It stars James Caan, Laura Devon and Marianna Hill in a story about young stock-car racers trying to establish themselves and about the complicated romantic relationships in their lives.

The title refers to the red line on the car’s tachometer, set at 7000 RPM, indicating the maximum safe engine speed, beyond which catastrophic failure would occur.

The film features multiple sections of real life racing and crashes interspersed with the plot.

A young driver, Ned Arp, joins the team and also makes a play for Kazarian's sister, Julie.

A third driver, Dan McCall, arrives from France and brings along girlfriend Gabrielle Queneau, but soon he develops a romantic interest in Holly.

The movie is distinguished by the appearance of a 1965 Shelby GT-350 racing on the track, and one of the characters drives a Cobra Daytona Coupe as his street car.

In real life this car competed in seven FIA races in 1964 (Daytona, Sebring, Spa, LeMans, Reims, Goodwood, Tour de France) and one race in 1965 (LeMans), and scored the Daytona Coupe’s first GT Class victory at Sebring 1964.

In November 1965, this car set 23 national and international speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

The film was based on an original idea by Howard Hawks though the script was written by George Kirgo.

"[2] Howard Hawks had enjoyed success discovering stars in the past (Lauren Bacall, Carole Lombard, George Raft) and decided to cast the film with six newcomers plus Charlene Holt and Norman Alden.

[4] George Takei appears in a supporting role as Kato, a race mechanic partly inspired by Jack Kuramoto, the Japanese American service station owner of Jack's Auto Service in Los Angeles's Little Tokyo, who was a friend of Hawks's and often worked on his personal cars.

"[8] Filmink magazine later noted of the cast "Caan was the only one to make it and watching Red Line 7000 today it’s not hard to see why: he’s terrific, a believable jock (something which made him a rarity among Hollywood stars, along with Burt Reynolds), sensitive, tormented, sympathetic despite playing a character who when you analyse it is rape-y and loathsome.

[11] Quentin Tarantino is a fan of the film: If I were to direct a racing movie I would look to mimic a lot of that Sixties AIP flavour.

I like the way that Red Line 7000 has a community of characters all staying in this Holiday Inn together and hanging out.