Ford brings back Mad Max

... at Ford Australia as proof that Broadmeadows still has plenty of life. It comes as plans for the fourth film was about to start shooting but was stalled by rain, floods and too much green flora at locations near Broken Hill used in the original road movie.

There's no nitrous system feeding a big Ford V8, Mel Gibson won't reprise the role, but Ford has let its designers loose to come up with 21st Interceptor vehicles to mark the return of the post-apocalyptic character.

The project - in a joint-venture with Top Gear Australia magazine - has been an "after hours" distraction for Ford's Melbourne design and research team, although it also displays to the rest of the Ford world the design prowess at Broadmeadows.

Design director Chris Svensson said the team were keen but some were too young to have seen the cult-classic Mad Max film and needed an encore screening.

"They approached it with a great deal of enthusiasm - even those that were too young to remember the first Mad Max movie," he says.

The original XB Coupe Interceptor was the basis for the new designs, of which two now feature in the current edition of Top Gear Australia magazine. The magazine's poll will decide the most popular, which will be brought into reality first in clay and then as a quarter-scale model to be revealed later this year.

The Australian International Motor Show in Melbourne from July 1 to 10 is a likely venue for an unveiling but Ford is not making any promises.

The two competing cars - by designers Nima Nourian, 32, and Simon Brook, 27 - have plenty of green drivetrain technology and weapons, including a bonnet-mounted "taser," a titanium-lined bodyshell and wheels with extendable spikes. Nima Nourian says his design paid tribute to the original Mad Max Interceptor, but gives it 21st century firepower.

"So instead of having weapons and machine guns, we've got an industrial strength taser that will zap cars dead and out of the way," he says.

Simon Brook's car mixes FG Falcon styling cues with the original Interceptor and features the lethal wheels with a James Bond theme.

"The wheels' inner spokes on my design would pop out and start ripping up other cars," he says.  "They'd do some serious damage to other people's vehicles."

The new Mad Max film will be directed by George Miller, with a working title Mad Max 4: Fury Road, had a tentative 2012 release date but shooting has been delayed by flood waters and overly-green terrain near Broken Hill.