The Fast & Furious film franchise has had a curious life, having gone from pumping out lame, meat-headed drag racing flicks to thrilling, ambitious action spectacles that essentially define escapism. Curiously, despite the latter films conquering the box office, the franchise’s central ensemble (sans Vin Diesel and The Rock, obviously) rarely strayed from the Fast universe, so the series’ recurring themes of “family” resonated that much more, as if this crew were just as close in real life. And when Paul Walker, who played detective-turned-thief Brian, passed away in 2013, the cast broke down publicly at his memorial and the seventh film in the franchise turned its epilogue into a tribute to both the man and the character.
The series has moved on, but one niche of society hasn’t. In a new piece for MEL Magazine, writer Luke Winkie investigates the strange world of Paul Walker tribute car shows. At these global events, fans gather annually to show off the kinds of cars that you’d find in a Fast & Furious movie while also honoring the actor’s legacy. It’s nice and all, but also kind of weird considering that Walker was more of a car enthusiast than a racer. What people seem to be memorializing isn’t Walker so much as his role in the films, which offered gearheads an action franchise that spoke specifically to them in a pop culture landscape that feels less interested in luxury vehicles than it used to.