Hot cars and hot women, that's what The Fast & The Furious series is all about, right? Wrong! While the cars are indeed hot, and the women equally so, the females of the films are not just objects of desire. Often they are the smartest, toughest people in the room, giving all the men a run for their money when it comes to handling the vehicles. The fact that this summer's Fast Six sees Gina Carano - one of the toughest chicks on Earth, just check out her movie debut Haywire or her MMA fights for proof - is further evidence that if you're looking for the most awesome girls in cinemas, then The Fast & The Furious series where to look.

MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ as Leticia "Letty" Ortiz in THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS (2001), FAST & FURIOUS (2009), and FAST FIVE (2011)
Vin Diesel's movie girlfriend, Rodriguez is cinema's go-to tough chick, even dying can't stop her. Remember how she died in the first Resident Evil movie and came back from the dead in the fifth RE movie? Same here, having been killed in the fourth F&F movie, she popped up at the end of Fast Five, and is central to the plot of Fast Six. We're already dying to see her scrap with Gina Carano.

JORDANA BREWSTER as Mia Toretto in THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS (2001), FAST & FURIOUS (2009), and FAST FIVE (2011)
Vin Diesel's sister, and Paul Walker's girlfriend - did they get married? We can't remember - Brewster is the series Ride Or Die chick. There is nothing that happens that will make her leave the two men in her life, and she's just at skilled at driving a stolen car off a moving train. Her pregnancy in Fast Five makes her inclusion in Fast & Furious 6 questionable.

DEVON AOKI as Suki in 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS (2003)
You may recognise Aoki as being another hard-as-nails character in Sin City, but in 2 Fast 2 Furious she was a member of an all-girl race crew, with the girliest souped-up car in history - that hot, electric pink thing - but that was all a front for just being one of the best drivers in the series.

EVA MENDES as Monica Fuentes in 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS (2003) and FAST FIVE (2011)
The hottest undercover US Customs Agent in cinema history, no, scratch, in ALL of history, Mendes rocks around in the tiniest, whitest bikini imaginable, completely owning every scene she's in. She appears in the post-credits sequence in Fast Five, toying with us that she may return in a future instalment. We can but hope.

NATHALIE KELLEY as Neela in THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT (2006)
The girlfriend to the bad guy in the third F&F movie, Kelley makes the screen smoulder as she dumps her villainous boyfriend in exchange for good guy Lucas Black. She doesn't have a whole lot to do in the movie, but by golly, she looks great doing it.

NIKKI GRIFFIN as Cindy in THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT (2006)
Most of the women in this series are more than just an interchangeable set of boobs, but Griffin's character Cindy takes pride in being little more than an object of desire. She actually volunteers herself as the prize for two men, the winner of their race getting to take her home. That takes a certain type of … self-worth.

MIRTHA MICHELLE as Cara Mirtha in FAST & FURIOUS (2009)
She's not in the fourth movie much, but she was around enough to leave an impression. She popped up as a member of Vin Diesel's crew for the opening heist when they tried to hijack - and then eventually flip - a gigantic gas tanker. Explosive stuff… and we're not talking about the gas!

 

GAL GODOT as Gisele Harabo in FAST & FURIOUS (2009) and FAST FIVE (2011)
She started off working for the bad guy in Fast & Furious, but before long she's falling for Vin Diesel, and soon becomes a member of his gang. So she left one bad guy for another, slightly less bad guy. But still, she was the best drift racer in the fifth movie, and she knows her way around weapons. As deadly as she is hot!

ELSA PATAKY as Elena Neves in FAST FIVE (2011)
She got picked specifically by The Rock because of her "smile", but Pataky is the intelligent and fiercely brave Brazilian street cop who had no problem wading into a favela-wide shoot-out. Having recently lost her husband, she doesn't get too involved with any of the series' guys, but damn if she doesn't look great in that cop uniform.

GINA CARANO as Riley in FAST SIX (2013)
There are … no words.