What Happened to Dominic Toretto’s Mazda RX-7 “Hero 1” in Fast and Furious?

The first street race we ever see in the *Fast and Furious* saga is also one of its most unforgettable. In that four-car showdown, Dominic Toretto (played by Vin Diesel) lines up in a heavily modified Mazda RX-7, while Brian Connor (Paul Walker), the other lead of the franchise, turns up in an equally worked-on Mitsubishi Eclipse - the coupé, not the SUV, obviously. Once the race ends and the police chase begins, Dominic Toretto drives the RX-7 into a building and leaves it there - and we never “set eyes on” the Japanese sports car again. Not in the film and, oddly enough, not later in the real world either. To piece together, as far as possible, what became of Dominic Toretto’s Mazda RX-7, Craig Lieberman, technical director on the first two films in the saga, lays out the car’s full story on his YouTube channel - from how it “made its way” into the film to the point it “vanished off the map”. ## The *Fast and Furious* street-race RX-7 and why it stood out As is typical in Hollywood productions, the shoot didn’t rely on a single Mazda RX-7. Instead, five were used, each assigned a specific role, whether for “stunts” or for static shots. ## Five Mazda RX-7s for filming and the “Hero 1” car ## The “Hero 1” Of those five original RX-7s, the location of every one is known except for one - the very first of them, which ended up being known as “Hero 1”. This was the car that convinced Vin Diesel and the production team it was the right pick for the street-race scene. That particular Mazda RX-7 wasn’t built specifically for *Fast and Furious*. It already existed, it was already modified, and it belonged to Keith Imoto. After it was selected, it received further changes, including a colour change - it was originally grey and was repainted red - and the removal of the roll cage it had, making it easier for Vin Diesel to get in and out of the coupé. Craig Lieberman runs through all the work carried out, including the fake additions used for the “movie magic”, such as the NOS (nitrous) system. He also talks about one major repair: rebuilding the Wankel engine after it “died” as a result of one of the modifications.

What happened to the “Hero 1”?

After production wrapped, Universal Studios temporarily stored all the film’s cars while deciding what to do with them. The exception was the Mazda RX-7 “Hero 1”, which was handed back to its rightful owner, Keith Imoto. The film’s huge success meant the “Hero 1” made the rounds of the tuning magazines of the time - but after that, it “disappeared”. Lieberman knows this RX-7 still exists; he just doesn’t know where it is “kept under lock and key”. His only assumption is that it is still somewhere in the state of California (USA), around the Gardena or Santa Clarita areas. The remaining Mazda RX-7s used in the first *Fast and Furious* eventually found new owners, with some of them, interestingly, ending up in the “old continent”. It’s known that one is in Germany (and will undergo a restoration) and another is in the Netherlands.