I picked up a 1954 VW RHD Beetle from The Dezerland Auto Museum in Orlando, Florida on Wednesday. I try to shoot videos of vehicles not available to the general public from private collections and museums. Sometimes they are vehicles for sale - so to get to one of the storage rooms filled with Vintage VW’s for sale that are not being advertised … We had to walk thru The Dezerland Auto Museum … @ Jim
I visited the museum last fall. They have a large and varied collection of cars, motorcycles, and even model airplanes. I spent an afternoon viewing the collection. I only remember one Buick of interest, a wrecked Grand National from the Fast and Furious movie series.
Trivia Some the cars used for stunts were built-up Buick Regals designed to look like the Grand National. Despite often being referred to as a Grand National GNX, the car in the film is not the GNX trim; rather, it is merely the Grand National. The production team built 8 of these cars, and installed CNC slide brakes and Wilwood calipers in the rear to help facilitate stunt demands. Production Notes The production team built 8 of these cars, and installed CNC slide brakes and Wilwood calipers in the rear to help facilitate stunt demands. The most unusual of the seven GNs built was one with the body mounted backward on the frame so it could be driven at speed while appearing to be going backward. To get the engine tucked under the trunk lid, however, the turbocharger and its plumbing had to be removed. Most of the other GNs retained their original turbo V6s, though a couple had Chevy crate V8s installed. The Buick Grand National used for the reverse scene is actually facing the wrong way on the chassis. The body is sitting backwards, with the engine “in the trunk” and the rear differential under the hood. The driver’s seat, where Vin Diesel sat during the shooting of the scene faces through the windshield but the car was actually operated by a driver sitting long-ways across the back seat with the real steering wheel being where the rear seat back would be found and the gas and brake pedal along the side of the car – behind Vin Diesel's seat.
