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This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
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MushyHeirloom
09/23/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
You laugh, but I would drive this, just to piss off every purist ever.
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avconsumer2
09/23/09

@FP: Your Volvo is awesome! Anyway: Pretty sure you'd just get laughed at actually.
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crsdfr
09/24/09

@avconsumer2: Case in point.
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Tanshanomi promoted this comment crsdfr was starred crsdfr was unstarred

Hotrodelectric
09/22/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
Something that you guys aren't considering: federal and state law. Importing a complete, running Skyline would have been a legal hell for the producers. I can't quote chapter and verse, but it seems to me that a Skyline could have only been here on a very limited timeframe, then it was to be either scrapped- with the feds watching and verifying- or it would have needed to be re-exported, again with the feds watching. However, simply bringing in a bodyshell to drape on a scratch built chassis with a cheap, easily obtained, LEGAL motor was an easy way to go. No fed or state oversight, and they have a paid-for prop car for the next installment.
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FP: Your Volvo is awesome! Anyway promoted this comment Hotrodelectric was starred Hotrodelectric was unstarred

MaWeiTao
09/22/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
Actually, I think that car or something similar might have been used in previous Fast and Furious movies.

At first glance it seems absurd. But I'm guessing the donor Skyline was probably in an accident and gutted. It likely was a lot easier and cheaper to acquire the car that way and import it into the US. It likely didn't even come from Japan. And they just dropped the cheapest engine they could find in the back, likely purchased in Mexico. I'm sure this engine is a lot easier to service and keep running than an actual Skyline engine.

Hell, I bet the thing was assembled in Mexico, where labor must be dirt cheap and Beetle engines are plentiful. Which makes me wonder if the body wasn't acquired there as well. Some well-to-do guy imported the Skyline and ultimately wrecked it.
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Dave7
09/22/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
Makes no sense - these are available quite cheap from Japan - cheaper than building that VW thing anyway. So what if its not road legal - its for a movie.
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Alfisted promoted this comment Dave7 was starred Dave7 was unstarred

Alfisted
09/22/09

@Dave7: It's not a VW Thing, it's based on a Beetle.
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Uncle Bo
09/22/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
Hey JDM fanboi's..... where is your God now?
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Tanshanomi
09/22/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
To everybody who posted that it's a fiberglass shell, no not it's not. The original post explains that the prop cars were (real steel) GTS-T bodies fitted with an aftermarket body kit to resemble the GT-R. Look at the video and it's clearly not fiberglass from the inside.

BTW, they put a body on a VW Buggy to facility jumping/rough terrain stunts.
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Edited by Tanshanomi at 09/22/09 2:15 PM Tanshanomi was starred Tanshanomi was unstarred

Tanshanomi
09/22/09

@Tanshanomi: faciliTATE. Stupid hands.
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PHIL
09/22/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
It makes sense, since the actors in the movies are also just glued together carboard/fiberglass cut outs too.
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discontinuuity is happy that everything has been set right in the Jalopverse. Now all we need is more of engineerd's Brefas Scotch! promoted this comment PHIL was starred PHIL was unstarred

Bentoboxx, My Tank is full of it
09/22/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
Is that a Volksamatic? I don't think Paul Walker can drive stick
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Alfisted
09/22/09

@Bentoboxx, Now part owner of General Motors: Vin Diesel says otherwise
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smalleyxb122
09/22/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine

Behold, the magic that is Hollywood!

Next, you'll try to tell me that it wasn't a real Fiero 2M4 that Jeannie drove in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
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Syrax
09/22/09

@smalleyxb122: Guess what, the real Fiero was actually the 250 GT California.
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TimTim
09/22/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
I bet we could spend a week calling out movie car faux pas: Like in 88 Minutes where one scene Pacino's Porsche has turbo twists, but by the time he gets to the parking garage it's sporting BBS LMs. Or later when they blow it up you get a clear view of the undercarriage and they have a square-tube rear axle, with fake tail pipes welded right to it. This is the kind of stuff that makes you rewind and watch over and over again... ruins the whole movie. Which, for Fast and Furious, was a physical impossibility, so why not use a skyline bodied Type 1 kit car?
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MOPAR-MAN
09/22/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
I have never watched any of the "Slow and Curious" movies. That's all.
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Scandinavian Flick promoted this comment MOPAR-MAN was starred MOPAR-MAN was unstarred

Scandinavian Flick
09/22/09

@MOPAR-MAN: You are missing out on some of the best comedies of all time.
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gabeedwards01
09/22/09

@Scandinavian Flick: We use them for our drinking games. You take a shot everytime someone says something stupid, and you take a drink everytime a car magically accelerates after a side-by-side at top speed.
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Scandinavian Flick promoted this comment gabeedwards01 was starred gabeedwards01 was unstarred

Scandinavian Flick
09/22/09

@gabeedwards01: I would have to be a bit more specific than that, otherwise I would be dead of alcohol poisoning before the movie was half over.

"Nitro meth is for pussies!"
"You looked under my hood!?"
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YellowDucati
09/22/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
Dang that YellowDucati guy is cool
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Deartháir II
09/22/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
Most rolling-display movie cars do this. The beetle rear engine setup is easy to install, simple to maintain, widely available, and reliable. If the car is mostly green-screened or CGI, as in F&F, it doesn't need anything more. It's enough to get it moving for a few shots, and to move it from one shot to another.

In other shocking news, many of Hollywood's finest breasts aren't real either.

It's okay. Take a moment to come to terms with that. We'll understand.
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uncleben
09/22/09

@Deartháir II: The Return: Wait what about Scarlett Johansson? Say it ain't so...
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Deartháir II: The Return promoted this comment uncleben was starred uncleben was unstarred

acarr260
09/22/09

@Deartháir II: The Return: Next you're going to tell me that the Easter Bunny isn't real...
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P161911 probably shoudn't have
09/22/09

@Deartháir II: The Return: I would have expected Ford or Chevy small block V-8 and a 3 speed auto, but I guess with the VW pan you get the whole suspension too.
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Deartháir II
09/22/09

@P161911: And it's small enough to fit in any movie car, and can be installed in a fiberglass replica car in an afternoon. By a trained monkey.

Seriously, I hear that's what the monkey from Friends is doing now to make ends meet.
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Deartháir II
09/22/09

@uncleben: Not my Scarlett. She's perfect. No modifications needed.
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uncleben
09/22/09

@Deartháir II: The Return: Dam that Van Wilder. Some guys get all the luck.

/rage consumes me!
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BЯдΖǐL-ЯЄРΘЯΤЄЯ
09/22/09

@Deartháir II: The Return: What about Fred Gailey´s pants filling?
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Deartháir II
09/22/09

@uncleben: I'm okay with that. At least she chose a proper Canadian boy.
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Brimful of Ash on the 78
09/22/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
Needs more "Type-III" stickers in Kanji
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Alfisted
09/22/09

In reply to This Fast And Furious 4 Skyline R34 Is Powered By A VW Bug Engine
Makes sense to me. Beetles rarely blow transmissions.
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