This part was always confusing to me. Does Dom mean to say that his father died will driving the Charger? It is clearly set up for drag racing and he said the incident happened on the Pro Stock circuit. However this is the confusing part. He said his bumper got clipped on the final turn. There are no turns in Pro Stock drag racing.
Or is Dom simply afraid of the raw power that car puts out.
Proud member of the AIAFL.
Its supposed to be a symbolic meaning. The car represents a measure of all his fears and anger (feelings). It represents his anger about his father dying. It represents the fear of not being able to control himself. After all, his father and him built the car together. His best memories are invested in that car.
[deleted]
I don't think Dom's dad was driving that car when he was circuit racing. The Charger was just another car he built on his weekends and spare time with Dom.
shareEleanor syndrome. It's killed his old man and has damn near killed him. It's the one that, despite his skills behind the wheel, he's never been fully able to tame.
As a car nut, I like to think of it being the raw power of the thing. It's a blown Charger R/T...that's a lot of ponies in a car that handles like a pig on an old steel frame chassis.
I'm sure I remember him saying in the first film that the torque it threw out once twisted the chassis, or something to that effect. I do a spot of amateur racing (track racing, not this street racing style in the films)...badly too, I might add. I've certainly not got the skills (or the finance for that matter) to make it into the pro leagues, but I can certainly hold my own in the lower divisions that I race in. But a 2 ton lump of Detroit pig iron chucking out enough power to twist the frame? Yeah, that'd scare the sh_it out of me too!
It may have been nothing more than a simple error by the film makers and script writers talking about turns on a drag strip, but I think the emphasis of the car being something which needed a much better driver than myself for example, remains. They gave it a sinister nature, akin to an untamed wild animal that deserved ultimate respect, even by the best drivers. Petrol heads out there will tell you that what ever people might think about the films themselves, that car is becoming a character in it's own right. That's what petrol heads love that about car films.
Kowalski's Challenger.
The Bandit's Trans-Am
The General Lee
Bullitt's Mustang.
Eleanor from both Gone in 60 Seconds films
Rubber Duck's Mack
Milner's '32 Deuce Coupe
The Italian Job Mini Coopers
Mad Max's Falcon XB GT
The list goes on and on. The thing is that the cars became as important as the characters, almost taking on a personality of their own. Dom's Charger is heading in the same direction. I think that despite what may be sloppy writing, that's what they intended for the Charger.
That's what I think anyway.
We'll keep the Red Flag flying high,share
'Cos Man United will never die!