George Miller's MAD MAX: FURY ROAD is heading our way in just a couple of weeks, and today we've got a look at some of the vehicles that will be gracing the screen to bring us plenty of action on May 15.
Car and Driver provides this look at 10 of the more than 150-modified vehicles used in the film conceived by production designer Colin Gibson. These beasts of post-apocalyptic scrap metal and engines look utterly badass and I can't wait to see them in action next month.
The film looks to be one insane thrill ride that isn't afraid to push the limits. I'm talking pedal-to-the-metal action through and through! Here's hoping Miller and company have created a new masterpiece. Everything we've seen so far is certainly hinting that we're in for something special with this one.
From Oscar-winning director George Miller, originator of the post-apocalyptic genre and mastermind behind the legendary “Mad Max” franchise, comes “Mad Max: Fury Road,” a return to the world of the Road Warrior, Max Rockatansky.
Haunted by his turbulent past, Mad Max believes the best way to survive is to wander alone. Nevertheless, he becomes swept up with a group fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by an elite Imperator, Furiosa. They are escaping a Citadel tyrannized by the Immortan Joe, from whom something irreplaceable has been taken. Enraged, the Warlord marshals all his gangs and pursues the rebels ruthlessly in the high-octane Road War that follows.
Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, Hugh Keays-Byrne and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley all star in the much-anticipated sequel.
May 15…it will own us all.
Plymouth Rock
Built around the desiccated remains of what appears to be a 1937 Plymouth sedan, this metallic hyena’s mission is to scrounge the wasteland looking for carrion to consume and repurpose.
The Big Foot
It’s a monster truck shoved under the sheetmetal of what appears to be a 1939 or 1940 Fargo pickup. Riding on 66-inch-tall Goodyear tires and featuring four feet of suspension travel, this beast, according to the official materials, is powered by a supercharged V-8 turning a Turbo 400 automatic transmission. The massive axles are reportedly from a military tanker. And the name of the character who drives this is “Rictus Erectus.”
Buggy #9
A modified Perentti created as sort of a last-days-of-disco-era Vette running through misery while chewing on a fistful of meth. And it should be enough to leave many North American gearheads leaving theaters muttering to themselves in a bewildered haze of confusion.
Mack
In the Mad Max series, the big truck that matters most is the Mack R-series. In The Road Warrior, it’s an R-series tractor-tanker that is at the center of much of the action. In Fury Road there’s “Mack,” an R-series wrecker tasked with trailing the action and scavenging the battlefield for precious scrap and equipment. It’s an homage of sorts and its own beastly thing.
Peacemaker
In the mix-and-match world of classic Australian muscle, the 1971–78 Chrysler Valiant Charger is something of a companion to Ford’s XB Falcon that plays so prominently in the Mad Max mythology. So in Fury Road there are at least two Valiant Chargers featured. This one, called Peacemaker, isn’t so much a Chrysler of any sort as it is some classic sheetmetal stretched out over a U.S.-made Ripsaw light-tank chassis. In the film, it’s piloted by a character called The Bullet Farmer and is used in several socially malevolent ways.
FDK
There are several obscene things for which “FDK” may stand, so please entertain yourselves thinking of them. In Fury Road, however, FDK is this blown, V-8–powered contraption to which the filleted body of a Volkswagen Beetle is tack-welded. In the story it acts as part of a convoy guard that throws off flames with fuel from barrels integrated into its structure. In sum, it’s a perversion of everything the original Beetle was supposed to be.
The War Rig
There’s big, there's bigger, and then there's holy-crap gargantuan. A six-wheel-drive Tatra semi powered by two supercharged V-8s seems big enough to qualify for that last category. That it’s a tanker that shuttles precious fluids from fiefdom to sinecure and back again only makes it more mysterious and sinister. Well, that plus all the skulls serving as decoration.
The Nux Car
A ’34 Chevrolet coupe features a turbocharged V-8 that, at least according to the press materials, also huffs in a steady diet of nitrous oxide. And, apparent in the photos, the fabricated chassis includes a beefy-looking independent front suspension. However, the exhaust system routed across the doors does mean the driver has to get in through the roof.
The Gigahorse
Take one 1959 Cadillac Coupe DeVille body and split it open down the middle. Then insert another Coupe DeVille body into the first one and weld like mad. The result will be something that looks like two humping Las Vegas condominiums. Finally, all that is mounted to a huge truck chassis and powered by two turbocharged V-8 engines mounted alongside each other. It’s the most audacious and fascinating vehicle in Fury Road.