Fast & Furious Has Destroyed Over 1,400 Cars

The evolution of the Fast & Furious franchise has been fascinating to watch. What started as a shameless Point Break rip-off replacing surfers with street racers has exploded into one of the biggest Blockbuster behemoths of all time. As the budget for each movie increases, the stunts have become more extreme, destroying hundreds of cars in the process.

If you’ve ever wondered how many cars have been reduced to mangled wrecks since the first Fast & Furious film released 20 years ago, Craig Lieberman, who worked as a technical advisor for the first two Fast & Furious movies, has provided some behind-the-scenes insight.

As Lieberman explains in a new video, multiple versions of the same car are built for different purposes in Hollywood films. The pristine hero car is used for close-up shots, while the stunt cars are built to be abused. If you’re worried that rare and collectible cars are being wrecked for entertainment, don’t be: many of the stunt cars that were destroyed in the Fast & Furious movies were either junkyard cars or rebuilt using parts from multiple junk cars.

For example, the Dodge Challenger in 2 Fast 2 Furious was built from three junk cars. Likewise, the Yenko Chevrolet Camaro in the same movie was built from multiple junkyard cars fitted with fake Yenko replica parts. And while a real 1970 Dodge Charger was wrecked in the first movie’s final stunt, it was sold at auction to a collector and has been restored.

Last year, British insurance firm Insure the Gap researched how many cars were destroyed in the Fast & Furious franchise up to Furious 7:

• The Fast & The Furious: 78 cars
• 2 Fast 2 Furious: 130 cars
• The Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift: 249 cars
• Fast & Furious: 190 Cars
• Fast Five: 260 cars
• Fast & Furious 6: 350 cars
• Furious 7: 230 cars

In total, that’s 1,487 cars that have been wrecked in the Fast & Furious franchise – and that’s not including Fate Of The Furious or the Hobbs & Shaw spin-off movies. Thankfully, none of them were rare or collectible. Judging from what we’ve seen so far in trailers, it looks like Fast & Furious 9 will crank up the carnage to absurd new levels.