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The "Flip Car" from Fast and Furious 6 made CrabWalk look cooler, wilder, and kickass, way before the GMC Hummer EV did!
The Fast and Furious franchise has given us an iconic dose of movie cars and helped inculcate an oozing craze over the generations. If now, you look back, things would seem silly, especially with those heist-spec 93' Honda Civics that had green underglow neons and a huge rear spoiler.
Love it or hate it, this movie franchise alone has been the motivator for many who now love custom cars, especially JDMs. American cars are also plentiful. But there have been a few wild custom ground-up machines. And the Flip Car from Fast and Furious 6 ranks high among them.
There were a total of seven made, for the role of two in the movie. It was built from the ground up by Dennis McCarthy and used a 430-hp LS3 motor by Chevy. This is the same engine that powered the Chevy Corvette and Pontiac G8 GXP of the early 2000s.
It packed a clever 4WD drive system and a cow catcher with a deployable upper section. The Flip Car might as well be the most engineered custom car in the Fast franchise with the RB26-powered Ford Mustang coming in second!
The "Flip Car" from Fast and Furious 6 made CrabWalk look cooler, wilder, and kickass, way before the GMC Hummer EV did!
Fast and Furious 6's Picture Car Coordinator - Dennis McCarthy, had initially visualized the "flip car" to be a huge truck, similar to the one that we saw wreaking havoc in "Death Race". This is because the stunts required this movie car to flip cars over and for that, you practically need something big and sturdy. But when he presented this idea to the movie director - Justin Lin, he understood that physics was the least important bit!
Justin wanted a sleek and compact car and as the said action sequence was to take part in Europe, the director wanted this flip machine to connect to European auto culture, and that's how the whole Formula One angle came into the picture. McCarthy went back to base and designed the "Flip Car" from scratch.
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McCarthy used the same 6.2-Liter LS3 V8 motor that was being used in many other franchise cars. This crate motor from GM Performance was rated to pump out 430-500 hp depending on the tuning done. There was another reason to blindly go with this LS3 motor.
The rear mid-mounted engine was positioned backward! And to simplify this setup, McCarthy used a speedboat gearbox. The engine was first coupled to a GM Turbo 400 three-speed automatic transmission which was coupled to a Casale V-drive unit from a speedboat. The V-drive unit reversed power flow which was then coupled to a small drive shaft that powered the rear wheel.
This aggressive villain machine has suspension bits taken off big brawny trucks. The front suspension has been taken off an 80s Chevy Suburban. The stream just swapped the original coils with air springs. As for the rear, the Flip Car comes with a Dana 60 solid rear axle attached to air springs and connected via three links.
The clever steering system is hydraulic at both ends. The front steering is controlled conventionally, whereas the rear steering was controlled using a lever. While the action sequences in which we saw the Flip car slide and glide across the road were fun to watch, the stunt drivers sure did sweat a lot to accomplish it.
The F1 look might fool you into thinking that this was an exotic build but the Flip cars were built to be rugged, raw, and heavy. Yup! This sleek-looking wedge machine weighed in at 3,900 pounds. For reference, a base Ford F-150 weighs in at 4,021 pounds! Well, the suspension wasn't this "Flip Car's" only truck-shared bit!
The ladder frame chassis was built using 3/6-inch rectangular steel tubing. The car was insanely low and wide with a length of 160 inches that housed a 130-inch chassis. And because of this, its huge Hoosier 31/16.5-inch Pro Street rear tires didn't look gigantic. The front 17-inch Hoosiers were comparatively normal looking!
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While there isn't much to talk about the barebone interior, an interesting trivia about the Flip Car is that it is a three-seater, similar to the cockpit seen in the McLaren F1. The passenger seats were intended for an action sequence where the baddies fired at Dom and his family. But that scene was scrapped, and only the driver was involved in all the action sequences involving the Flip Car.
The cockpit view comprises an OMP steering wheel and a Racepak digital dashboard which is accompanied by an Autometer oil pressure meter and ammeters. The seating is tight, and a plexiglass windshield was added later on as a bulletproof shield for the baddies.
The most impressive part about the Flip Car has to be the level of engineering gone into building it. The exhaust system alone worked extensively to get the perfect note. All those shiny engine shots you saw in the movie are courtesy of custom heads.
Each of the eight cylinders got individual piping which would wind up over the engine into two collectors. It was a free-flow setup to match the villainous character of the machine. The cow catcher is another cleverly built bit here.
It was operated via the driver's legs straddling a hydraulic ram. And that's how cars flipped over in the movie. While we won't completely ridicule this stunt but the Flip Car won't be drivable after its first flip as the front suspension would go kaboom!
Source: Fast and Furious Fandom
Tijo is an engineer, mechanic, gamer, and an avid content creator. He is a grease-monkey who loves tinkering with automobiles every now and then, when not busy penning down his passion for them. He has always had a soft spot for JDM and is keen on diving deep in for anything that involves wheels and engines.