Fast & Furious: Paul Walker’s Mitsubishi Eclipse Is Going Up for Auction

One of Paul Walker’s cars from the Fast and Furious franchise will be going up for auction in January. Walker was a part of the massive action franchise from the beginning, starring 2001’s The Fast and the Furious alongside Vin Diesel. Although he did not appear in the third film, Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, which was a standalone film that actually takes place much later in the franchise’s chronology than many of the sequels, he appeared in every other entry up until Furious 7.

Tragically, Paul Walker was killed in a car crash in November 2013 before the filming of Furious 7 could conclude. The production, which was being directed by James Wan, created 350 additional shots using archival footage and stand-in performances by Walker’s two brothers. The remainder of the films in the series have Walker’s character Brian O’Conner alive but offscreen, happily living with his family away from the adventures of the rest of his gearhead crew.

Per CarThrottle, one of the six Mitsubishi Eclipses that Paul Walker drove throughout the first film is going up for auction at the beginning of next year. Although the character would later become more well known for using a Toyota Supra, the car from the original is still an iconic piece of machinery. Previous screen-used cars from the franchise have sold for as high as $550,000, so it’s anyone’s guess as to how much will be shelled out for this piece of cinema history.

The 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse was Brian O’Conner’s signature car in the original The Fast and the Furious. The undercover cop used the car to train for a street race in which he was supposed to earn the respect of Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto. After almost destroying the car by overpumping the NOS during the race, it is destroyed when rival racer and crime boss Johnny Tran causes the NOS tank to explode during a shootout.

The Fast and Furious franchise wouldn’t be what it is today without the committed participation of Walker. The series is now a box office juggernaut with 9 films, a spinoff, an animated series, and a linked pair of finale sequels, F10 and F11, being directed by Justin Lin. The franchise was on top of the world at the time of Walker’s death and has only grown since then, so the auction will be propelled by both the franchise’s enduring popularity and the legacy Paul Walker has left behind. That’s a value beyond being a mere collectible car, so it will be interesting to see how much the car eventually sells for.

Source: CarThrottle

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