Fast & Furious Cars: 1967 Chevrolet Truck
Heist-Ready Hauler
By John Pearley Huffman, Contributor | Published Mar 12, 2009
Go back to 2001's original The Fast and the Furious and ruminate about just how ludicrous the truck hijackings are in that film. The whole crime depended on the truck drivers never hitting the brakes, swerving or generally changing direction. And wouldn't it have been a whole lot easier to hijack the trucks when the driver had stopped to eat lunch or pee? Of course it would have been.
So in Fast & Furious, the truck hijacking scene is even more ludicrous and insane. But it's also so breathtakingly staged that you may as well shut down all the parts of your brain where reason resides and go along for the ride.
The original script had the "road train" fuel truck having its trailers swiped by a pair of El Caminos. But for picture car coordinator Dennis McCarthy, the idea that the light-duty El Camino could haul off giant fuel trailers was just too absurd. So he asked that his crew be allowed to produce more plausibly rugged machines for the scene. The copper-colored '67 Chevy here is one of McCarthy's two solutions.
From the cab back, this beast features a custom frame built from massive steel box section tubing. The rear suspension is a giant ladder bar setup with airbags, and those rear tires are the biggest and widest the picture car department could find. (Ironically, they're usually used on tanker trailers.) Power comes from a massive 502-cubic-inch GM crate V8 (what once would have been called a big-block Chevy) with enough torque to pull the Dow up 1,500 points by itself (though it's theoretically a diesel in the film).
The picture car department built two of these beautiful trucks plus one engine-less buck for filming. All survived and are in storage.
As Portrayed Specifications*
Engine
Type: Cummins Turbodiesel
Fuel: Sunoco Diesel
Lubricant: Castrol
Drivetrain
Transmission: 13-Speed Fuller
Fuel Cell: JAZ
Hoses: Earl's
Driveshaft: General
Rear differential: 10-ton two-speed
Suspension
Front: Original GM A-arms and coil springs with 3-inch drop spindles
Rear: Custom fabricated ladder bar with air springs
Wheels
Type: Alcoa
Front Size: 19.5-by-7.5 inches
Rear Size: 22.5-by-14 inches
Tires
Type: Michelin
Front Size: 225/70R19.5
Rear Size: 445/55R22.5
Interior
Seats: Chevrolet original equipment
Belts: Diest
Cage: Matt Sweeney
Door panels: Chevrolet original equipment
Wheel: Grant
Gauges: Autometer
Exterior
Custom flatbed
Paint/Graphics
Paint: Cinema Vehicle Services
* "As Portrayed" specifications indicate the state of the car as portrayed in the film. No single car was necessarily built to these specifications by the picture car department. But all the cars built to portray a vehicle in the film were constructed to appear as if so equipped.