https://ift.tt/3hblhWr Kang’s Five Favorite Cars from the Fast & Furious Series

We caught up with actor Sung Kang, who plays Han Lue in the Fast & Furious series. His involvement with the movies has turned him into a die-hard car enthusiast, and MotorTrend asked him to name his five favorite cars from the series.

5. Ford Maverick, Fast 5

“The love for the Maverick came from that scene in Brazil where we were doing the recon scene. Dennis McCarthy paired me up with the Maverick and I was complaining: ‘How come everybody gets all these cool cars and I get this hunk of junk?’ One of the Brazilian technicians went into this whole history of what the Maverick means to the Brazilian car community. I became a student of that car and fell in love with it. There’s a GT version with a center console that never came to the US. I built a restomod version called the Underdog with a Ford 2.3 EcoBoost. These gentlemen in Brazil reached out to me and donated all these original Maverick GT parts from Brazil. We built it with three students and auctioned it at Barret-Jackson to go towards their college fund.”

4. Pontiac Fiero, F9

“When I was a kid growing up in Georgia, when the Fiero came out, it was realistic. I felt like one day I could have that car. I knew nothing about the crappy engine and that it caught on fire all the time. Ferrari, Lamborghini, those European cars, I couldn’t even spell their names. But the Fiero, made in America—that was the car. And when the Fiero GT came out, come on! People talk crap about the Fiero, but at the time, it was aspirational. The fact that it’s in a Fast and Furious movie is even cooler. I want to get a Fiero and head out to Angeles Crest and create a Fiero club. That car’s time is due.”

3. Chevrolet Monte Carlo, The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift

“I feel like the Monte Carlo represents my ethos. It’s ugly an unappreciated on the outside, but internally it’s a raging bull. I think it’s one of the coolest cars in the movies because it shouldn’t be there. That patina—that car made me fall in love with patina, just keeping it raw. I love that car. It has a pimpalicious vibe. You can put on a fedora and just cruise and look good. Very few cars make you look good with a fedora on.”

2. Buick Grand National, Fast Five

“This is one of those underdogs that I think people today don’t totally appreciate, but the ones who do appreciate it, there’s an obsession and a fervor. I love what that community represents, and I really love that car. I’m actually doing a Grand National build now with an R35 [Nissan GT-R 3.8 V-6] motor. I want to do a fusion of American and Japanese. I would never tear up a factory-correct Grand National, but I found an ’84 that had been gutted. It’ll be cool because the R35 is also a 3.8 liter V-6 turbo. If we can make it a single turbo that matches the original ethos of the Grand National, I think it’ll be a great homage.”

1. 1993 Mazda RX-7, Tokyo Drift

“The RD RX-7 is really dear to me because I actually had one. That was the car my parents bought me to convince me to quit acting and go to law school. I didn’t have a car, I was taking the bus everywhere, and my dad shows up with this RX-7. He says, ‘I bought you a car. I don’t know what it is, it looks like a Jaguar. If you take it, then you have to go back to law school.’ I put it in storage because I couldn’t afford the insurance on it. And I didn’t go back to law school. It was pure serendipity that it was Han’s car in Tokyo Drift, with that awesome Veilside body kit. Purely coincidental.”

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