The Cars, The Racetracks And The Birth Of "Car-Fu"

Speed Racer's thundering Mach 5 is perhaps one of the world's most recognizable cars onscreen. Its aggressive profile, complemented by a glossy, white finish with a red 'M' emblazoned across the hood, is firmly etched in the minds of "Speed Racer" fans around the world. While the updated design of the Mach 5 could have gone in a number of directions, "we eventually came back to a semi-retro look with very sleek lines," says production designer Owen Paterson.

"After exploring several possibilities, Larry and Andy looked at the original Mach 5's iconic profile and decided to retain the essence of the original because its look is truly timeless and unique," says Joel Silver.

While the Mach 5 will always be the car most closely associated with Speed Racer in the minds of diehard fans, the Wachowskis upped the ante by introducing a new generation of the Mach series-the Mach 6.

"As can be expected with Larry and Andy, they also wanted to break new ground here," says Paterson. "For the Mach 6, which is used strictly for track racing in the World Racing League, we went for a very bold-yet-refined profile, and maintained the color scheme and overall 'M' shape of the Mach 5."

Furthermore, "Larry and Andy coined a term to describe the Mach 6 and cars in its class in the film," continues the production designer. "They called these types of cars 'T180s' for their ability to turn their wheels 180 degrees and drift across banks sideways, generating several Gs of lateral acceleration."

Paterson and his team began work nearly a year in advance of principal photography to create more than 100 individual car designs. "In our world we have architects, but in the world of 'Speed Racer' people hire 'carchitects' to custom build their vehicles," Paterson states.

"We brought together some of the most talented artists in the field, from storyboard artists to top designers within the automotive industry. We wanted to have fun with them and let everyone bounce ideas off of one another," says Hill.

Once the car designs were approved, they were modeled and painted in a digital environment. Additionally, Speed's Mach 5 and Racer X's Shooting Star were physically constructed in full-scale for use in certain scenes. And while you could sit in the cockpit of each car, these full-size replicas weren't actually going anywhere as no power trains were installed. All of the high-flying, hard-hitting car action in the film was rendered digitally with CGI.

The filmmakers initially contemplated the possibility of shooting race sequences in the film using real cars on practical racetracks. However, Paterson notes, "Given the style of our cars and the high-impact action that we wanted to achieve, it made much more sense to create it digitally."

"At the speeds they're driving and with the combative techniques they use, there are a lot of precarious moments on the track," says visual effects supervisor Dan Glass. "It's an extremely dangerous-looking sport, but no one gets seriously hurt, because we've developed a special device that protects the driver."

Visual effects supervisor John Gaeta adds, "Larry and Andy came up with a safety feature they call 'Kwiksave Foam,' which is like a big rubber ball that inflates around the driver to protect them in the event of a crash. This is standard equipment on all of the cars that compete in the World Racing League."

As impressive as the cars are, they needed an equally dramatic place to show off their moves. "The Wachowski brothers' first directive was, 'Our racetracks should be a cross between a giant ski slalom and a skateboard park,'" recalls Paterson.

"Larry and Andy felt strongly about making sure that each of the races looked very different from each other," says Silver. "Since we have the freedom to build tracks and backgrounds digitally, we really put our imaginations into overdrive. You're going to see things that are fantastic and thrilling; the races will keep you on the edge of your seat."

Four racetracks were created, each with unique characteristics. Not only do the racetracks feature gut-challenging loop-the-loops, winding spirals and breathtaking jumps, but they also take place against exotic-looking environs.

Speed Racer's hometown track is Thunderhead, where his late brother, Rex, still holds the track record. While Thunderhead is a world-class track, it is not one of the majors on the WRL circuit. Paterson notes, "Thunderhead is a track that's definitely seen better days. Still, it holds a special place in Speed's heart because of Rex Racer's legacy. It has all of the excitement our other tracks bring, including spirals, banks, butterflies and giant drops."

The second track in "Speed Racer," the Fuji Helexicon, a big-league track on the WRL circuit, is set on a tropical archipelago against a backdrop of natural volcanoes and ultramodern buildings inspired by the designs of internationally renowned architects. The track weaves in and out of the atoll and over the glittering sea with awe-inspiring twists and turns.

The Casa Cristo 5000 is the death-defying road rally race where Rex Racer lost his life. This perilous course, so dangerous that it has been nicknamed "The Crucible," spans several continents and crosses every imaginable terrain. Drivers must endure extreme climates, from the blistering desert heat in the Zunubian Desert to the narrow Glacier Cliffs and icy Maltese Ice Caves. One wrong turn could send a driver plummeting thousands of feet to his or her demise. Though the WRL has made an effort to clean up the style of racing in this event, underhanded driving tricks, including spear hooks, tire shanks and catapults, make the Casa Cristo 5000 the most brutal test of endurance in "Speed Racer."

"The Casa Cristo 5000 is the most treacherous cross-country race in the world, and competitors will use whatever means to get ahead," Paterson explains. "We developed what I called the Roman chariot kind of racing, where we have big swords coming out of the cars and shields to protect the wheels."

There is intense pressure to win the Casa Cristo 5000 because the champion will gain entry to compete in the most highly regarded event in the WRL, the Grand Prix. A victory at the Grand Prix will not only garner fame and fortune for the winner, but also make him or her an instant legend in the World Racing League.

"Imagine an event bigger than the Daytona 500, the Indy 500 and the World Cup combined," says Joel Silver. "The WRL's Grand Prix is this event in the world of 'Speed Racer.'"

"The Grand Prix racecourse is built right into the city of Cosmopolis," Paterson states. "It's enormous. It is a fantastical high-rise track with giant dips, loops and butterfly turns that enable the cars to accelerate at breakneck speeds."

The inspiration for the design and setting of the Grand Prix comes from the Wachowski brothers, "who grew up in Chicago and had always enjoyed the idea of being able to watch a baseball game at Wrigley Field from the rooftops of its surrounding buildings," Paterson continues. "They had this idea that we could take whole skyscrapers and turn them into grandstands. As a result, the city itself became a grandstand for the biggest race of the year."

Another feature of the Grand Prix racetrack was a visual illusion added by the Wachowskis to pay homage to Eadweard Muybridge, a 19th-century photographer known for pioneering instantaneous motion picture capture with multiple cameras, the principles of which were an influence in the development of creating the "Bullet time" effect in "The Matrix."

Along one straightaway of the Grand Prix racetrack, the filmmakers placed a series of zebra images along the wall in the background, and as Speed Racer and his racing competitors accelerate across the screen, the combined set of images viewed in rapid succession simulate the effect of the zebra running in motion, akin to Muybridge's series of photographs known as "The Horse in Motion."

"We love to give nods to our inspirations, and so the zebra zoetrope is essentially a wink to the inspiration of 'Bullet time' in a literal sense," says Gaeta. "We planted a lot of illusions in the backgrounds of this film, and among them is this homage to Muybridgean photography in the veil of an advertisement on the Grand Prix track."

Meticulous attention was also paid to covering the many camera angles required to capture each actor's close-ups and reactions during the fast-paced action sequences in "Speed Racer." While the exterior of the cars were composed digitally, full-size cockpits-replete with steering wheels, gas and brake pedals and back-lit instrument panels-were fabricated and mounted on hydraulically powered gimbals controlled by a virtual-reality driving program to simulate vehicle dynamics of actual racecars.

Second unit director James McTeigue, director of "V for Vendetta," worked with his team to shoot the film's four major racing sequences, staged against a 200 x 40-foot green screen. The gimbals were designed to simulate the movement of the various cars in each race as they made their way around the tracks. The powerful, hydraulically operated platform enabled the cockpits to move in a three-dimensional space, precisely mimicking a driver's commands over a custom-designed track.

"The gimbals' base is controlled by software that ties the movement of the car cockpit to the pre-visualized scene. We also threw in live elements like wind to help the actors feel as though they were actually driving instead of being driven," says Owen Paterson.

From an actor's perspective, Rain offers, "Riding the gimbal was pretty intense. It's probably the closest thing I'll come to driving a Formula 1 car, but much less dangerous."

"Working with a gimbal was a fun, new challenge for me," recalls Emile Hirsch. "You really get thrown around in there, so you don't have to pretend like you're being tossed around in a scene. It's more realistic than pretending to drive something stationary."

Matthew Fox adds, "The gimbal is wild and requires a good amount of focus. It's important for the action to look convincing, since the racing in 'Speed Racer' is a full¬contact sport. James and his team had total control of the gimbal and they adjusted the levels and manipulated that thing however they wanted. I was always telling them to 'Crank it up!'"

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