2021’s Fast & Furious 9 brought us a conclusion to the gasoline-fuel saga that kept us entertaining for two decades. With all the Mopar and muscle cars that were featured in recent movies, it’s easy to forget that the franchise started with a crew of JDM import lovers who stole DVD players.
In 2001’s The Fast and the Furious opening scene, four brightly painted cars raced, all imports with huge wings. Dom didn’t drive his trademark V8 Dodge muscle cars and instead fielded a bright red Mazda RX-7 with a thumping sound system and Nos in the trunk. The rest is history: “Monicaaaa” and somebody blows his Nos too early.
Yes, the high-revving turbocharged 1.3-liter of this Japanese icon is the exact opposite of a big block 60s American icon. Which is why the RX-7 would probably be a better fit for the character of Brian O’Conner.
And that’s what this fictional car is all about. Artist Jon Pumfrey / DomesticMango (dm_jon) has tried to put a new spin on the RX-7 and created something which has never existed before. This is like fan fiction or an alternate universe car, like the stuff they’re trying to pull over at Marvel. Because once a story has been told, you either take the risk on something new or just imagine Batman had Superman’s powers for a good giggle.
It took us a while to figure out what this rendering was. In fact, it’s not a rendering at all, but rather some special customization options in NFS Heat. It’s fitting to have NFS content here, considering it’s so tied to the earliest FF movies and the tuning scene in the 1990s.
Why would Dom give away his RX-7?
Well, as you’re probably aware, Tokyo Drift and 2 Fast 2 Furious are a little different. Mister Vin Diesel was too busy to appear in either of these films because he was working on XXX. And the producers loved to re-paint older cars and use them again. For example, the orange Supra was used in the second film but with a different look.
Dom and Brian have this family thing going on, which goes as far as dating a sister. And as far as the plot is concerned, there’s the whole “you owe me a ten-second car” thing to justify a swap.
As far as tuning is concerned, this rendering looks like Dom’s original car, but painted a purple-blue chrome color with some metallic graphics. It’s a reverse pallet of Brian’s famous R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R. The headlights are switched to a classier pop-up design while the rear lights are modernized.
The VeilSide CII body kit is still installed, but without the VeilSide carbon fiber wing. And unless we’re mistaken, this is a deep-dish interpretation of some Veilside alloy wheel design. But don’t confuse this with the VeilSide widebody RX-7 from Tokyo Drift.