First published in Street Machine’s Australia’s Toughest Fords #3, 2005

Back in 1979, George Miller and Byron Kennedy produced a movie that would inspire a whole generation of petrolheads. Mad Max was that movie, and along with its two sequels – Mad Max 2 and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome – it enthralled moviegoers with the post-apocalyptic adventures of Max Rockatansky.

The first movie told the story of a young Max, whose life was torn apart due to circumstances surrounding his dispatching of an outlaw called the Nightrider (not to be confused with a certain Pontiac Trans Am). It follows Max’s story as he goes from law enforcer to lawbreaker following the murder of his young family.

Needless to say, Max gets his revenge on the outlaw bikers, but his life will never be the same. Over the course of the next two films we learn that humanity’s course has been changed forever through nuclear war, and lawlessness rules the land.

Most viewers enjoy the Mad Max films for what they are – pure entertainment – but they also have a loyal group of followers who are mainly interested in the cars. Phrases like “I am the Nightrider”, “Kick it in the guts, Barry” and “She’s the last of the V8s… she sucks nitro” live on in the memories of Max’s more petrolheaded fans.

The car that really captures the imagination is a modified black XB GT coupe featuring what appears to be a blown 351 Cleveland. The blower tickled a lot of people’s fancy because it could be switched on and off using a two-speed diff switch mounted to the gearstick. This gave the big coupe a burst of speed that would spin the tyres regardless of the road speed, or so the movie would have us believe.

Reality was much different. In truth, the blower was mounted on rods and brackets, suspending it above the engine, while the belt made most of the noise, giving the effect of a supercharged V8.

Something most people don’t know is that the same black coupe was also used in Mad Max 2. In the first movie it looked wild and nasty, but still resembled a road car. This changed in the second movie with the addition of two large fuel tanks in the boot which protruded into the rear seat area.

During Mad Max 2 the black coupe made its cinematic demise, but that doesn’t mean it was really destroyed. There was only a small budget for the first movie (around $400,000), which meant that each car had to perform its own stunts, while mechanics slaved to keep them running through all the abuse. When it came to the second movie, the producers had a higher budget (see Mad Max Trivia, below) and could afford to use a second car for the big accident scene where the ‘Interceptor’ was destroyed.

This original black coupe was later discovered in a wrecking yard in Adelaide and restored to something approaching movie original condition.

Street Machine featured that restored original way back in October/November 1985, when it belonged to Bob Fursenko, who’d spent between $20K and $25K restoring it.

Under Bob’s ownership the car was eventually put to work travelling around to shows, where he charged people to look at it in the hope of recouping some of the expense of restoration. Later the car spent some time in the National Motor Museum in Birdwood, South Australia, before eventually being sold to the Cars of the Stars Motor Museum in sunny old England.

The cars you see pictured here are replicas – very good replicas, but replicas nonetheless. Both are the work of Scott Smith, who jokes that he wore out a VCR in his garage building up the black ‘Pursuit Special’ (it was never referred to as an Interceptor in the first movie). Scott reckons this car is even more authentic than the one in England, which has had the original matt paint replaced with black gloss.

Scott’s replica was built up using an XA GT and has a 351 Clevo, four-speed Toploader and 3.25-gear nine-inch for motivation. Unlike the original, the blower drive could be switched on and off using the gearstick-mounted switch. In the original car they just turned the engine on and off to simulate the blower kicking in while editing the soundtrack to make you think it was happening while the engine was running.

Scott’s car now resides in New York with its new owner, Charles Flender, where it wears the New York plates ‘LAST V8’.

A search on the internet reveals that there are an amazing number of replicas of the Mad Max cars out there – something like 21 copies of the black coupe and at least 16 of the MFP Interceptor, with more being built. This must make them among the most replicated movie cars of all time, and it’s over 25 years since the first movie and nearly 20 years since the last one, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, was released.

Regardless of any new movie, the first three Mad Max flicks are excellent entertainment; check them out if you haven’t already. Who knows? You might just find yourself with the urge to buy yourself a big, black Falcon coupe with a set of zoomies and shiny blower sticking out of the bonnet. “We’ll see you on the road, scag. We’ll see you on the road like we saw the Nightrider.”

WHAT WERE THEY?

It seems a silly question to ask, but a lot of people still seem to be unsure as to which vehicles were actually used in the movie.

Starting with Max’s black Interceptor, most people would recognise the car as a Falcon coupe, but it is specifically an XB GT coupe with a Monza front. Two of the XBs used in the opening pursuit, driven by Max and Big Bopper, were originally ex-police V8 sedans painted up in the lurid red, yellow and blue MFP (Main Force Patrol) paint scheme. The third MFP car was a stock six-cylinder sedan, which apparently needed no special tweaking to belch smoke as the engine slowly died.

So there you go. Now you can win the trivia night at your local pub.

KEEPING THE LEGEND ALIVE

As well as building replicas of the cars featured in the movies, there are others out there who do their bit to keep the Mad Max legend alive through buying the videos and DVDs. Or, if they’re like Peter Barton (below), they run websites devoted to the movies.

Peter’s site, madmaxmovies.com, is the premier database for all things Mad Max, whether they be movie facts, memorabilia or information on how to build your own replica. His involvement even includes helping to run and promote Mad Max ‘reunions’ for those who feel the need to get more involved. So if you want to know anything about the movies, you really should check out Peter’s website.

It’s guys like Peter who are keeping the dream alive so that a whole new generation can flock to the sound of a screaming blown V8.

MAD MAX TRIVIA

(as gleaned from the Internet Movie Database imdb.com)

• Mel Gibson didn’t go to the audition for this film to read for a part; he actually went along with a friend who was auditioning. But because he’d been in a bar fight the night before and his head looked like “a black and blue pumpkin” (his words), he was told by the producers that he should come back and audition in three weeks’ time because “we need freaks”. Mel did return in three weeks, wasn’t recognised (because his injuries had healed well), and was asked to read for the main part.
• Some of the things the Nightrider says over the CB radio are lyrics from the AC/DC song Rocker.
• The van that is smashed in the opening chase was George Miller’s own vehicle, as the production was running out of money. About 20 percent of the chase scenes scheduled were not shot due to lack of money.
• That blue van had its engine removed and was pushed into the path of the oncoming cars by off-camera assistants. The lack of the engine’s weight caused the van to spin violently, adding to the spectacular crash.
• As late as 1998, Mad Max was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest profit-to-cost ratio of a motion picture (it cost about $400,000 to make and took over $100 million at the box office. The Blair Witch Project later held the record.
• Early in the film there is a brief shot of two road signs. They read “Anarchie” and “Bedlam”.
• Mad Max was the first Australian film shot in anamorphic widescreen.
• Because he was relatively unknown in the US, trailers and previews didn’t feature Mel Gibson, preferring to focus on the car crashes and action scenes. Because of the tight budget, actual decommissioned police cars were used in the film. Only Mel Gibson was wearing real leathers while the other police officers were wearing vinyl costumes. Kawasaki donated the motorcycles, all late-model demonstration units, and many of the bikers in the film kept them after the shooting was completed.
• Max’s MFP (Main Force Patrol) number is 4073, Jim Goose’s is 2241, and Charlie’s is either 3840 or 3842.
• The bearded man wearing an apron in front of the roadside diner, watching as the police cyclists and tow trucks drive away, is James McCausland, the film’s co-writer.
• The injuries in the movie’s accident scenes were made as realistic as possible thanks to writer and director George Miller’s background as a medical doctor.
• The voice of Robina Chaffey, the singer of the Sugartown Night Club, was the only one left undubbed in the film’s original American release.
• George Miller paid a truck driver $50 to run over the bike in the final scene. However, the truck driver didn’t want to damage his rig, so the crew had to install a shield painted to look like the front of the rig.
• Actor Hugh Keays-Byrne modelled his performance as Toecutter on the Mongolian warlord Temujin, also known as Genghis Khan.
• The Nightrider’s girlfriend in the movie is actress Lulu Pinkus, who went on to marry actor/director Yahoo Serious.