Corrected entry: During the scene where Memphis (Nic Cage) is driving the lovely Shelby GT500 Mustang, and he knocks off the mirror, the car stalls as if it's reacting to the damage. He then leans down and tries to start the car by simply turning the ignition like he has a key, but when he first gets in the car and starts it, he uses 2 thin pieces of metal and he had to use both hands. (01:34:48)
Corrected entry: In the scene where Kessellbeck is staking the crew out after he receives the tip about the Mercedes keys getting picked up, he's looking through his binoculars and the list of cars on the blackboard is in the background. Later after the attempted bust, he goes back searching with black lights to find clues and only discovers the list at that time.
Correction: The door was only opened for a few seconds while two people entered. It's highly unlikely Kessellbeck was interested in the surroundings, more that he was noting the people who were present. He wouldn't notice the list of cars.
Corrected entry: It is clear that when Memphis is driving the Shelby through the drainage ditch evading the cops that he would have blown the motor. The tachometer in the car reads between 7,500rmp and 8,000rpm before he decides to shoot the nitrous to it. this would obviously raise the rpms way above 10,000 and would have destroyed the motor instantaneously. (01:32:20)
Correction: This is not how nitrous works or its effect on an engine with nitrous applied. Nitrous can be injected at any rpm with little movement in the tachometer and still exhibit an increase in power at that rpm. Nitrous supplies more oxygen to the gasoline via its extra oxygen molecule; increasing power output. The gear ratio of the car, rpm and that relation to the displayed speed could be contested logically.
Corrected entry: When Kip steals the Porsche at the beginning, the rotating platform stops turning as he gets in and drives away. While it is not shown that he stops the rotator, it would be very difficult to drive off the car while its moving. (00:04:00)
Correction: I have watched the scene repeatedly, and the platform is still moving when Kip drives the car off.
Corrected entry: When the cops are talking about the bad guy, they mention that he served time in prison for manslaughter in England. He would probably not be given a visa, manslaughter would almost definitely be considered a crime of "moral turpitude" under the terms of section 212 of the US Immigration and Nationality Act. As the owner of a legit business, (the wrecking yard) one would assume the authorities know he is there and therefore must be there legally.
Correction: It's possible to get a pardon for almost any crime. Murder One, terrorism and a few others are exceptions, but it is possible to pardon manslaughter which means the person is responsible for the death, but may not have intended a death to happen. Killing a pedestrian in a crosswalk is manslaughter if you hit and run, but once time is served a pardon may be granted.
Corrected entry: The rear view mirror in the car is thrown all out of whack when the car hits the ramp on the jump at the bridge. But it's all nice and straight while the car is flying through the air. (01:39:30)
Correction: When Memphis initially hits the ramp, the mirror flips up, but just before the scene cuts away, you can see the mirror returning to its' original position.
Corrected entry: When Kib steals the Porsche, he breaks the window with a brick, but when they drive the car out of the showroom, both doors are back again. (00:03:40)
Correction: When Kib gets into the showroom only one wing of the door smashes. Then they look for the key, now look clearly at the car, he turns about 180° and in the background you still see the broken doorwing. That means when they get out of the showroom they drive out the other way from where they didn't enter.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Cage is passing the list of cars around, you can see that one of the cars listed is a Cadillac Eldorado. This is the car that had heroin in the boot that was not supposed to be on the list.
Correction: It could be a different Eldorado on the list, maybe a different year, color, or trim level.
Corrected entry: When Nick Cage breaks the mirror off the Shelby Mustang, it remains hanging by it's wires. The problem with this is that Ford wasn't putting power mirrors on cars in 1969.
Correction: The wires are probably the cable used to manually adjust the mirrors. Even in the 60's some cars had a manual adjustment on the door panel that used a cable for adjusting mirrors from inside.
Corrected entry: The whole premise of the movie is that Kip Raines tried to fill the list of cars and his brother had to finish it for the Russian crook. The idea that Kip would have the skill and manpower to do this, when the black gang that chases them later seems to specialise in this type of crime, is silly. Even though he was the brother of Memphis, the most famous car thief in the area, this is quite a lapse by the Russian and almost impossible to swallow.
Correction: The Russian may have thought that Kip was trained by Memphis and had the same connections. It's very possible as they were family. The assumption would have been made that Kip worked alongside Memphis, not knowing that Memphis did not want Kip stealing cars.
Corrected entry: Regarding the theft of the 3 Mercedes, a huge issue is made of the fact that the cars cannot be stolen without the proper keys, which have to come from Germany. So how did the Caan kid get the dealership to order, have shipped and receive the keys within a couple of days? Even with a rush delivery, shipping would be at least overnight, and the keys would need time to be manufactured.
Correction: The keys don't necessarily have to come from Germany. There is likely a warehouse in the US with spare keys already available. It's not likely that Daimler-Benz would only make one key for each car they build. They would have some repetition of codes and keys as there is a limited number of codes available. Besides which, it is possible once you have the proper key to recode it manually. I've done this myself with my Pontiac Grand Prix, and information from the owner's manual. If these guys are as professional as shown, they would only need the proper transponder key, and would likely recode it themselves. Recoding my Grand Prix key took all of about 60 seconds.
They do specifically mention that the keys have to come from Hamburg, which in itself seems bizarre. Even if there weren't keys being stored by Daimler-Benz (at the time the company had a very solid deal with Chrysler), the keys would surely come from the Mercedes Benz HQ in Stuttgart (Southern Germany), not from Hamburg (Northern Germany) where Mercedes only presence is in dealerships.
Corrected entry: When Detective Castelbeck and his partner are searching the warehouse with the UV lights, they find the list of the cars written with the UV reactive ink. When Castelbeck raises his arm the power cable of the UV light can be seen going into his jacket sleeve to a power supply somewhere inside it.
Correction: The cord can be seen in a few other shots during this scene. It appears that they are using standard light fixtures, with UV bulbs, the same fixtures that you can get at any hardware store, ones that require them to be plugged in. Just because they do not show them plugging them in, doesn't mean they are battery operated.
Corrected entry: When Castlebeck discovers the black light car list, he says that there are only a few cars that they should follow, the rarest ones. He chooses several to watch including a Hummer. When Sphinx and Mirror Man steal the truck and are ramming the police unit, we can see from the badges on the hood and steering wheel that this is actually the Lamborghini LM SUV and not a Hummer. Incidentally, it actually makes quite a bit of sense to pick the Lamborghini as a Hummer in southern California is a relatively widespread vehicle, whereas the Lamborghini is extremely rare.
Correction: It's not the lamborghini as you can easily tell because of the hood-integrated air vents, but instead the civilian model of the Humvee (which is actually strictly for the military), otherwise known as a Hummer (version 1).
Corrected entry: When Castleback discovers the old list with the black light, they say they will watch a couple of cars that are more rare. They send a unit to watch a Hummer that is on the list. When Sphinx and Mirror Man steal the truck, its actually the Lamborghini SUV not a Hummer at all.
Correction: No, it is a civilian-model Hummer.
Corrected entry: When the Raines brothers are taking refuge in the diner from the black gang, Kip sneaks out and hooks up the BACK of the Mercedes to the cable via the tow hook in the rear frame. When the wrecker leaves, the cable is connected to the FRONT axle which is ripped out.
Correction: Kip actually loops the cable round both axles and attached the tow hook to the rear. So when the wrecker leaves, the cable is tightened and rips out the front axle. If the tow hook was just attached to one place, the car would just be dragged down the road.
Corrected entry: When Memphis has the Mustang 500, he is driving backwards through traffic and a parking garage trying to elude the police. It's been established that the Mustang is a stick shift. Tell me anyone could drive that fast backwards with a stick shift. The reverse gear in manual transmissions is geared VERY short. You would get 10 miles an hour, maximum - with the characteristic gear whine that goes with it. (01:29:54)
Correction: It is true that reverse gear in manual transmissions is short but not shorter than 1st gear. If my regular Civic can hit 50km/h in reverse, I am sure a GT500 (which is much more powerful, therefore with a longer reverse gear and final gear ratio) can hit way more than 10 mph.
Corrected entry: Mirrorman asks why all the cars have girl's names, and Memphis replies by saying, "If you name them girls names, nobody listening on the wire is the wiser." Still, Detective Castlebeck asks Memphis, "Did Eleanor teach you that?", during the chat outside the cafe. If the police are that well informed, would it not be an idea to change the codes?
Correction: Castlebeck would have known about Eleanor because he'd had trouble with Memphis stealing that car before. This does not mean that he knows they use women's names for all the cars. Castlebeck tells Memphis outside the Diner that he regrets not taking him in when he had the chance, therefore implying that he knew about a previous boost. Also, not all of the police knew about Eleanor, proven by Castlebeck's partner not knowing who Eleanor was; therefore the police weren't that well informed about the female name codes.
Even if the police knew that Memphis and team used female code names, it really doesn't do them any good. The idea is that they can use the codes to talk about specific cars without the police knowing which car they are talking about. Saying "I'm picking Daisy" means very little to the cops, as opposed to "I'm picking up the 1982 Cadillac Eldorado." The only one that the police specifically know about is Eleanor being the Shelby GT 500, because they keep using the same name for that specific car (which would be a character mistake, not a movie error).
Corrected entry: If Toby could change addresses and registrations on cars the group had to steal, why didn't Memphis get him to change those on cars such as the rare Mercedes or Eleanor?
Correction: The group didn't know that Castlebeck had found the correct addresses on the Mercedes/Eleanor, so they wouldn't have known to have Toby change the registration.
Corrected entry: When the group enters the Ferrari warehouse, all of the cars they need to steal are lined up in a single row and they are right in front of the garage door. Likely? Not really.
Correction: When they first get to the warehouse the cars are not all lined up in a single row and right in front of the door. Once they jump started the cars, they moved them there to wait for the garage door to open, so they could all get out together as quickly as possible.
Another possibility is that when Memphis was talking to the dealer, he arranged to have the specific cars shown to him the next day (he specifically asks what all is int he warehouse). The dealer could have taken the time later int he day to get them ready for showing, all lined up and ready to go.
Corrected entry: At the end of the film when Memphis drives away in the old car both brake lights come on when it cuts to the rear shot, but when Sway gets in the car it cuts back to the rear and this time only one brake light comes on.
Correction: Brakes lights do burn out from time to time. Especially in old junker cars, like the one Memphis drives out with.
Correction: After the lock is picked you only need the one larger piece of metal to turn the ignition to the start position. That's why it took 2 hands to steal the car, but only one to restart it.