While listening to Wolfman Jack at Mel's, Curt hears the Wolfman say that he'll be going off the air in five minutes at midnight. Curt goes to the studio to make a request, but the clock in the background shows that it's only 7:25 pm.
When Carol is on the hood of the car being shaving-creamed, she covers the front windshield with shaving cream and jumps off, but as she runs around the car, there's no shaving cream anywhere on it.
The license plate on the Studebaker with the girls from Turlock is the same as the plate on Steve's '58 Chevy.
Toad crashes his Vespa into a trashcan, knocking the lid off the trashcan where it falls onto the ground. He then haphazardly leans the Vespa against the wall and walks over to talk to Steve. In the very next shot the Vespa is properly parked on its kickstand, and the trash can has been put back together.
In the beginning, Falfa's 55 has chrome wheels. But when he rolls the car, it has painted wheels.
In the final scene Curt walks toward the airplane's open door to board while the number one engine (left outboard) is starting up. In real life, a pilot would never start an engine on the boarding side with a door still open and passengers behind a running engine.
Wolfman Jack is depicted as being heard in California from XERB in 1962. In real life in 1962 he was broadcasting as the morning DJ at country music station KCIJ in Shreveport, Louisiana and would not have been heard in California until 1963 when he joined XERF in Mexico; he didn't join XERB until 1965.
The main drag race takes place on one of the few roads that show the new 1971 MUTCD yellow road marking system. These did not exist in the early 1960s, and the road markings should have been white.
The 327 engine did not appear until 1962 - not 1963. Most likely this model had the 283 power pack but many had 348 engine in the Impala series.
When Toad first talks to Debbie in Steve's '58 Chevy, he tells her it has a 327 engine in it. The 327 Chevy engine first made it appearance in 1963.
Update:
The 327 appeared in late 1961 for the 1962 models.
Since Steve's '58 Impala is a custom hot rod, Steve could have purchased a new 327 from Chevrolet and installed it for more power. Engine building wasn't as common then as today, so purchasing a new larger or more powerful engine from the dealer's parts department was often the way to soup up a hot rod.
The Beach Boys song "All Summer Long", which plays over the end credits, was released in the Summer of 1964 although the movie is set in the Summer of 1962, some two years before the song's release. However, the characters do not hear it, only the viewers do; and it is a suitable way of moving into the post-1962 "future".
Carol's parents won't let her listen to Wolfman Jack partly because he is a "negro." Wolfman Jack in fact is not African American, but because Rythmn and Blues and rock have African American roots, her parents during that era, probably figured that Wolfman was African American.
When the Wolfman announces Curt's dedication request on the air, he tells the blonde to meet Curt at Burger City, but Curt is waiting at Mel's Drive-In. However, this isn't a Goof because, as seen at the beginning of the film, "Burger City" appears at the very bottom of the Mel's Drive-In sign.
The Botts Dots (raised reflective lane markers) were perfected by Elbert D. Botts in the 1950s.
The radio station heard with Wolfman Jack is XERB in Mexico, not California, but it is a powerful station (250,000 watt) and can be heard in southern California.
Not only is Milner's yellow hot rod missing an antenna, it doesn't even have a car radio. It never did and still doesn't have one, the car being now owned in original condition by Rick Figari from San Francisco.
During the sock hop, the saxophone player is shown playing, but no saxophone is heard.
At the radio station, the control board is a Gates Stereo Yard, the station is AM while a "yard" would only be used at an FM Stereo station. None of the meters moved. None of the lights on the cart machines ever changed.
Nowhere is there to be seen a radio antenna on John Milner's coupe. XERB was an AM station, and Milner wouldn't have been able to pick anything except static.
When the Pharaohs take Curt to loot pinball machines, Mr Gordon invites Curt into the diner to see Hank. When Curt is conversing with Hank and Mr Gordon, the scene changes perspective, after which all background labeled items and signs read backwards or are "mirror reversed" in the shot. It is most likely an edit correction to keep the orientation of direction correct from where Curt walked in and Joe sticks his head in to let them know they are finished.
The movie is set in 1962, but a cinema marquee advertises Dementia 13 (1963) (released in 1963). This was done on purpose by George Lucas, because Dementia 13 was Producer Francis Ford Coppola's first movie.
Television sets in the store window are early-1970s models.
When Carol and John are walking through the junkyard they go past many 1963, 1962, 1961, and 1960 cars. It would be improbable for these "late model" cars to already be in a junkyard in 1963. There is a 1963 Studebaker Lark, a 1961 Pontiac, and a 1960 Ford for instance.
Curt watches The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952) on televisions in a store window, sometime close to midnight. Sitcom reruns were not late-night staples in 1962, and "Ozzie & Harriet" was never scheduled later than 9:00 PM in prime time.
Many of the girls' hairstyles were contemporary to the early 1970s and not 1962 when the film is set.
When the 4-engine DC7 airplane takes off, the sound heard is a 6-engine B-36 (a very distinctive sound).
When Curt is sitting in the back seat of a car with his ex-girlfriend Wendy and her friend sitting in the front, right before the cut to Wendy saying, "Hey, did you know that my ex...", her mouth isn't moving for the first few words of her line.
When John & Carol get out of his car at the stop-light to flatten the tires of the white car, a fully-bearded, red-vested George Lucas is reflected in the passenger window as it's being rolled up.
When John Milner is cruising the strip for the first time, he is supposedly alone in his rod; however, right after the guy in the black coupe tells John to watch out for the cops, it can be seen that there's someone in the passenger seat beside him.
Falfa and Milner race on Paradise just before sunrise. Paradise Road runs west out of Modesto, but the sun is rising over the mountains, which are visible in the near distance. That shot likely was taken from the ocean side of the Pacific Coast Range near Petaluma, somewhere off of Lakeville Highway.
When Curt is urging Steve and Laurie to pursue the mysterious blonde, at 13:12 the car he is in turns a corner and he immediately demands that they turn the corner just after it did.
Near the end of the movie, Steve throws Toad and Debbie out of his '58 Chevy at Mel's Drive-In. As Toad and Debbie are stepping out of the car, there is a reflection of a boom mic moving along the left rear portion of the car's roof.
During the Curt/Wolfman scene, the boom mic is seen moving in the reflection on the studio window behind Wolfman Jack.
When Carol runs from the Studebaker to Milner's coupe, she reaches through his passenger window to open the door with the inside latch handle, without trying the exterior handle (which isn't working, as Toad does the same thing); however, Carol would not yet have known that.
Though Debralee Scott is listed as "Falfa's Girl" in the credits, she is only riding with him in earlier scenes. She is mysteriously gone later and replaced by an uncredited blonde actress. Later the blonde also disappears without explanation and Falfa "picks up" Cindy Williams character.
When Terry is trying to buy liquor, the sign on the door of the liquor store, although apparently appropriate to the period ("Winston" ad), says "Push" on the "Pull" side of the door.
Milner is insistent that he was losing the drag race and that Falfa was pulling ahead just before he crashed.
However, there is no point in the race where Falfa is leading and it is in fact Milner who is ahead just before the crash.
However, there is no point in the race where Falfa is leading and it is in fact Milner who is ahead just before the crash.
Curt gives his former teacher a cigarette from a pack in his shirt pocket early in the movie. Curt is never seen to smoke during the rest of the movie, even when hanging out with the Pharaohs.