Mach 1 (WildStorm)

The Mach 1 is a vehicle featured in the Speed Racer franchise, though rarely seen.

Speed Racer (1967)
''PLEASE NOTE: This car was not named the Mach 1 outright nor was it ever given that name during production. The name would not appear until 2000's release of Speed Racer presents Racer X Vol. 1 by WildStorm/DC Comics.''

It is an unnamed race car that Pops Racer had spent years building. It had only appeared in a flashback sequence in part 1 of the two-part episode "Challenge of the Masked Racer", where Pops told the story of how Speed's older brother, Rex, ran away from home years before the events of the series. When Rex was 18 years old, he entered a race without asking Pops' permission and used the car for it. Just as Rex had crossed the finish line, he loses control of the car due to his lack of experience and overconfidence, and crashed.

The car is red with two white racing stripes running down the middle. Overlapping one of the stripes is a white circle with the car's racing number (#1), which is also on the sides. Also on the car are side exhaust pipes, similar to 1960s-era sports cars such as the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray and the AC/Shelby Cobra. A single-seater, the driver's cockpit is off-set to the left-hand side of the vehicle.

Trivia

 * At one point in the flashback scene of part 1 with a top-down view of #1 and a number of opposing cars, the camera zoomed on two generic race cars numbered 8 and 30 instead of #1.
 * The car's overall design, right down the side exhaust pipes, are a possible reference to the race car driven by Ace in Pilot Ace, the manga series which laid the groundwork for Speed Racer.

WildStorm/DC Comics: Speed Racer presents Racer X Vol. 1 (2000)
The Mach 1 was the first racing car that Pops Racer had ever built, having spent several years constructing it. It was an experimental and untested vehicle. Rex Racer, who at the time was a member of his father's racing team, took the car without permission to go racing with it. Rex, due to his lack of experience and some debris on the track, lost control of the Mach 1 and crashed.

Trivia

 * Its backstory is based on that of the unnamed #1 race car from the original 1967 cartoon.
 * A similarly-named vehicle, the Mach 1.4, appeared in The New Adventures of Speed Racer.

2008 film
The Mach 1 was mentioned (as well as shown) in a the fake TV documentary "Speed Racer - Wonderful World of Racing - The Amazing Racer Family", which was included with the DVD sold at Target stores.

This was said about the Mach 1: "Pops designed an odd shade of carbon injectors that decreased the friction between the firing chambers and the cylinders." That feature, was what set the Mach 1 apart from other cars of the time. The car was driven by Digger Jones at the Vanderbilt Cup, where the hairpin turns at the course lead to the gearbox getting stripped.