehicle than Rich Sephton's.  (The producers would probably want it to be able to pull the front wheels on dirt roads, for example!)  I'm thinking maybe a fiberglass Charger shell with half a ton of extra ballast in the trunk.  The end result would probably be more of a special effect rig than an automobile, just able to do the brief 25-mph takeoff shot and that's it.  

Rich's wheelstander is a real car.  It would have been a lot more suited to live shows.  It could safely blast down a dragstrip at 100 mph.   When you see it up close, an alcohol-burning blown 440 in the backseat of real '69 Charger is a lot cooler than seeing 1000 lbs of trunk ballast in a fiberglass body shell.

 

[JB400]

You'd have to have some high arched springs to get the front end to raise as high as on F&F which is doable.  The stand up General was more of an exhibition piece than meant for tv. It doesn't really go with the show to have a stock car doing a drag race style wheelie launch.  But, I think if the producers wanted it to do a wheelie, it would have done a wheelie.  It done everything else except do a jump where it does a barrel roll in mid air and lands on all 4's.  A guy did actually do that, and he's been the only one to do it that I know of.

[Kern Dog]

The last 2 F&F movies have morphed into an "Oceans 11" on Hi-Test. The cars, THE reason that guys like me go to see these movies, have almost become secondary to the movie.

[JB400]

Found this while surfing for pic I accidentally deleted

[Fred]

The last 2 F&F movies have morphed into an "Oceans 11" on Hi-Test. The cars, THE reason that guys like me go to see these movies, have almost become secondary to the movie.

That is so right. And it's a real shame.

[Mike DC]

  
If they hadn't moved away from the earlier formula they wouldn't have made more than 2-3 movies.  The series had to grow in some kind of direction to survive so long with the same characters.  I really like what they've done with it this way.  


But I agree that F&F has changed enough to leave the hardcore car guys unsatisfied.  The market will be ready for a different car-movie franchise after this one is over.
 

[1974dodgecharger]

 
If they hadn't moved away from the earlier formula they wouldn't have made more than 2-3 movies.  The series had to grow in some kind of direction to survive so long with the same characters.  I really like what they've done with it this way.  


But I agree that F&F has changed enough to leave the hardcore car guys unsatisfied.  The market will be ready for a different car-movie franchise after this one is over.
 

your still missing noooosss........

[Ghoste]

I think we're ready right now Mike.

[Mike DC]

  
     
The first F&F movie 11 years ago was arguably the purest "car movie" in the series.  By far the most highly respected car in the movie was a 1970 Charger, done up in a throwback 70s/80s style, and portrayed as more powerful than any of the modern imports.  Does this formula sound like a winner?  And yet I don't remember the Mopar hobby being too enthused about it.   


I stand by what I said earlier - we won't be happy with any car movie that is mainstream enough to get made these days.  
    

[Ghoste]

I think the movie had far far more to do with ricers than any other type of car and the Mopar hobby largely knew that.  They made the Charger look goofy even if it was the most powerful car in the flick and then only gave it minimal screen time so I'm not surprised the Mopar crowd didn't grab onto it.  Mostly the film was a modern day Robin Hood story with a cop getting drawn into the Robin Hoods word.

[Cooter]

 
         


I stand by what I said earlier - we won't be happy with any car movie that is mainstream enough to get made these days.  
   

Exactly Mike. Yet, we "Hardcore" car guys tend to think "B" movies at best, like "Vanishing point", "DMCL", etc; are "Real" Car movies. Today's kids would think the same thing my boy's buddies thought the first time he tried to get his friends to watch the full length version of these movies. Sure, many are like most in today's car culture and want to skip to the "Good parts", instead of seeing the full movie for it's "Plot", or simply becasue of how they filmed in the early 70's. All today's "Car" kids want it over-the-top stunts, CGI, and action from the opening scene, straight through till the credits. Me? i like the older movies for the same reason many here like Cragars, Side pipes, Slapper bars, Hiked up rears with Gabriel Highjackers. History.

[JB400]

The charger was the cherry on top of the cake.   It's there for those that enjoy American muscle in a rice burner world

[Ghoste]

B movies are the real car movies.  There never have been any mainstream movies made that could be considered car movies because the fact is we the demographic aren't mainstream.  We are fringe dwellers who represent a very small and insignificant part of the population and buying public.

[JB400]

B movies are the real car movies.  There never have been any mainstream movies made that could be considered car movies because the fact is we the demographic aren't mainstream.  We are fringe dwellers who represent a very small and insignificant part of the population and buying public.

Fancy way of saying are opinions don't matter.

[Cooter]

It's adouble edged sword. If we "Real" car guys that "Dwell on the fringes" were mainstream, would our cars get as much attention as they do? Or would we and our cars be looked at like a typical "Ricer" is today?

[JB400]

It's adouble edged sword. If we "Real" car guys that "Dwell on the fringes" were mainstream, would our cars get as much attention as they do? Or would we and our cars be looked at like a typical "Ricer" is today?

Back in the day, they were.

[Ghoste]

It's adouble edged sword. If we "Real" car guys that "Dwell on the fringes" were mainstream, would our cars get as much attention as they do? Or would we and our cars be looked at like a typical "Ricer" is today?

Trust me, the ricers are as fringe as we are.  If we were mainstream all those regular looking minivans, Camry's, and Civics would be musclecars.

[JB400]

It's adouble edged sword. If we "Real" car guys that "Dwell on the fringes" were mainstream, would our cars get as much attention as they do? Or would we and our cars be looked at like a typical "Ricer" is today?

Trust me, the ricers are as fringe as we are.  If we were mainstream all those regular looking minivans, Camry's, and Civics would be musclecars.

[Mike DC]

I think the movie had far far more to do with ricers than any other type of car and the Mopar hobby largely knew that.  They made the Charger look goofy even if it was the most powerful car in the flick and then only gave it minimal screen time so I'm not surprised the Mopar crowd didn't grab onto it.  Mostly the film was a modern day Robin Hood story with a cop getting drawn into the Robin Hoods word.

They made the Charger look like a badass early-80s street machine that was mothballed in its prime and then suddenly dug out just for the movie - and according to the storyline, it was exactly that!    

As soon as the car was portrayed as having been overhauled during modern times (in the 4th movie) it started looking a lot more modern.  They didn't change it drastically at that time because it had become iconic for its 2001 appearance.  But by the 5th movie they had continued modernizing it.    


The ricers were cheesy too.  Who really does performance driving in racecars as showy as half of those things were?  The ricer hobby is not as developed as the musclecar one, but that crowd had differentiated between a show car and a race car long before 2001.  The movie didn't portray them so accurately either when you get right down to it.  Fiction, not a documentary.  

[Indygenerallee]

The "Ricer" movement has died down and has morphed somewhat into the "Drift" segment, I went to some HIN (Hot Import Nights) shows back in 2004 and they were wild!!!
Some of the money spent on those machines would rival any seriously built Hemi car even today the mainstays a JDM spec Nissan GT-R and Toytoa Supra are awesome cars for what they are, some don't get them but I have always liked all cars, Actually the first F&F movie opened my eyes to that fact I had no clue as to what car was racing the Charger at the end of the movie and then I happened to see a built one in real life and what it did in the quarter mile and I went OK! Now I see why they had this beating the Charger in the film because it could do it in real life !!! I would like to get ahold of a 94 TT 6 speed Toyota Supra but sadly at the prices they are at I don't think that's ever gonna happen!! Too many people back then saw the wild paint jobs and decals and took them for clown cars (which most were!) but as I stated that culture has all since died out (around my area anyway) Economy killed a major part but it truely was a "fad" with those outrageous wings and body kits from hell seems like 2006-7 I noticed it going the way of the dinosaur, but then again I believe alot transferred to the "Drifting" either way domestic or foreign we are all still car guy's the slow and the fast!!  

[bull]

Huh Huh? Did you miss the pic I posted above? The one where there's about 5 feet of air between the ground and the front bumper and room to spare in the back?

I said "if they had actually used stock tires."  

I was picturing the stock rear suspension too, which rides lower than a drag car.  And the rear leafs should compress at least a little bit when you put the whole car's weight onto it.  In this scenario the rear valance will hit the pavement when the front end is still pretty low.  The whole thing makes for a disappointing visual compared to the dragsrip-type wheelstand that people are used to seeing.

Were you talking about F&F or DOH? At any rate, the thing I was arguing was not about stock wheels, it was "The front cannot tilt up much before the rear end hits the ground" comment. I think if you can get the front end a good six feet off the ground before the rear valance touches at the back, you're pulling a pretty decent wheelie.

[JB400]

Huh Huh? Did you miss the pic I posted above? The one where there's about 5 feet of air between the ground and the front bumper and room to spare in the back?

I said "if they had actually used stock tires."  

I was picturing the stock rear suspension too, which rides lower than a drag car.  And the rear leafs should compress at least a little bit when you put the whole car's weight onto it.  In this scenario the rear valance will hit the pavement when the front end is still pretty low.  The whole thing makes for a disappointing visual compared to the dragsrip-type wheelstand that people are used to seeing.

Were you talking about F&F or DOH? At any rate, the thing I was arguing was not about stock wheels, it was "The front cannot tilt up much before the rear end hits the ground" comment. I think if you can get the front end a good six feet off the ground before the rear valance touches at the back, you're pulling a pretty decent wheelie.

[TiMopar]

London, a couple of weeks ago...

[Indygenerallee]

  Stub nose Supertona  Look's attrocious from the front I don't like the headlights at all....