From the Autoblog:

Go Speed Racer, Go: Movie Mach 5 debuts

Posted May 31st 2007 12:38PM by Alex Nunez

Click image for high-res version

Well, now you know what we’ll be covering breathlessly post-Transformers. Shooting for the Wachowski brothers’ live-action Speed Racer film begins next week in Germany, and Warner Bros. has released the first official pic of the Mach 5 hero car.

Awesome.

It’s a modern take on the Speed’s iconic ride, and is sleeker and way badder-looking than the Mach 5 prototype created in 1999 (and on permanent display at the Petersen museum in L.A.), which is more faithful to the original ‘toon car. As you can see, the movie car retains the same general look as the hand-drawn Mach 5, but incorporates details like a racy full-wraparound windscreen, sleek rearview mirrors, and chromed dubs shod in Yokohama Advans. It looks absolutely killer. As the film’s star Emile Hirsch (he plays Speed) summarizes, “Yeah. They got the car right.”

Indeed. Hopefully Chim Chim doesn’t make a mess on the seats….

UPDATE: High-res photo added.

Thanks for the tip, Joe!

[Source: USA Today]