Continuity mistake: At the end of the first race, when Dom enters the parking lot, the first shot we see of the car it is already some distance up the ramp, but in the next shot we see the car has just entered the parking lot and is at the bottom of the ramp. (00:23:00)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Brian is with the Muse, Tanner and the FBI watchdog in the safe house kitchen, Muse makes a smart crack about getting off over Mia Toretto, then Brian pushes Muse very forcefully to the left of Tanner, but Muse ends up landing on the floor to the right of Tanner. (00:52:15)
Factual error: When Brian tops out his Eclipse, it spins out. A car should not spin out at top speed. A car will either reach a drag limit or, in this case, hit the engine's fuel cut off, and should continue straight. He did not jerk the wheel to make the tires lose traction, nor did a tire blowout. Imagine if a magazine editor tested the top speed on a Viper, he would be spinning from 186 MPH. No one would be testing top speeds on cars if this event occurred. (00:03:45)
Factual error: In the final drag race against the charger vs supra, when Dom launches the charger it isn't smoke coming from the tires as it dissipates very quickly, indicating it's a fog machine or something similar. And as every car guy will know, two things that happened during Dom's launch are both possible separately but legitimately impossible to do at the same time, as we see Dom pulls a wheelstand while his tires are spinning. It makes for a cool shot but physically impossible, you need traction to do a wheelstand meaning zero or minimal wheel spin, and if his tires were doing a full blown burnout, he could not have gotten the front end to come up as it does. Not to mention as he pulls a wheelstand, the entire front end comes up before the car even started rolling, if it was a true wheelstand, it would've gone at least 7-8 feet before the front end reached max height.
Continuity mistake: After Brian and Dom start to run from the cops, they go around a corner. If you look in the rear windshield, the chasing police car goes right through the intersection, the camera goes to a different shot, and the police car crashes. (00:25:10)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Brian goes back to Dom's house for the first time, Dom gives him Vince's beer. They show him lift his shirt and wipe the beer off, then they cut back and they show him again lifting his shirt up and wiping the beer off. (00:32:12)
Visible crew/equipment: When the Civics are trying to take the last lorry, you can always (well almost always) see stage lights in the black paint of the Civics. (01:20:00)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Brian is chasing Johnny Tran, he stops the car and shoots Johnny. Johnny spins out and falls off the bike. While he falls off the bike you can see a shopping cart on the side of the road, but when Brian runs over to see if he is dead, the cart is gone. (01:34:15)
Continuity mistake: While Brian is running the Eclipse through the stadium parking lot, he shifts and the car jumps from 120 mph to 140 mph in about one second. (00:03:35)
Continuity mistake: Close to the end of the film, when Vince jumps on the truck that they're hijacking, Vince's head goes from above the front, to level with the grill in subsequent shots. (01:18:35)
Deliberate mistake: During the final scene, where Dom and Brian are dragging, you clearly hear that the Dom's car is straight piped. When the Charger (Dom's car) is spinning, you see that the car has a complete exhaust system.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Dom is pulling his red RX7 into the garage after the first race is broken up by the cops, he is making a right turn into the garage. When they cut to the front of the car pulling in the garage, his left signal light is on, meaning he made a left turn into the garage. (00:23:59)
Factual error: Brian tells Dom that hector is running spoon engines with T66 turbos and a motec system exhaust. Spoon engines are typically 1.6L and are a terrible drag racing choice, also a 1.6L engine cannot properly spool a T66 turbo as the exhaust gasses do not have enough pressure to effectively spool the turbo.
Continuity mistake: When Paul Walker is talking on the phone to get medical help, the phone changes hands instantly from the right to the left without time to do it. (01:24:30)
Other mistake: When the first trailer/truck is hijacked and the harpoon is shot in through the window into the seat, you can see the driver is very clearly looking out the side window next to him instead of looking at the hijackers in front of him. It's almost as though he doesn't know that the others are there! He also looks incredibly relaxed and not at all worried about the fact that a guy is climbing up a rope into his cabin when there is a lot of expensive video equipment in the back of his trailer. (00:01:53)
Continuity mistake: Close to the end when we see Brian in his orange car speeding down the road, if you notice Leon parked his car on the side of the road, but when it cuts to a front view of the road when we see Brian's car pass the camera, Leon's car has vanished. (01:21:25)
Continuity mistake: When Brian has picked up Dom from the first race, the Chinese guys drive up behind him. If you notice out of Dom's window it is a blue motorbike that appears, in the following shot the motorbikes on Dom's side are both red. (00:25:40)
Continuity mistake: When Tran and Lance open fire on Brian in the case, Brian passes the same red/brown car with the white hood twice. (01:32:45)
Continuity mistake: In the scene after Dom and Brian arrive at Dom's place, Vince walks up to Dom and tells him "he had no right bringing the buster there." Just before Vince walks up, you see Dom sitting down putting his hand on his head. Next shot cuts to Vince walking up and cuts back to Dom who getting ready to sit down again then puts his hand on his head.
Chosen answer: It's a car with the power to do a quarter-mile drag race of the type depicted in the film in ten seconds.
Tailkinker ★