Though the 2014 movie wasn’t exactly a very groundbreaking movie in any regard whatsoever, Need For Speed has given us some of the best on-screen cars since the Fast and Furious days. The film featured a vast variety of exotic cars that are enough to draw the attention of car aficionados all over the world, no matter what their tastes might be when it comes to cars.
The Ford Mustang Shelby driven by the lead character is one of the finest cars in the whole movie and this article is particularly dealing with the craftsmanship and finesse that has gone behind making the iconic vehicle. This article will be the most informative article on the car, giving you all kinds of information on the iconic Mustang, which gets a huge chunk of screen time in the movie. Fasten your seatbelts as we take you on a turbo-boosted journey with the Shelby Mustang and hope you like this car too.
The History Of The Mustang In Cinema
Ford Mustang has not only been an iconic muscle car in the real world, but it has also been very influential on the silver screen as well. Several iterations of the car have graced the silver screen at various points in time, in various decades, and several different movies. Sean Connery’s Mach 1 Mustang from Diamonds Are Forever, Sean’s Driftstang from Tokyo Drift, Steve’s Mcqueen’s Mustang from the 1968 classic Bullitt, and finally, the Saleen Mustang from 2 Fast 2 Furious, which was a minor appearance in the overall scheme of things in that movie.
All the above-mentioned examples are iconic cars in pop culture and this helps the Need For Speed Mustang to enter the same space of fame and popularity that its predecessors have enjoyed for so long. Similarly, other muscle cars like the Camaro, the Chevelle, the Dodge Charger, and several others have become cult classics in the eyes of cinephiles and car enthusiasts alike. Needless to say, the Mustang enjoys a rich legacy of global fame and popularity that shall remain as it is for the decades to come.
The Need For Speed Ford Mustang Shelby
Starting from the exterior, most fans will have a deja vu at first glance, drawing parallels with Brian’s Skyline from 2 Fast 2 Furious, due to the presence of the silver paint job and those blue stripes running parallel on the roof of that car, starting from the hood. The car is a Shelby GT500 that was supposed to be launched with the movie, with 8 of them being used for the movie. In the movie, the car was making 900 horsepower, but in reality, beneath the hood was a 5.8L V8 engine that made about 500-600 horsepower at best and this number also includes the performance upgrades. Out of the 7 cars used for filming, most of them were destroyed during filming. The 3 that survived have had different dates each. This car was purchased by Ford and DreamWorks exclusively for the movie. It is to be noted that most of the buck cars in the movie used stock engines and one of the 8 cars in the movie was a 2015 Mustang, waiting to make its debut a couple of months later.
Filming And Aftermath
Car enthusiasts will be happy to know that most of the scenes with the car were done using practical effects and not CGI, which manages to keep the beauty of the vehicle intact, for most of the part. The team believed that the action in the film must look as realistic and believable as possible to avoid tampering with the public image of the cars, which adds some layer of authenticity to the otherwise lackluster movie.
At the end of the movie, nearly 4 cars were destroyed during the entire filming process, leaving only 3 of the original 7 cars used. One Mustang was a red car that was featured at the end of the movie, only for a short time. This was a 2015 Mustang that was just placed as a product placement for the then-upcoming car that was supposed to be launched in the market. The other 2 cars, i.e., the 2014 cars have gone for auctions. One of the cars now rests in the hands of Dave Flynn of Columbiana, Ohio, and the car sold for $300,000 at the very prestigious Barrett Jackson auction, which also saw the auction of the buck car Toyota Supra MK4 from The Fast and The Furious(2001).
Final Thoughts
The Ford Mustang from Need For Speed isn’t high in the ranks when compared to its predecessors from older movies from the past, but none of us can deny the impact the car has had on reviving the image of the Mustang, which has etched itself in the mind of the viewers even after almost a decade. All the readers, who may be Mustang fans, can surely make a run to the dealership to get their powerhouse of performance and style and hope you have a pleasant driving experience.
