A mission (church) shown near the beginning of the movie is "Mission San Xavier del Bac", near Tucson, Arizona.
The 1971 Plymouth Road Runner that Jim Kowalski drove in the beginning was supposed to be a 1970 Plymouth Superbird, but they used the Road Runner instead because they got use of it for free.
The black 1968 Charger is a nod to another movie, Bullitt (1968).
Though the filmmakers originally wanted to use actual Hemi Challengers to make the movie, when they discovered how expensive they are, they used 440 Challengers with Hemi nameplates as a more cost-effective alternative. The Hemi engine shown in the film was actually inside a Charger.