2F2F Hero Car Sold
The 2001 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII seen in 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious just sold for €291,200 ($341,800) at a Bonhams auction dedicated exclusively to famous movie cars. This makes it the most expensive car ever to wear the Mitsubishi badge; of course, the Paul Walker provenance always helps. The car in question, chassis JMYSNCT9A1U000797, has been authenticated by the film’s technical advisor Craig Lieberman as ‘Stunt Car No. 1’ — the only one among the four cars seen in the film to have real performance upgrades under the hood.
Built To Be Driven
The record-setting car was one of four Evo VIIs supplied to Universal Pictures by Mitsubishi to play the part of Paul Walker’s hero car. As often happens with Hollywood cars, each of the four cars was specced slightly differently for specific scenes in the movie. Two of the cars were given neon lighting for night and low-light shots, one was equipped with the Panasonic DVD player seen in interior shots, and Stunt Car No. 1 was the high-performance stunt unit used for some of the more extreme driving scenes in the movie.
Mechanical upgrades to this car included uprated suspension bits to improve handling and performance mods to take peak power output up from 280 hp to 330 hp — and the sale includes a copy of a 2016 dyno run to verify this.
About The Car
The now-famous Evo VII was on its way to join an Austrian rally team when it was pulled aside and offered a movie role. The originally blue Evo was reinvented in that color-shifting lime green shade, Kosmic Kolor Candy Lime Gold to be specific, and a bespoke body kit that featured aftermarket taillights meant to look more like those of the soon-to-be launched Evo VIII. A YouTube video by Craig Lieberman details how the car was prepared for the shoot.
After the movie was made, the car was used for promotions and regularly appeared at events, both in the U.S. as well as in Norway, where it was exported to in 2007. Movie Cars Central purchased the car in 2019, and it just became the most expensive Mitsubishi ever sold, at last months Bonhams movie car auction in Paris. Included in the sale were the Norwegian title, customs documentation, the aforementioned dyno test report, a Carfax report, and written confirmation of the car’s authenticity from Craig Lieberman.
