As much as many of us want to deny, we secretly love the Fast & Furious movies for a couple of reasons. We love the action, we love the girls (the ladies love the guys – especially Dom), and most importantly, we love the cars. Sure, the action sequences are getting more and more far fetched, we can always find issues with these movies that just don’t match up to real life – or even the storyline.

For instance, think back to the very first movie when Jesse was going to race “some fool” in a Honda S2000 for pinks. He knew who Johnny Tran was, but how was it he didn’t know that the “fool” in the S2000 was Tran himself? Some of us will still never understand that one.

The whole layout of the Fast & Furious series will leave you baffled if you’re not paying attention, with the third in the series – Tokyo Drift – taking it’s place in the timeline after the three sequels that followed. Now, there will be a seventh F&F that is supposed to be a follow up to Tokyo Drift. It’s difficult to keep up, but we don’t go to see these movies for their depth or storyline, we go because we love car movies, right?

We recently had the pleasure of joining up with a club of Mopar enthusiasts, Mopar360, to enjoy a matinee showing of the movie, followed by lunch and a cruise with some modern Mopars. They were kind enough to let us join with our 1965 Belvedere, despite all the modern HEMI power that was brought out. It was very cool to see all these Mopars parked together in the parking structure, with the one lone wolf in the mix. The crowd was filled with some awesome people from all over Southern California – from San Diego to Huntington Beach, and anywhere in between. There were Chargers, Magnums, 300s, and a Jeep with a mean howl to it in the group.

The movie itself, didn’t disappoint – barring you don’t take into account the sheer impossibility of some of the action sequences. By now, most everyone knows that Letty is back. Most all of us saw the teasers beforehand and we approve of the decision to bring her back, but we won’t spoil the how or why here. There was even another familiar face in the movie, someone who supposedly died in an earlier sequel. But it won’t take more than a few seconds to realize that he’s not really dead, because technically Tokyo Drift hasn’t taken place yet.

The gathering of old friends from sequels past, all at the bequest of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, immediately had us all sitting on the edge of our seats, the camaraderie – and the arrogance – made for a lot of great dialogue between the cast. There were conditions and ultimatums, talk about being cheap millionaires, and about the odor of baby oil. Yes, baby oil – see the flick, it has some pretty funny scenes, too.

After the movie let out, the entire group headed over to Red Robin for lunch, where continued conversations about the movie spilled over into the second hour of our feast. Like the gearheads we all are, the conversations from table to table were mostly about cars, wheels, horsepower, engines, and cars again. But that was expected, we didn’t just finish seeing a chick flick, after all, we were all pretty pumped up about the action sequences and the fast cars. And yes, they had a tank.

Once our incredible waitresses gathered up the last of the 30 some odd individual bills for our meals, we headed back to the parking structure to begin our 75+ mile cruise through the winding roads past Temecula, California, and up towards Hemet, through the twisties by way of routes 79, 371 and 74. With about 13 vehicles in the cruise, it wasn’t easy keeping the group together, but somehow we all managed it, with the exception of a few vehicles that sometimes slipped between a couple of cars in the group.

We made a couple of stops along the way, usually for a photo session, and then continued on to Diamond Valley Lake where we all shared a little more banter about the movie and the cruise, and took advantage of our last photo op. It was a great day for us all, and the weather was perfect – not too hot for those of us without air conditioning, and the group surprisingly kept their collective heavy right foot to a respectable spot on the go-stick, maintaining an even keel during the cruise, as well as keeping the entire group together.

For a day’s worth of activities, it couldn’t have been any better – other than to have even more participants. If your car club – or even just a group of friends – have ever thought of hitting up an action flick, taking in a meal, and following it all up with a cruise, you won’t regret it. Car shows are great, but if you’re like us, and the gang at Mopar 360, then you’ll enjoy the driving much more than the sitting. And if you haven’t checked out Fast & Furious 6, you probably won’t regret that either.