After Zoë Bell was cast, Quentin Tarantino told Bell that he would hire a second stunt person to take Bell's place in the stunt scenes where her face wasn't visible. Bell insisted on performing every stunt herself, saying if someone else were cast in her role, and she was only performing the stunts, those were the stunts she would do. Tarantino honored her request.
Tarantino came up with the idea of "Death Proof" when he was having a drunken hotel night with friend Sean Penn. Tarantino wanted to buy a Volvo because he "didn't want to die in some auto accident like the one in Pulp Fiction (1994)". In regards to the safety of the car, Sean Penn said, "Well, you could take any car and give it to a stunt team, and for $10,000 or $15,000, they can death-proof it for you." The "death proof" phrase had stuck to Tarantino after that.
The film was physically scratched to achieve its dirty look, rather than digitally scratch the film footage.
The juke-box (named AMi, pronounced "Amy"), is Quentin Tarantino's own. It was trucked to Austin to be used in the film in its very own rig. The list of songs on it was also hand-written by Tarantino. One of the songs is "You Never Can Tell" by Chuck Berry,
the song that Mia and Vincent dance to in Pulp Fiction (1994).
Quentin Tarantino: [Long Take] In the scene in the second half of the film where the four women are talking in a diner, the shot is held for eight minutes and seven seconds.
Quentin Tarantino: [Red Apple] One of the characters asks for 'Red Apple' cigarettes, a fictional brand which appears in most of Tarantino's movies.
Quentin Tarantino: [burger] Stuntman Mike asks Jungle Julia about having a billboard "near Big Kahuna Burger", a fictitious brand used by Tarantino in his movies. She then replies, "I got one there, too, Zatoichi". This is a reference to the famous Japanese blind samurai character who has appeared in several films and TV series - Tarantino is a big fan of the franchise.
Quentin Tarantino: [trunk shot] Tarantino's traditional shot looking up at the actors from the trunk of a car is replaced by one looking up from under the hood.
Quentin Tarantino: [bare feet] opening credits, Jungle Julia is constantly wearing no shoes and Abernathy has her bare feet hanging out of the car when she is asleep.