- Awesome, Dear Boy: Paul Walker has stated that he did this film because of Donnie Brasco, as he thought the role of an undercover cop was a cool idea, and he'd like to portray that type of character.
- Billing Displacement: The movie is best known as a Vin Diesel flick. Paul Walker actually plays the main character. Downplayed example, as Diesel's character is just as critical as Walker's. For the end credits
◊ and the poster, the two are given Diagonal Billing, with Paul Walker's name being placed in the bottom-left and Vin Diesel's in the top-right. - Cast the Expert:
- Owing to the film's limited budget (discussed below), most of the cars in the film were borrowed from actual tuning enthusiasts around Los Angeles, who in turn were often given roles as background extras and consultants.
- Paul Walker auditioned for the role both because he was a car enthusiast wanting to do a car movie, and to fund his love of cars.
- Dawson Casting: Both Toretto and Vince are said to be 24. Vin Diesel was 34, Matt Schulze was 29 by then. Well, Schulze was still in his twenties at least. Diesel, however, passed pretty well for 24-year old Toretto.
- DVD Commentary: The commentary by Rob Cohen goes to show the depth of insight a director can have about hidden aspects of the movie. Oh yeah, and he likes to blow stuff up too. And he loves pounding cars.
- Harpo Does Something Funny: Paul Walker and Matt Schulze carefully choreographed the fight scene outside the grocery store, but when it came time to shoot, it didn't feel right. In the end, they just improvised.
- Hey, It's That Place!: The street where Toretto crashes his car at the end of the film, is the same location as the first narcotics bust, in Training Day, which was also written by David Ayer.
- Inspiration for the Work: Rob Cohen was inspired to make this film after reading a 1998 Vibe magazine article called "Racer X" about street racing in New York City and watching an actual illegal street race at night in Los Angeles.
- Irony as She Is Cast: Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster didn't have driving licences when they were first cast; they had one shot to pass their tests, and if they didn't, their roles would have been recast.
- No Budget: Upon approving the script, Universal Studios were initially planning to give this film a measly $20 million budget. The budget eventually went up to $38 million, but that was still much less than the average action film at the time was getting. Almost every car seen in the film was either rented from their owners in the Los Angeles area, or a cheap replica thereof; there was simply not enough money to make their own custom cars, or to import the newest ones from abroad. For example, O'Conner's Toyota Supra was owned by the film's technical advisor, Craig Lieberman.
- Release Date Change: Originally, Universal Pictures' intention was to release film during the Spring of 2001. Peter Adee, former head of marketing for Universal Pictures explained, that the film was not produced with "a great deal of money", but when the film was screen-tested in Sacramento, "the audience loved it". The positive response from the audience convinced Universal to change the release date of the film to Summer.
- Romance on the Set: Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez were dating off-screen during filming, just as they did on-screen.
- Similarly Named Works:
- There's a 1954 Roger Corman film called The Fast and the Furious that's also about racing. Corman agreed to license the title rights in exchange for access to Universal's stock footage archives.
- Also about racing, the Spanish sub-title given to this movie "A todo gas" was already used in the dubbed version of The '80s anime F, a series dedicated to Formula One.
- Technology Marches On:
- The main plot is motivated by Dominic Toretto and his crew stealing shipments of DVD players. While it was probably more plausible back when the film released in 2001 (though, like One Night at McCool's, DVD players were rapidly falling in price by this point), it comes off as over-the-top many years later when the thieves risk life-and-limb by using harpoon guns to steal shipments of low-end consumer electronics in transit, the LAPD has organized a joint investigation with the FBI and Brian O'Connor gives up his career to aid Toretto and the others.
- At one point, Jesse demonstrates the schematics of a vehicle to Brian...by putting a floppy disc in a computer and showing him a picture of the vehicle. Most modern software can do this much easier, including AutoCAD (which had been available for desktop use for a long while at the time the movie was made), Visio and many others.
- Throw It In!: All of the actors had significant input on their characters when early drafts of the script weren't up to snuff. Paul Walker and Vin Diesel attended a real illegal street race for research, and really fled down a dark alley together when police helicopters showed up. They insisted a similar scene be included, so Brian rescuing Dom in his car became how they established their characters' friendship.
- Uncredited Role: The driver of the KJ Transport big rig truck for the final truck heist is Kevin Smith of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys fame. In the DVD Commentary director Rob Cohen made note of this since the role was uncredited for the film. He also mentions in the commentary that he kept Kevin's face obscured to give the same anonymity that he did to the other truck drivers.
- Wag the Director: In a later draft, where Letty would become Dom's girlfriend, Michelle Rodriguez voiced her disapproval over Letty also having to sleep with Brian, as she felt it would give her a reputation of a "slut", because she thought many Latinas in Hollywood were seen as that, and she didn't want that reputation. Vin Diesel backed her up.
- What Could Have Been:
- Timothy Olyphant was the first choice for the role of Dominic Toretto before Vin Diesel was cast. However, Olyphant turned down the offer due to the film being too similar to Gone In Sixty Seconds.
- Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg and Eminem were considered for the part of Brian O'Conner before the casting of Paul Walker.
- Jessica Biel, Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Natalie Portman auditioned for the role of Mia Toretto before Jordana Brewster was cast.
- Rob Cohen's original casting choices were Mario Lopez as Dominick, Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Brian and Dustin Diamond as Jesse. However, studio execs feared that the reteaming of the Saved by the Bell co-stars would confuse audiences.
- Certain versions of the DVD, as well as Blu-Ray copies have what was going to be an alternate ending. Brian is dropped off at the Toretto home, now for sale, to find Mia packing up the garage. Mia tells him to go, before Brian reveals he quit his job as a cop and was hoping for one more chance, before cutting to a wide shot of LA. Given how the following sequel paints Brian as running away to Miami for a new start, it would have been interesting to see the current films if the alternate ending was used.
- Behold differences between the original draft and the final film.
- Working Title: Racer X, Redline and Race Wars. Redline would be used for a 2007 racing film that was clearly following this film's lead, but would become better known for being related to the subprime mortgage crisis.note
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