In an interview, actor Paul Koslo spoke about legendary stunt driver Cary Loftin; "One night coming home from location, Cary was driving one of the Challengers back to the hotel, and he passed some New Mexico state troopers going 145 miles an hour! [laughs] He had four or five cop cars behind him with their lights on, but they couldn't catch up because they could only go about 125! So he drove into this little town and started to shut the car down. He pulled into a gas station, and I swear to God, he did a 360 in between the pumps and put the rear of the car - the gas tank - right in front of the super pump! He got out of the car like nothing happened, and the troopers busted his ass right there! [laughs] Oh, you should've seen those cops! They were fuming! They took him in, and the producer had to explain to them that Cary had actually been testing the car - that he did a lot of these spinouts because he'd been having trouble with the car! [laughs] I mean, you do have to test the cars, but you don't do it while you're driving home!"
The car featured in the film is a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T, with a 440 cubic-inch V-8, and not a 426 Hemi V-8 (as is often believed). Eight white Challengers loaned from the Chrysler Corporation were used during the filming.
Sarafian states on the DVD commentary that eight '70 Dodge Challenger R/T's were utilized during production and when filming had wrapped, only one Challenger R/T remained.
Director Richard C. Sarafian's original choice for the role of Kowalski was Gene Hackman, but the studio, 20th Century Fox, insisted on using Barry Newman if the movie was going to be made.
The color white was chosen for the car simply so the car would stand out against the background scenery in the movie. White was not symbolic in any way. The director says this in the DVD commentary.
David Gates: The singer/songwriter (of Bread fame) played the piano during the rousing revival in the desert with the J. Hovah singers.