FAST & FURIOUS - Brian's Supra

well hello there humans hooligans and earthlings wherever you are whatever you're doing and whomever you're lucky enough to be doing it with thanks for watching it's time to talk about my Supra this car continues to be ranked at the top of the list of one of Hollywood's most iconic cars and is it any wonder from the first time we see the car on the screen the car makes an unforgettable impression today you're gonna learn how this car came to be how we built several replicas and what happened to these cars during the movie and after we were done if you've done any reading on my website you'll know that I've been tinkering with cars since around 1980 my first cars included several Datsun 240z some Datsun 510 and even a few muscle cars including a 67 Chevelle by 1993 though I had a pretty wild mustang GT in a road race suspension a 347 stroker motor or a big bore tech S trim cog drive supercharger and big brakes one day in 1997 I made the mistake of doing a little stoplight challenge with a guy who had a mark 4 Supra to my surprise I got gapped that immediately got me looking at supras I looked around for a little while and I found one and a little car dealer out in the boonies i shelled out 24,000 bucks and I drove it home the car was a factory twin turbo Targa roof with a six-speed and it was a 1994 model within three days though the car was at gritty it got the basic mods something we used to call BPU or basic performance upgrades that list of mods includes injectors a new front mount intercooler new piping and a full Greddy power xtreme exhaust system the car made about 450 horsepower in that trim two weeks after I got the car back and went back to stilling for breaks some suspension bits and new front bumper and side skirts from there and went straight to the body shop the factory white paint was replaced with Mazda rx-7 competition yellow mica this was a three stage candy paint job the car also received a Rob Mellon rear wing and 18-inch oszi Mito wheels at the same time the car seats went into upholstery shop for yellow inserts and a custom yellow roll cage was built right after the paint work was done and went to audio options to get a full sound system working with Duane Uyeda he came up with a stunning layout that became famous because of its role in the movie when the stereo was complete I took some time and did some car shows with the car for about a year the car did pretty well it shows and won many awards including the very first sport compact car ultimate street car challenge which was a drag race auto cross and a car show in one day during this period I only made a few changes to the car including the wheels which were switched to racing hearts SI toos the biggest change was the turbo setup with the help of turbo nedick's and a fella by the name of dave Jesco we replaced the stock twins with a single t6 t6 tuning the car required Dave Jessica's expertise at a bunch of electronics from HKS this included things like an HKS GCC a V PC @f Khan and injector pulse monitor as well as AG ready profet B and turbo timer before lap tuning was so prevalent these little electronic band-aids were designed to help cars run big boost but still be drivable each box performed a specific function or monitored a specific performance attribute I was very content with the car and I drove it every day it was docile on the street but was 650 horsepower on tap it was plenty of fun and the boost came on around 4000 rpms and then like most supras it just went right up to the redline so it was a hoot around early 2000 I was at a car show like any other weekend and I met a fellow by the name of David martyr who proclaimed to be working on a movie about tuner cars they were gonna call it redline I won't tell the whole story again but essentially I was invited to Universal I brought up the car while it was still yellow Gabe Rob come on a ride he about his pants when the boos came on he was so excited when I got on the pipe getting on the 101 freeway he was screaming was this the Nos is this the Nos oh my god this thing is great we got to have it and it became the car that Paul Walker would drive ultimately the catch was they wanted to make some changes to the car chief among their planned changes was a change to the body kit which I had just installed and the paint color I was like I just spent 8 grand on this paint job the show must go on as they say so my super went back to my paint shop for a candy orange facelift bon mots provided the body kit a PR provided the rear wing my beautiful racing heart C 2's were tossed aside and placed with racing heart m5 tuners and of course Universal added the now famous nuclear gladiator graphics or whatever you want to call them of course with the new paint job the yellow interior would work so the seats and interior bits went back to the upholstery shop for some blue suede the roll cage though was still yellow but Universal didn't want to be bothered with it this little detail was even copied when toy company started selling copies of this car and that's why the cages are yellow in these toy replicas by this time my car had a pretty long list of modifications so building replicas was not going to be simple when my car now ready for its on-screen debut we still had to build the replicas which was going to be no easy task this list shows the car as we bought in a what price as you can see we actually had eight supras my car was the principal car aka the hero one car this is the car that the actors would pull up in or drive off and that kind of thing no stunts are done in this car usually we have a backup to that car that car is called a hero to car we had three stunt cars so that we always had a backup on set for an accident or if we have to refurbish a part or swap out wheels Suns going down whatever the case we also have something called a buck car which is typically used for green screen shots or blue screen shots and such we had an in process car this is the car you see in Dom shop that had no engine and that's the car that DOM and is sitting in the engine bay while talking to Brian about a system that kind of thing this particular car was borrowed from Rhys Millen we also had the burned-out Hulk the one that you see on the tow truck of these cars only my hero one car was a turbo and a manual trans car stuck one two and three will automatic non turbo cars the hero two and the buck car were also automatic but naturally aspirated cars and last but not least the tow truck car the red one of course was a naturally aspirated automatic car since my hero one car now had different wheels a different body kit in a different wing we had to replicate all of those parts on the cars that we would be fully building down included the TRD hoods the racing heart m5 wheels the bow mechs body kit the APR wings and the Greddy mufflers we didn't put full exhaust systems on all the cars another thing worth mentioning none of the replicas built during the movie had any engine mods my car was the only car that had engine mods because it made no sense to add engine mods if we weren't going to show the engine on-screen in fact in this scene where you see the camera pan down a collection of parts laying on the floor to be honest most of those parts were leftover parts from my own garage plus some borrowed bits from powerhouse racing and other tuner shops in fact one piece is actually a B 303 Ford camshaft from my old Mustang it was just laid out there to be eye-candy then those parts actually went on any of the engines still the process of building this replica took weeks and it was all done at eddie paul's garage in El Segundo California of course the cars big debut on screen was rolling out of Dom's garage this was shot with both my car and a stunt car and it was a fitting introduction to how the car would be used in this segment in the next sequence you see the super pull up to a Ferrari this is filmed on California's famous Pacific Coast Highway and this sequence required shutting down the road in 15-minute intervals so we could shoot then reset and reshoot if you watch carefully you can see that the Sun changes position with the ocean being to the west and over the shoulder would be to the east so as you watch the Sun change you can see that we actually filmed over the course of a whole day my car was used though in a couple of these sequences and you can see my shiny engine bits peeking through the hood at one point all of the drivers of the other cars on the road were stunt drivers II to answer the question yes my super would have smoked the Ferrari although the car makes a brief appearance at race Wars the next big sequence is going to be the desert hijacking scene we all remember this part Brian grabs Mia jumps into the Supra to head out to the desert in the hopes of stopping Dominick and the crew from getting busted in the middle of the night the roof rejection was a combination of practical shots and special effects you could see that Brian only pushes the roof up straight up from the middle and if you've ever been in a super you know that it takes a wrench to take off the top once the super slides off into the dirt Brian blows his cover and the film moves towards its climax the production team here covered the car in a light tan powder similar to baby powder for continuity it had to look like the car just got run off the road before long Brian catches up with Dominick and Johnny Tran paisa vision suits up Jesse and the chase is on these jump scenes were filmed in Echo Park using a stunt car and some ramps each time the car landed four wheels were trashed this is why we have multiple stunt cars a Mik rig super was cut in and out four shots where Brian had to do some driving but the actual slide was done with both Paul Walker and a stunt driver creative editing blended the two shots together with Johnny Tran now dead all that's left is to apprehend Dominic Toretto the two finally meet up on a stretch of road or Terminal Island in San Pedro California both my car and two stunt cars were used they pull up to the stoplight and the challenges made both drivers are determined to see who is the best rider so which car would have won if the charger that we used in the scene actually had the engine that we showed in the earlier scene it would been no contest the charger would have smoked the Supra of course this was a stunt charger so it didn't have anything close to the real engine and even though the engine shows to be having a malfunction halfway during the race no contest 900 horsepower with sticky tires it would smoke to Supra even if it was a 400 horsepower crate motor with sticky tires it probably still would have bested the Supra given that the super was on low-profile Street tires it didn't have a drag race we spent a suspension and wait about thirty nine hundred pounds as the cars jumped the train tracks they look to be dead even we never find out who won because Dom flips his charger over the front of a semi one of the two stunt cars had a full roll cage and if you watch the scene of slow-motion you could actually see the full hoop we all know the ending Brian does the right thing pays off instead of a 10-second car hands the keys to DOM and Dom drives off into the sunset so what happened to these cars after the movie well for my hero one I hung onto the car for about a year and then I got a nice offer on it and I sold the car and now that the car is in the Netherlands in Europe the new owner has not changed anything on the car and it still looks exactly the way I left it the rest of the cars all suffered different fates most of them including the mick rig the buck and stunt one two and three we're all reused in too fast too furious this meant that cars would get new paint jobs new body kits new wheels and new audio/video systems after that movie a couple of the cars were sold including the stunt cars some of them have been reconditioned others are waiting to be reconditioned and we just don't know where a couple of them are like the buck or the mick rig one of the questions that I get asked most often is do I regret selling the cars the short answer is no I don't while I enjoyed my time with each one of these cars and I had a lot of fun sharing them with other people the simple fact of the matter was that no one knew Paul Walker was going to die no one knew that these cars were going to be super popular again 20 years later and I didn't want the responsibility of owning what could have been a priceless movie car including the the task of having to take it to a car show every week and to share it with everybody have a busy life I have a family I have a career and it's very difficult for me to do that I know a lot of people say that if they had a movie car they never let it go I don't think they've thought that through imagine driving to a car show one Saturday share the experience with an order and some drunk driver rear-ends you in and an intersection how do you replace the parts on these cars which have been discontinued for 15 years or more so that in and of itself is a deal breaker the other consideration is that having been to several car shows there were some people who just didn't respect cars at all they would try and take parts off of the car they leaned on the car and all that sort of thing and so keeping the maintenance up and keeping the cars clean and in good shape is just a big big big chore so it's just not something I wanted to shackle myself to had my fun with the cars had a great time I'm very happy that they're popular around the world and that getting more popular as time goes on so I've had my fun and I'm very thankful for that and it just says I'm thankful for you my youtube subscribers and my Instagram followers so thanks very much for indulging me and letting me tell my stories I hope you're enjoying the content stay tuned for another episode coming up next week and thank you for your support

Channel: Craig Lieberman

Views: 101,061

Rating: 4.9541178 out of 5

Keywords: paul walker, the fast and the furious, vin diesel, brian's supra, paul walker's supra

Id: 1PsjSMut1fk

Length: 13min 32sec (812 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 21 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/lostboyz]

Craig Lieberman has been pumping these behind the scenes videos on the fast and furious cars that have been super interesting.