Of the two gas stations at which the movie was shot, the super center gas station no longer exists, and in its location is a recycling center. But the small gas station that played Joe's service station, bizarrely, still remains today [to date, February 2022 - c/- Google Maps), at 3201 Marysville Boulevard, Sacramento, California, USA - and is run-down and decrepant, ironically, like the state of Joe's filling station at the start of the movie.
Actress and Playboy model Sandy Johnson quit acting after this movie. She said in a 2018 interview that she had lost both her parents and just wasn't happy with where her life was going. She originally started posing nude for Playboy and in movies to earn money for her father's cancer treatments, but after he passed, she stopped doing so. She also didn't like being naked on set all the time with so many male cast and crew leering at her naked body. Posing for Playboy was easy because this was one photographer. But when making a movie, she was naked in front of a crowd of people.
The timing of the theatrical launch of the picture stateside in 1979 coincided with a fuel shortage across the USA thereby giving the picture an "unexpected" relevance upon release according to an article published in the 11th July 1979 edition of show-business trade-paper 'Variety'.
The oil factory was actually an old Proctor & Gamble plant in South Sacramento.
Michael Alden's character is simply listed in the closing credits as Driver, although there are several drivers in the movie. He plays the driver of the white Ferrari 246 Dino and also worked as the movie's make-up artist.