History Headscratchers / SpeedRacer

*** Speed actually ''wasn't'' the last racer standing. During his in-the-zone moment, there are snippets of him hopping, skipping and jumping over other racers.

*** Actually, Casa Cristo is the name of the ''race''. If you listen closely to the first announcer of Casa Cristo Classic, he says that the race 'spans two continents, three climate changes, and 5000 km of the most winding and treacherous roads ever raced'. So they may have driven through a desert, through a mountainous area (presumably the Alps), and into Germany, where the end of the race is.

** Back in TheSixties when Speed Racer was made the Mach 5 needed a trunk to be considered a sports car (as opposed to a race car). Under the rules of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (sanctioning body for the 24 hours of LeMans) a sports car had to have two seats, a spare tire, and a trunk capable of carrying an officially sized suitcase. Given their prestige [[FollowTheLeader most other sanctioning bodies followed suit.]] Also--and this may be hard to imagine nowadays--in the 50s and 60's sports car racing was largely an amateur sport: most "race" cars were street legal and were actually driven to and from the track. For example Creator/JamesDean was killed (and his mechanic injured) by an inattentive driver while he was driving his new race car to a race meet in order to break it in. No trunk meant you couldn't carry any parts, tools, or clothing. And yes, history is replete with examples or people arriving at tracks in sports cars loaded like [[Film/NationalLampoonsVacation the wagon queen family truckster.]]

*** But the Mach 5 in the movie isn't a race car at all, it was Rex's personal car. Originally it didn't have the standard racing auto jacks or other features as they were all added for the Casa Cristo. Perhaps the "Mach" name is more of brand name used by Racer motors with the numbers representing the "generations" of the car. Therefore the Mach 5 (as see in the film) is the fifth production model car Pops designed, while the T-180 racing cars are the sixth generation of that design
**** The cars could also come in two styles a "street" style (for rallies like Casa Cristo) and "racer" style (for track racing like Thunderhead or the Grand Prix)

*** The route for the race makes no sense. They go from a desert to the Swiss Alps and the Matterhorn of all places without any real gap between. They do spend the night in between, but there aren't any deserts anywhere ''near'' Switzerland. Speed Racer Earth makes absolutely no sense.
*** It's not Switzerland or the Alps. It's a fictional country called Casa Cristo that's a geographical hodgepodge, just like many of the places in the anime. Of course it doesn't make sense.

** Considering the people who modified it are the same people who are in charge of disqualifying him. They probably looked away or abused every loophole possible... at once.

** Well the numbers could also be the id numbers used to track racers, which means that even if it was the seventh generation racer Pops designed they would still need to put a six on the side. I can't remember if they ever refer to the final car as the Mach 6.

* How come Speed Racer was never disqualified for using a car with trick gadgets? Come on...that's got to violate car racing regulations.

** Because it's a live-action cartoon. If it's believable in the cartoon, it ought to be believable here.

* How are Sprittle and Chim-Chim still alive? It was believable in the cartoon, but the stunts Speed pulls off in the movie? Seriously, how?

** The racer for "Iodine Industries" was told to throw the race, resulting in a drop in stock price so the owner could buy a controlling interest in the company at a cheaper price. "Sirrus" stock price rose due to the win, meaning that "Pennensula Powercell" couldn't stage a hostile takeover[[hottip:*:Where one company buys all of the stock of another company, owning it, as opposed to merging with it, which requires consent of the company]], allowing them to merge with Iodine, rocketing up the price of the stock, and allowing the company to get a monopoly on powercells.

** The racer for "Iodine Industries" was told to throw the race, resulting in a drop in stock price so the owner could buy a controlling interest in the company at a cheaper price. "Sirrus" stock price rose due to the win, meaning that "Pennensula Powercell" couldn't stage a hostile takeover[[hottip:*:Where one company buys all of the stock of another company, owning it, as opposed to merging with it, which requires consent of the company]], allowing them to merge with Iodine, rocketing up the price of the stock, and allowing the company to get a monopoly on powercells.

** The racer for "Iodine Industries" was told to throw the race, resulting in a drop in stock price so the owner could buy a controlling interest in the company at a cheaper price. "Sirrus" stock price rose due to the win, meaning that "Pennensula Powercell" couldn't stage a hostile takeover[[*:Where one company buys all of the stock of another company, owning it, as opposed to merging with it, which requires consent of the company]], allowing them to merge with Iodine, rocketing up the price of the stock, and allowing the company to get a monopoly on powercells.

** Iodine Indudstrie's racer was told to throw the race, resulting in a drop in stock price so the owner could buy a controlling interest in the company at a cheaper price. Sirrus's price rose due to the win, meaning that "Pennensula Powercell" couldn't stage a hostile takeover, allowing them to merge with Iodine, rocketing up the price of the stock, and allowing the company to get a monopoly on powercells.

* Iodine Indudstrie's racer was told to throw the race, resulting in a drop in stock price so the owner could buy a controlling interest in the company at a cheaper price. Sirrus's price rose due to the win, meaning that "Pennensula Powercell" couldn't stage a hostile takeover, allowing them to merge with Iodine, rocketing up the price of the stock, and allowing the company to get a monopoly on powercells.

* Did anyone catch the specifics of Royalton's HannibalLecture at the point where he described exactly how the 43 prix was fixed? I don't really understand economics, but I'd like to know the details in Laymen's Terms.

* Did anyone catch the specifics of Royalton's HannibalLecture at the point where he described exactly how the 43 prix was fixed? I don't really understand economics, but I'd like to know the details in Lamen Terms.

*** It's not Switzerland or the Alps. It's a fictional country called Casa Cristo that's a geographical hodgepodge, just like many of the places in the anime. Of course it doesn't make sense.

*** The route for the race makes no sense. They go from a desert to the Swiss Alps and the Matterhorn of all places without any real gap between. They do spend the night in between, but there aren't any deserts anywhere ''near'' Switzerland. Speed Racer Earth makes absolutely no sense.

** The rally takes place in a fictional nation called Casa Cristo (or something like that). It may simply be a copy of the Brandenburg Gate since some nations or groups in RealLife have been known to make replicas of certain famous structures

* I seem to have missed it, but why is the Brandenburger Gate next to the finish line of the Rally? Does it take place in Germany?

** Not to mention that when you're doing it with the cooperation of the authorities, its a lot easier. Police Coroner: 'Yes, we've entirely matched the dental records to your son Rex. I'm sorry.'

** Speed mentions to Trixie that Rex's "body" was too badly burned to be easily recognized. Presumable Rex and fought and killed one of the people trying to frame him for the racing disasters and placed their body in his car shortly before he blew it up (this is almost ''exactly'' what happened in Racer X comic mini-series). Mom and Pops were too distraught to properly ID a corpse burned beyond recognition and instead decided it was him based on some personal effect the body had in its posesssion.

* So after Rex Racer 'dies' the Racer family buried a body that they thought was Rex's but wasn't. So whose body did they bury? Whose body did Rex steal to pose as his own? Did Rex go corpse stealing or did he opt for a...fresher body?

*

** Yes, but by the end of the race there were no cars left on the track to stop him, so running the race any longer than the two laps shown would have been entirely pointless. Speed won basically because he was the last man standing rather than having the best time or the fastest speeds.