In every episode within The Fast & The Furious movie franchise that features Vin Diesel’s character Dominic “Dom” Toretto, there is always a ’70 Dodge Charger by his side. While the movie franchise once started as being based around the import and tuner world, the one car that has always stood out is indeed Dom’s Charger.

The original story told to us was that the Charger originally belonged to Dom’s father. Rated around 900 horsepower, it ran a 9-second flat quarter-mile time at Palmdale Speedway. Dom states there was so much torque that the chassis twisted coming off the line and his father barely kept it on the track. After his father was killed in a pro Stock Car racing event crash, the Charger sat in the garage in memory of him. Dom also says he’s never driven it because it “scares the [EXPLETIVE] out of him.”

Later on in the film, Dom does in fact drive the Charger. After a couple of rivals do a drive-by shooting on the Toretto house, Dom grabs his shotgun and hops in the Charger to pursue them along with Brian in his Toyota Supra. After they deal with the bad guys, Dom takes off and Brian takes off in pursuit after him.

The famous drag race ending scene really made the Charger a star. During the quarter mile street race, Dom blows the Charger’s BDS-blown Hemi engine (presumably kicking a rod) but keeps racing, then ends up totaling the Charger after a semi-truck pulls out in front of him [oh, and SPOILERS for those who haven’t seen this 14-year-old film – Ed).

After that, the Charger and Dom disappeared from the big screen for the next two installments; namely 2 Fast, 2 Furious and Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift (although Dom does make a cameo appearance in a stinger scene after the credits in a ’70 Road Runner).

Nevertheless, both Dom and his father’s Charger reappeared in the fourth installment in the franchise, simply titled Fast & Furious. This time, the Mopar appears wearing a flat black paint job, larger American Racing Torque Thrust wheels and a custom mesh grille sporting a R/T badge. Near the end of the movie, the Charger yet again gets destroyed after driving into an explosive-packed wall in a tunnel beneath the US/Mexican border. In the closing scene of the movie though, it reappears fully restored with Brian behind the wheel, thus leaving hints about the next movie.

At the beginning of Fast 5, the Charger is used to bust Dom out of a prison bus. Brian races in front of the bus and slams on the brakes, causing the bus to rearend the Charger and then barrel roll. Later on in the movie, the Charger appears wearing a matte grey paint job, blacked out chrome and custom black wheels. Also gone is the towering BDS roots-style supercharger poking out of the hood. It plays a substantial role in a few keys scenes before getting destroyed yet again. This time it gets T-boned by Hobbs’ Gurka F5 armored tank SUV. Sensing a trend yet?

In Fast & Furious 6, the Charger is back but this time, it’s shown as a blood red custom Daytona Charger. It’s presumed though that it’s an entirely different Charger based on the fact the movie shows them getting the Daytona from an high dollar car auction in London, England. The Daytona Charger plays a big role in this movie, starring in a lot of key scenes to the movie. Of course, just like every other Charger in the franchise, it gets wrecked as well. The fate being driven head-on into a concrete barrier on the highway while trying to save an airborne Letty after she gets thrown from a flipping tank.

For the latest movie, Furious 7, the Charger comes back in three different forms. The first form being a fully custom tube chassis off-road warrior that was built for Dom to get dropped out of a plane in. The car plays a big part in the early scenes of the movie before getting wrecked as well. This time it’s jumped off the side of a mountain which causes it to barrel roll multiple times down the rocky cliff leaving almost nothing left of the car.

The second form of the Charger seen near the end of the movie very closely resembles the original one from the first movie. Wearing different wheels and a custom grille, the rest of it very closely matches the original star car. This version of the Charger comes into the movie in the same way it was introduced in the original movie:

Dom walks up the driveway at the Toretto/O’Brien house, opens the garage door and hops in the Charger to go and get revenge on a rival that has harmed his family. He crashes the Charger again, this time racing head-on towards the bad guy on the top of a multi-floor parkade, pulling a wheelie and then crashing head-on into him resulting in the Charger landing on the hood of the bad guy’s car.

Surprisingly though, it doesn’t appear very damaged in this scene. After a fight scene, Dom hops back in the Charger and races out of the parkade, which is being blown up. Just when you think the Charger escapes without being written off, Dom jumps it off the side of the parking garage (all while throwing a bag of grenades into a helicopter being flown by the bad guys) and then crashes to the ground, resulting in the Charger being completely destroyed again.

The third and final form appears at the end of the movie. However rather then being a 1970 model, it appears as fully-built 1968. Some of you will recognize the 1968 Dodge Charger in these scenes as being the NRE Maximus 2000HP SEMA 1968 Dodge Charger. This Charger however, unlike the others lives at the end of the movie!

https://youtu.be/4SA6o9E_iD8

From what we’ve been told, Fast and the Furious 8 is in the works, so we’re interested to see what the movie will hold in store for Dom’s famous Charger!