The success of Fast and Furious 8 is creating a lot of anticipation for the ninth movie in the Fast and Furious franchise. No less than Tyrese Gibson was up to his tricks again after posting a fan-made poster of Fast 9 on Facebook. The post has since been taken down, but enterprising sleuths from the world wide web have unearthed the thing and, well, it’s a very interesting poster that features…Matt Damon and a Ford Falcon GT?

Of course, the bombshell here is Damon’s involvement. It's important, though, to not to expect anything to come to fruition until Universal Studios has something to say about it. But what really caught our eye was the inclusion of the Ford Falcon GT – or to be more specific, the Ford XA Falcon GT RPO83 that The Supercar Blogs points out – that Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) is standing beside. The truth is, Toretto is a Dodge Charger guy. Has been from the very beginning of the franchise. The thought of seeing him in any other pony car other than a Charger is preposterous, kind of like seeing Dwayne Johnson play a toothy-fruity fairy… oh wait, that did happen. The point here is that Toretto has about as much of a chance to jump to a Ford pony car in the Fast franchise as Tyrese has in winning a Golden Globe in the “Outstanding Lead Actor – Drama” category. Not a chance. Good poster though, but still, take this one with a table full of salt.

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Interesting but unlikely additions

I have to admit, when I first saw the poster, my initial reaction was a mixture of surprise and excitement. I was surprised to see the Ford Falcon in the poster. That immediately tipped me off on the legitimacy of the whole thing. In fact, Toretto has yet to actually drive a Ford in the whole franchise even though he did have some screen time with the Ford GT40 back in Fast and Furious 5. He has driven Chevrolet muscle cars though, numerous times actually, including a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS in the post-credit scene of the first movie, a 1973 Chevrolet Camaro F-Bomb in Fast and Furious 4, and a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Grand Sport in Fast and Furious 5.

It’s certainly not impossible to see Toretto in a Ford, but given how late in the franchise it would be and his known love for Mopar muscle cars, it would be highly improbable to see him drive a Mustang in any of the last two movies, much less a Ford XA Falcon GT RPO83. That’s not to say that the XA Falcon doesn’t deserve a place in the movie franchise because it most certainly does. After all, this is the same car that packs a 5.7-liter V-8 engine making 334 horsepower and 380 pound-feet of torque, big numbers from a car built in the 1970s. It also came with a Holley 780 carburetor and 2.25-inch exhaust headers, among other notable components. To underscore the rarity of this particular Falcon, the model was only sold in Australia in super limited quantities. Only 250 total units with the RPO3 package that was sold in a span of just four months (April to August 1973). Finding an actual XA Falcon GT RPO83 is hard enough these days, but to find one that can actually work in the conditions of the Fast and Furious 5 movie is next to impossible.

Who knows, it could still happen if the studio decides to spend money making a replica or if Vin Diesel insists on getting one in the next two movies. But I’m not holding my breath, just as I am very skeptical of seeing Matt Damon join the movie franchise. Like I said, the poster’s actually well done. The tagline “Can’t Outrun a Ghost” is spot-on, too. But as far as actually seeing it come to life, I’m not jumping on that bandwagon.