When The Fast and the Furious hit the big screen in 2001, could anyone have predicted a tenth film would be in development 21 years later? For a moment, let's forget about the drama surrounding the most recent film. Let's forget about a Fiero flying to space. Let's forget about cars jumping between skyscrapers, or high-speed fights on 20-mile-long runways. Let's get back to basics with two automotive stars of that first flic.
Behold, the 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse and 2000 Ford F-150 Lightning. These aren't original movie cars, but both do a great job of paying tribute to the film. Hoonigan brought them together for the latest episode of their dyno series on YouTube, and as you can probably guess, these rides aren't just for show.
The Eclipse is an all-wheel-drive GSX, and though the movie car was portrayed as being a hardcore racer, it was really a front-wheel-drive model with a stock engine. This one features a massaged 4G63 Mitsubishi four-cylinder, still displacing 2.0 liters but built with upgraded everything. Its single turbo creates 31 pounds of boost, and yes, the nitrous oxide bottles in the back are plumbed and ready. However, it's decided to not use them for the pulls.
The red F-150 Lightning had precious little screen time in the first film, portrayed as the shop truck Paul Walker's character used. In 2000, the Lightning was one of the faster factory stock vehicles you could buy thanks to its supercharged 5.4-liter V8, but alas, this particular truck doesn't have that engine. It doesn't even have a V8, instead wielding a "stock" Toyota 3.0-liter 2JZ inline-six. We can sense the anger from Lightning purists, but the theory behind this truck was to build a shop truck that Paul Walker would've wanted. And we all know how much he loved the A80 Supra.
As for that engine being stock, there are certainly some shenanigans at play. The video states there's an upgraded ECU and 25 pounds of boost – roughly double what you'd find in a stock Supra so take it all with a grain of salt. That holds especially true when, on the first of three dyno pulls, the Lightning lays down 568 horsepower to the rear wheels. Meanwhile, the Eclipse isn't a slouch with 444 hp on its first dyno run. However, the tires were actually spinning on the dyno when the boost hit, so yeah, there's a lot more power in that 2.0-liter to be realized.
What happens for the second and third pulls in this dyno showdown? The video is a keeper so we'll not spoil the ending, but here's a teaser. There's plenty of noise, lots of power, and some big surprises when all is said and done.
