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The designers at Broadmeadows created a pair of Interceptor dream machines that could work for a 21st century Mad Max and their original computer work has now been converted into 40 per cent scale models for the show. They will be revealed on opening day at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre and, even though there is zero chance of any involvement in the upcoming Mad Max revival movie, they show what the Ford crew can do and what Mad Max has become.
"It's fair to say there was a fairly bezerk reaction to the idea," says Ford Australia spokesman, Neil McDonald. "The whole thing has gone viral around the world with the whole Mad Max phenomena. There has been a huge reaction."
The Mad Max project began as an after-hours idea at Broadmeadows to celebrate the return of the movie franchise with a new film that will be shot near Alice Springs, scene of the original. More than 100 people at Ford were eventually involved under the direction of Chris Svensson, Ford's design director for Asia, Pacific and Australia, and he even organised a special screening for staffers who were too young to see the movie in the 1970s. The project eventually involved designers, engineers and clay modellers who built the show machines.
Mad Max launched the international career of Mel Gibson as he drove a jet-black 1973 XF Falcon GT coupe-based car called the Interceptor. The 21st century Interceptor concepts are much wilder than anything done at Ford for a long time, partly because there were no limits.
"The design folk were pretty engaged with the whole thing as the cars did not have to conform to normal design parameters set down by a production car - like bumpers and headlight heights. They were let loose and it shows in the creativity of the final models," McDonald says. "The models are a little smaller than half sized but they have plenty of impact. They were impressive designs, with a bit of extra jewelery to give them some bling."
