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The Fast and the Furious is back. The street-racing action movie series returns with a fourth installment, simply titled Fast & Furious. Better stock up on the NOS.

Eight years ago, the original Fast and Furious movie was one of the first car flicks to develop a cult following since the days of Steve McQueen and Burt Reynolds. With the possible exception of Hot Wheels, it was also the first mainstream tool to really exploit the untapped demographic of the import tuning subculture.

Once it was announced that the new Fast & Furious movie was nearing production, speculation began about what was in store for fans of the F&F series. It wasn’t long before spy photos of the action flick’s set and cars began appearing online. It is now established that the upcoming movie will be hitting theaters on April 3.

The previous Fast & Furious movies’ focus on cars rather than story line hasn’t helped them achieve any decent critical success, but they’ve always been able to rake in money. While the first three movies were created to please a younger audience obsessed with modifying cars, usually in a horrifically tacky fashion, this F&F attempts to put emphasis on traditional action and plot, as is evident in the official trailer.

The movie marks the return of the two original main characters, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker), and also marks the return of some semblance of a plot. O’Conner is now an FBI agent hot on the heels of drug lord Antonio Braga, coincidentally the very same villain Toretto is after, as he is responsible for the death of Toretto’s girlfriend. That about sums it up.

When a friend of a friend was able to attend an early screening of the film, we reported what he saw in a recent secondhand review. He said many of the computer graphics and special effects had yet to be cleaned up, but it was fun to watch anyway, with plenty of cool rides and hot women.

In a movie series known for unique and outrageous cars, such as the Skyline-powered Mustang from Tokyo Drift, we’re excited to see the new batch of cars in action, including an R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R and an awesome Lamborghini LM002 SUV-slash-tank from the ’80s. Aside from the GT-R and a few others, the usual roster of imports has taken a backseat this time, with the spotlight falling mostly on American iron from yesteryear.

Recently, Inside Line was given a behind-the-scenes look at the vehicles used in the movie. While many of the cars used in filming were actually replicas, often built in batches of six or seven to account for crash scenes, there are still a handful of cars that are the real deal. The off-road buggy wearing a fiberglass Skyline R34 body shell, however, is not one.

In the end, though, Fast & Furious 4 does sport tons of cool cars, and with no shortage of exciting chases, explosions and sexy girls, it will make for an entertaining way to pass a couple of hours. Whether you’re going to see it because you love it or you hate it, it will likely make a bundle of money for Universal Studios, as will the upcoming DVD box set and the addition of a Fast and Furious exhibit in the Universal Studios tour.

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