How this Barris built Mazda RX7 is nothing more than a replica
Misinformation surrounding an upcoming Mecum auction for a George Barris built Mazda RX-7 caused enough confusion that Craig Lieberman, original technical advisor for The Fast and the Furious, had to make a post clarifying this car’s questionable listing.
Earlier last year, Mecum revealed its auction listings for its upcoming Kissimmee auction later this month (January 6-16.) Featured as a star car is a George Barris built 1995 Mazda RX7 modified and painted to look exactly like Dominc Toretto’s Mazda RX7 from “The Fast and the Furious.”
You can see the listing linked here.
Here’s what Craig Lieberman had to say about all the confusion.
“THIS RX7 was NOT A MOVIE CAR.” Lieberman said.
“It was a car that George Barris had built by someone else in order to stay relevant in the movie car business.”
Although the auction listing and included letter of certification never explicitly says this RX7 was actually used in or for the movie as a hero, stunt, or promotional car, a cursory read through might convince a bidder or reader otherwise.
If you think no bidder would be gullible enough to read the auction listing, see the car, and think they’re actually bidding on Toretto’s RX7, consider these articles written about this auction.
BuzzCar’s is titled, “Dom Toretto’s Legendary RX-7 Is A Letdown In Real Life.“
AutoEvolution states in their post, “According to the listing, the car on auction was indeed driven by Vin Diesel in the movie, but it was later modified by George Barris.“
We now know that’s not exactly true, at all.
Even MotorTrend titled their post, “Here’s Your Chance to Own Dom Toretto’s Fast and Furious Mazda RX-7.”
“Mecum Auto Auctions is giving you the chance to own a piece of blockbuster movie history: this 1995 Mazda RX-7 from the Fast and Furious, further modified by George Barris for his All Star Car Collection.” Motor Trend writes.
According to Motor Trend, a news outlet writing about cars for decades, it reads like this is the real deal.
As Lieberman mentions, making movie car replicas long after the actual film wrapped up production and passing them off as actual movie cars is nothing new to Barris’s Mo.
Barris infamously was served a Cease and Desist (unironically) by Universal Studios for making and displaying a replica of the Back to the Future DeLorean and heavily insinuating he actually worked on BTTF cars used during filming or for promotional purposes.
Even without Lieberman’s post, fans of the film can easily point out the multiple differences between the one used in the movie and Barris’s.
Obvious inaccuracies include using the wrong wheels, the wrong spoiler, adding decals not used on the movie car, and mounting the NOS bottles behind the center console instead of under the passenger seat.
Despite the auction listing mentioning “The Fast and The Furious” multiple times and referencing people actually involved in the movie, bidders should take Lieberman’s post as gospel, this RX7 headed for Mecum’s Kissimmee auction block is not the real deal.
It’s a replica.
This RX7 is Lot F169 and is scheduled for auction on Friday, January 14.
I’ll be curious what the auctioneer says during the actual auction. Hopefully he clarifies what Lieberman said.
