The next and top or the range vehicle was the "Interceptor, Pursuit Special". This was the "Duck's Gut's", of all the vehicles. This basically meant that the vehicles were built with every bit of performance equipment available at the given time of construction.

Some were built Supercharged, Turbocharged, some were fitted with Nitrous oxide, fuel injection systems or a combination of more than one. As bits and pieces of performance equipment was used and new were sourced the vehicles emerged with no two alike. They were even constructed out of different vehicles. Infact the only thing which was constant with the vehicles was the distinct Black on Black paint scheme.

Pursuit Special's carried no armour or protecting steel, as they were driven by only the top 10% of graduates they relied on the shear performance of the vehicle and drivers skill to overcome trouble.
 As with the Interceptor the Pursuit Special were marked with the same bronze logo. Although it was the same badge it was positioned in a different place, in this case behind the front wheel arch.

The performance was also further enhanced with aerodynamic panel's and any wind dragging features removed such as exterior lights or sirens were removed, infact they went all the way down to removing the left hand mirror.

This list concerns the construction of the Pursuit Special that Max drove in Mad Max 1, to see a list of the additional parts and modifications to the vehicle he drove in "The Road Warrior" see Mad Max 2 Pursuit Special Specs. If you have additional information that you would like to add please e-mail me. Any of the below links with  next to them means i need information urgently, any links with * next to them means i need that part. So if you can help out with either sections please e-mail me.

BODY	DRIVE LINE	INTERIOR
BASE CAR	SUPERCHARGER*	BLOWER SWITCH
MONZA FRONT END*	FUEL INJECTION SYSTEM*	STEERING WHEEL*
FRONT INDICATORS	WHEELS
WHEEL ARCH FLARES*	TIRES
SIDE SCOOPS	EXHAUST SYSTEM
ROOF SPOILER*
BOOT SPOILER*

• The base car is a 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT Hardtop (Coupe). All XB GT's, came with a 300 bhp 351C V8. This was a standard production model available in Australia from 1973 to 1976.

NOTE: Genuine GT, XB Coupes with a god body or which have been restored have become fairly rare, and in my opinion turning a genuine GT into a Mad Max Pursuit Special would be a waste of a Grand Tourer. I suggest that a standard Falcon 500, Fairmont, GS ect. be sourced with a good body and converted to GT specs. I have converted a standard Fairmont 6cyl to a 351C, 9 in LS Disk brake diff and FMX auto Transmission (GT Specs), and it wasn't hard, it just involved changing engine mounts and a few other brackets.

• The nose is a "Monza" front end, nick named after the American car the Monza as they are similar. Ford wanted to call their nose cone the Monza but were unable to as Chevy had the rights to the name. The nose was a custom part developed by Ford Australia in the 1970's, and was first seen on the Condor van. There were actually 2 or 3 slightly different moulds made. The most common out of these was the "Condor" mould which was made for the van, it is different in the way that it has a less pronounced bumper, than the one made for the coupe. The moulds were later used out side Ford, although no one currently seems to know who or where the original moulds are. This is due to them changing owners a few times over the years, mainly in the 80's. The front end can still be purchased but only in Condor (van) style. If anyone knows where a true coupe or a van (besides the place below) fronts can be purchased please e-mail me.



The condor van.

If you are interested in purchasing a crude version of the Condor nose, they can be bought from (address below) for approximately $500 Aus dollars.

Advanced Spoilers and Creative Cars
42 Standel road,
Salsbury Plain, South Australia
Phone (08) 82584049

Now don't go getting to excited because the front clip from Advanced Spoilers and Creative cars is fairly crude. What you basically get is only a face, picture up a piece of paper, and imagine it is your nose cone, and that is what you get, you need to make every thing, from mounting frame to light buckets, the whole lot, all you get is a face, there is no brackets, no mounts for brackets, no light covers or lights, all it is, is a mask.
There has been a lot of confusion on how strong these things are, many have thought that they are very weak and brittle. The truth of it is, is that the first few made were weak but now that they have had a few goes at it the quality has improved out of site. They are still not the strongest thing in the world and they do come a bit twisted from the mould but the only strengthening that needs to be done to the face is where you put your mounts.
Even know there isn't heaps of strengthening to be done there is still a lot of glass work that has to be done to get the front looking proper. These main sections are, a about 15 inch piece from the front back to the wheels has to be made, glassing the headlight buckets in, from the front to the car, and many other pieces.
As there is no brackets you will have to make these your self this involves access and the knowledge to weld and form steel to the required shapes. These frames will have to be strong and sturdy enough to with stand road use and support the front enough to stop it cracking away from the body when driving in rough conditions.
If you don't want to go to all the hard work of putting it together, making all the brackets, building and forming large pieces out of fibre glass, ect., then you should e-mail Gordon Hayes, who can supply you with a already completed front end for a fare price. Although his front end is more expensive, it is ready to be put on the car, it comes with all the necessary like lights, light brackets and covers, mounting frame and instructions.

NOTE: I am going to attempt converting a Advanced Spoilers and Creative Cars front end to look like the one from mad max. When i do this i will give detailed information on how to do it on this sight, i will try to cover every aspect of the operation, as to help others attempting this them selves. I do this because i like to be able to say "i did everything my self". But don't anyone go waiting for me to do it so they can see how because i will not be attempting this until sometime in the year 2000.

• Until recently the indicator lamps on the front of the Pursuit Special have been a bit of a mystery. The indicators on Max's Pursuit Special, located on the bottom of the Monza nose are "BFT1000 Lamps" of  EJ to EH Holden's. Rare Spares sell reproduction ones for $63.50 Aus each.

The reproduction item available from Rare Spares.

• The wheel arch flares ("wheel well" in US) were first believed to be apparently based on a Torana SLR5000 flare, but with a LOT of additional fibreglass work done on them, but infact the flares were totally custom made. It is said that they were actually made outside Australia. As with most things many rumours have started up, so i cannot confirm whether this is fact or a fiction.

Most of the Pursuit Special replicas with the flare work are either hand made from scratch or are highly modified Holden Torana SLR5000 flares.

If you have any additional information please e-mail me.

• The side scoops on the Pursuit Special came standard with all Falcon XB GT's. They were also a option on all Falcons and Fairmont's ect. I have not scene many XB Coupe's without these scoops as most ordered them because they improve the look of the car.

• The roof spoiler on the Pursuit Special was custom built, and not a modified van item as first believed. I am told there is quit a few differences between the Van and Coupe spoiler, by George Kritty who has had the chance to compare them. I have not been able to put a Van spoiler up against my Coupe yet so i can not say whether it can be modified to suit.


Gordon Hayes can help you out with a reproduction of this one.

The boot spoiler ("trunk lid" in US) is a 3 piece unit, custom made for the movie. It is not the same as the cobra item, it is more sleek, thinner and follows the lines of the car better than the cobra spoiler. The actual spoiler looks more like the 3 piece unit used on Holden Monaro's, and possibly was modelled on it. I have been told that there was and still maybe a mould around for this spoiler. One of the employees at challenge fibreglass claims to have scene a couple of falcons with the same spoiler, he also says he once saw a picture of the Max's Pursuit Special, before paint but with all the trimmings, he was told that the car was built in Tasmania and shipped over here for the movie. He also told me that the rear spoiler was made in Tasmania and fore a while after the movie there were a heap of cars with this after market spoiler on them.
Once again i can not confirm whether this is fact or fiction.

I do not know of anyone selling this spoiler, so the most replica's have been using the Cobra 3 piece spoiler in its place. If anyone has any good reference photos or info please e-mail me.

• The supercharger is made by Weiand pronounced "why and". Weiand make twisted vane, Roots style superchargers for many after market applications. The Supercharger on Max's Pursuit Special was not functional it was all faked. The supercharger set-up had to be a non functional unit, for Weiand never had a supercharger that could be activated and deactivated. The supercharger case was empty, and was held above the induction manifold by 4 brackets, with the carburettor sitting slightly inside. A water pump was attached to the front of the SC. to hold the supercharger drive pulley, this also moved the drive belt far enough forward to clear the factory 351c water pump and assembly. The distributors angle has also been changed by 90 degrees as to let it clear the SC. The drive belt is driven by an electric motor, which was hidden in the garage scene in mad Max 1 by the yellow bucket or was it. I am told that the supercharger does not spin at the same speed but speeds up and slows down with the engine. This would suggest that the supercharger is infact ran by the engine, if it isnt ran by the engine it would invole using a variable speed motor and a complicated wireing harness with a motor speed controler ither conected to the excelerator pedal or to the excelerator cable, which i seriously doubt. Another peice of evidence is in the garage scene pic. We can see that the gilmer belt (the big one) goes from the supercharger to a pulley below. On the front of this pulley is a smaller belt (pretty much the same as the fan belt on older cars), this belt appears to run from the front of the larger pulley to the right (when looking front on), where the airconditioning pump would be. Is it posible that the blower was driven by the crank through the electric clutch (maybe modified or 2 used) on the A/C pump.  Click here to see a brighter pic of what i mean.

In Mad Max 1, the supercharger and fuel injection system was created out of old nostalgic race parts. There for instead of the supercharger and accessories being of everyday GM styling they used a Weiand Swing Arm supercharger cover (refer to picture on the left). These Supercharger covers are fairly rare now especially in Australia, so if anyone knows of where one is or can help out on ow the blower was driven please e-mail me.
For more information on the supercharger and the fuel injection system see Steve Pilants web site.

• The fuel injection system on the Pursuit Special is a " Scott Injector Hat"  also known as "Scott Slot" and "Scott Super Slot". The hat portion of the injection system is the rectangular shaped box which is located under the scoop. This box is held on top a 6-71 by 6 bolts, sometimes bevelled 45 degree bolts that mount flush. There are a variety of Scott units and some look a bit different than others depending on placement of the barrel valve, size and shape of scoop and a few other factors. The hose on the right when looking from the front with the 2 yellow bands is a Scott hose, it is the part of the unit which carries fuel from the front barrel valve to a jet located in the centre of the hat. The jets are easily switched to suit your engine specifications and preferred performance, which is a great point of design. The Scott injector hat is fairly simple and has a straightforward design, but as in all fuel injection hat systems, not for the novice to set-up. They require a lot of fiddling with to get right. The Scott unit also does not come with an air filter, so its use on a street driven motor is not recommended as engine life would be shorter. They were used for racing where air filtration was not an issue and engines were rebuilt often. The scoop portion sits atop the hat and is held in place with 4 screws - 2 in the back and 2 inside the maw. Some of the scoops say Scott Eng. stamped in the very back which you can see in the scene in which Max comes up behind the truck in Mad Max 1 and when he comes up on the knee shoot out scene. It is at the very back on top of the scoop. You will also note the vertical bar at the back which, when rotated with the correct heim linkage rotates the plates inside the unit. The unit was mostly used on 60s race cars so they are mostly sought after by nostalgia racers. A lot of racers used to favour the Hillborn PG-150-A over the Scott fuel pumps as the Hillborn was more reliable.

These pictures are of the later model "Scott Injector Hat", known as the Scott Super Slot, this is the one used in mad max 1. click on them for a larger picture.

The older style "Scott Injector Hat", known as the Scott Slot, this is different to the one used in mad max 1. Once again click for a larger view.

• The wheels are steel centred van wheels.  The style of the wheels is Apache although Sunraysia rims do look pretty much the same. They were seen in on Max's yellow XB sedan, except this time the rims have been painted black. They are a stamped steel centre, welded to a steel rim.

• The tires on the restored Pursuit Special are B. F. Goodrich T. A. Radials. The tires are a mix between the  "first generation" on front ("stiff" side wall, narrow tread blocks) and about fourth generation on the rear ("relaxed" side wall, wider tread blocks).  The difference in side wall construction makes the fronts look bigger then the rear, etc.


Front:  T245-50R14 (92s)
Rear:  T265-50R15

• The outlets for the exhaust gasses are Zoom pipes. Zoom pipes are a van item. The van craze was winding down in Australia when the car was built, and a couple of the parts were originally marketed for van applications.

• The exhaust system consisted of Glass packs and "straight" pipes.

• The switch on Max's Pursuit Special used to engage and disengage the Blower (Supercharger) is two speed rear end switch (gear divider) of a truck. They can be purchased from Repco, and a few other companies as well as your local truck wrecker's. As far as i know the bracket used to hold the switch to the selector lever can only be bought from truck wreckers. If you intend on buying one take in a picture as there are a few different designs. For a heap more information see  5.7 Interceptor's page on the Blower Switch.

• The steering wheel seen in Mad Max 1 and then the Road Warrior is made by Max Rob. Max Rob was bought out by SAAS and no longer have the mould to make this style wheel. Max Rob wheels can still be bought even know they are now SAAS, but i have not seen any wheels with a similar design. Your best bet is to try ozzie wreaking yards ect.

If anyone knows anything more about this wheel or has one for SALE please e-mail me.