Ask the average Australian to name a classic Aussie film, and you might get Crocodile Dundee, The Castle or even Babe. But just as likely as any of those would be Mad Max.
Debuting in 1979, the first Mad Max starred a youthful Mel Gibson making sense of a post-apocalyptic world – and in a very iconic car, which tops our list of the five greatest cars from the Mad Max franchise, which we’ve detailed below.
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Two more films followed in 1981 and 1985, before the Aussie classic was rebooted with a new instalment in 2015 called Fury Road.
For Fury Road, approximately 150 dystopian-flavoured cars, motorcycles and trucks were built at a workshop in Villawood in western Sydney. More than 150 people worked to create the unforgettable vehicles, a team comprising designers, mechanics, engineers, paint and panel, roll cage fabricators and more. The attention to detail is something to behold – every vehicle represents an art piece in its own right.
Fury Road was meant to be filmed in Broken Hill, NSW, but after heavy rains, the landscape turned too green. Needing something more arid and dry-looking, it was decided filming would take place in Namibia, Africa, and so all 150-or-so vehicles were shipped across. Production concluded in December 2012 and sadly most of the vehicles were legally required to be destroyed.
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Most of the creations were not just showpieces, either. The Nux car (not mentioned on this list) was powered by a supercharged and twin-turbocharged 350 Chev V8 with plenty of accompanying stick.
Clearly, it’s the cars that make Mad Max. To celebrate a new chapter of the Mad Max story with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga now in cinemas, here are five of the best cars from this much-loved franchise.
1. The Interceptor
It’s the original Mad Max car also known as a Pursuit Special – a Ford Falcon XB GT Coupe. “The Last of the V8 Interceptors”, the film’s hero Max Rockatansky could enjoy up to 441kW at the rear wheels thanks to a supercharged, dual-cam V8. The car appears in all Mad Max films and in Fury Road is transformed into the Razor Cola. The original XB Interceptor changed hands a few times and was almost scrapped, but survived and is now on display at the Miami Auto Museum in Florida, USA.
2. Cranky Frank FX
Discovered at a Rat Rod show, Cranky Frank is an FX Holden ute with a supercharged Chevrolet V8 sending about 224kW to the rear tyres. There’s a central seating position – one of the hardest parts of the car to engineer, say its creators – an aggressively chopped roof and plenty of patina. Made for Fury Road, of all the vehicles destroyed after filming concluded, only approximately 15 survived. One of those was Cranky Frank.
3. Rip Saw
One of the trickiest vehicles to engineer – and one of the most dangerous on set – Rip Saw is a tracked vehicle with a Chrysler Valiant Charger body on top, and an 8.3-litre supercharged water-cooled Merlin V8. It suffered all sorts of problems including overheating and brakes that caught on fire, while those who drove it found it extremely loud even with hearing protection on. The vehicle was destroyed in Namibia after filming.
4. Ploughboy
The body of a Holden EK Special Station Wagon plonked on an off-road chassis. It came with a harpoon and hydraulic-powered plough, although not much is known about what’s under the bonnet. We spy a dirty big supercharger and given what’s powering most other Fury Road creations, we will guess it has eight cylinders. Ploughboy was sadly crushed after filming in Namibia.
5. War Rig
One of the most iconic vehicles from Fury Road (and not a car, but easily cool enough to merit inclusion on this list). The War Rig, an 18-wheeler, is a Czech-built Tatra T815 truck with a 441kW “race” engine – presumably a naturally aspirated V8. Any superchargers or additional engines you can see are pure Hollywood. Three identical War Rigs were built and all survived the filming. Two are with Warner Brothers and one was sold back to Tatra Trucks Australia.
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