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Ford and Top Gear Australia Revive Mad Max Interceptor with a Pair of Concepts

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More than 30 years after George Miller's original Mad Max film starring Mel Gibson as Max Rockatansky hit the screens turning both the American-born Australian actor and his jet-black Ford Falcon XB GT351 coupe-based Interceptor into movie icons, Ford’s local division in partnership with Top Gear Australia magazine, has revealed two concept studies for a modern day Interceptor.

The company formed a group of designers led by chief designer of passenger cars for the Asia, Pacific and Africa region, Todd Willing. The team created several of studies that paid tribute to the styling cues from the original XB Coupe Interceptor, but ultimately, only two made the cut. The winning designs were penned by Nima Nourian and Simon Brook.

"Our entire team was very excited to be involved in this after-hours project and they approached it with a great deal of enthusiasm – even those that were too young to remember the first Mad Max movie," said Ford Australia's Melbourne-based Asia, Pacific and Australia Design Director, Chris Svensson. "We had a special screening of the original movie so they could understand it."

In the next phase, Top Gear Australia magazine readers will have the chance to vote on which design they’d like to see being turned into a scale model, which will be revealed to the public later this year.

Commenting on his design, Nima Nourian said he tried to pay tribute to the original 1979 Interceptor while looking into the future.

"There are some great scenes in the first movie with high-speed chases and clashes with the bad guys, and I thought I'd take that one step further," he said. "So instead of having weapons and machine guns, we've got an industrial strength taser that'll zap cars dead and out of the way.”

Simon Brook said his concept takes styling cues from today’s FG Falcon series with touches from the original Interceptor. "I wanted to keep it clean and aerodynamic in its essence, but still brutal and tough," he said. "During high-speed pursuits, the wheel's inner spokes on my design would pop out and start ripping up other cars," Brook said. "They'd do some serious damage to other people's vehicles."

Despite the designers' claims though, we must say that we fail to see the resemblance between these two concepts and the original 1970s Falcon XB GT-based Interceptor.

George Miller is currently preparing a fourth installment of the Mad Max franchise called “Mad Max 4: Fury Road”, so there’s a fair chance we may see the winning concept making it on the big screen.

Source: Ford & Fordforums


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10 Comments:

Anonymous said... »March 29, 2011

Nourian concept > Brook concept

Anonymous said... »March 29, 2011

There's heaps of resemblance to the XB! They're both black aren't they?

para said... »March 29, 2011

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

Shows that he did not actually see the movie. The car was completely unarmed, its only weapon speed.
When you have to read stuff like:

"During high-speed pursuits, the wheel's inner spokes on my design would pop out and start ripping up other cars," Brook said. "They'd do some serious damage to other people's vehicles."

- I would say, please GROW UP! Try to design another car, when you are older than - say - five years. Something, that actually touches on what you claim is your inspiration. So far the only inspiration I can see, is the colour.

"so there’s a fair chance we may see the winning concept making it on the big screen."

George Miller is a fairly inspired writer/director, so I hopefully predict that chances are slim.

Anonymous said... »March 29, 2011

forget concept, just build it, guarantee sold out until end of production.

Anonymous said... »March 29, 2011

both are cool concepts that surpass the original... if it was knightrider... then it is even cooler...

Anonymous said... »March 30, 2011

Nah, they're too pretty.

Anonymous said... »March 30, 2011

Good looking concept.

Anonymous said... »March 31, 2011

Both could be a new sporty for Ford of Australia.

The Nourian design looks like a modern 'C3' Corvette, more GM then Ford.

The Brook's design has a lot of meat for further development.

Both developed for a production sporty would find favor with Australian 'Gear Heads'/Petrol Heads.

Jesse said... »April 11, 2011

That concept sucks!!! Stick to the original 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT Interceptor or a design close to that the only weapon should be speed not some dumb stuff like guns or a taser thats stupid. I'm a master builder & let me tell you no one in the Ford, GM, Mopar, or any other manufacture out today can design a anything trust me I have a shop van Ford E150 that I just had to put an oil pump in and cuz none of them idiots can design anything I had so much trouble getting the motor to come out just to change something that is two bolts & I'v been building car for years. Two their so called new designs suck where do they find these so called designers? Just cuz they went to collage have a pice of paper that says they can design don't mean anything I can out build & out design any of them clowns. Hell 3 year old can do a better design then they come up with.

Anonymous said... »May 11, 2011

cool looking cars but their just not for mad max. they are too flashy. a car needs flat black paint, huge blower stickin out of the top, low to the ground, mean and most importantly... it needs to look like it is a hellspawn thats only fuel is babies alcohol and nitros. MAKE IT LOOK EVIL. there is your freaking car design in a couple sentences.

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