That was an amazing movie for the action, the script........not so much. Watching it today I cringe seeing some of the cars that were destroyed in the filming though. The first DVD I ordered years ago, paid a pretty good buck for it, but always enjoy watching it.
The way I understand it the original movie had ties to a fellow that owned a salvage yard. Most of the cars had a lot of pre film damage and you only see the good body parts in the film.