"The Last of the V8's" Theory
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GatorMouth — 11 years ago(December 21, 2014 07:13 PM)
yeah I agree. I think the falcon was probably a car they already had and in the process of being "built" before the beginning of the movies timeline. it stands to reason that they built the holden with the intention of having the falcon too. once the holden was destroyed it put priority on the falcon to get it up and running so they would not be without a special pursuit vehicle.
but the holden couldn't have been that special if Max could run up on it with the yellow police car like everyone else had.
maybe I'm over thinking it but there seems to be layers of story that they left intentionally open to interpretation or just sloppy storytelling. lol -
TerraFirma69 — 11 years ago(December 21, 2014 07:48 PM)
You may be overthinking it. Everything indicates the Falcon was simply built as toy to seduce Max, and was never a part of anything beforehand.
I hear what you're saying about Max's pursuit car running down the Monaro at the start, but maybe the Night Rider wasn't that careful with it on his escape and subsequent flight 9he is after all a lunatic), and so it wasn't in the best shape by the time Max got involved. Plus, Max was the no.1 driver so he may have had the pick of the pursuit cars.
then whoa, differences -
TerraFirma69 — 11 years ago(December 21, 2014 09:43 PM)
Ah, I just broke out a copy on DVD and I notice that in the first scene, while the other bronze's car is marked 'pursuit' on the back, Max's is marked 'Interceptor'. I guess he was the main man with the good car after all.
then whoa, differences -
Kruleworld — 11 years ago(December 22, 2014 09:54 PM)
by
GatorMouth
but the holden couldn't have been that special if Max could run up on it with the yellow police car like everyone else had.
I'll quote that other famous Falcon driver:
"I've made a couple of special modifications myself".
by
TerraFirma69
Ah, I just broke out a copy on DVD and I notice that in the first scene, while the other bronze's car is marked 'pursuit' on the back, Max's is marked 'Interceptor'. I guess he was the main man with the good car after all.
Big Bopper is Pursuit. March Hare (XA) is also Interceptor.
Did you notice the Monaro has MFP painted on the back? it's also got their logo on the rear quarters.
Gimli: Youll find more cheer in a graveyard. -
TerraFirma69 — 11 years ago(December 23, 2014 03:02 PM)
Big Bopper is Pursuit. March Hare (XA) is also Interceptor.
Right you are.
Did you notice the Monaro has MFP painted on the back? it's also got their logo on the rear quarters.
I'd seen the MFP on the number plate, but that logo always looked like a patch of rust. It's in about the right spot for it.
then whoa, differences -
TerraFirma69 — 11 years ago(December 31, 2014 07:44 PM)
Why don't you cut the Night Rider some slack? He may have been very conscious of his carbon footprint. We all know taking it easy on the throttle reduces fuel consumption significantly, and with no hybrids being available at that time he's doing what he can. Jeez.
then whoa, differences -
andy2008 — 11 years ago(March 15, 2015 04:59 PM)
Unless I'm reading things wrong, it seems like people might have missed the part where the police dispatcher describes the stolen car as a "pursuit special", so of course it would have "mfp" on it.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for a day. Light a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life! -
mobocracy — 10 years ago(May 15, 2015 01:21 PM)
Considering the generally large supply of functioning V8s in the functioning civilization Max occupies, I'm not sure how it's the last of anything. They could always rebuild an existing V8 motor from somewhere else or combine parts from several to make a working engine.
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chsrok — 10 years ago(May 15, 2015 10:45 PM)
This is an Australian movie and the last of the V8 line is more about the Ford XA GT HO that was the fastest production car ever made in Australia and was banned from the road in 1974 i think it was.
It has become an icon to motorheads here.
The 3 that are still around, it could be 2 i am not sure but they are worth over $500,000.00 AUD -
blakjakcc — 10 years ago(May 27, 2015 10:18 AM)
Just some points.
- I believe that the underground mechanic was alluding to the fact that with the decline in civilization, decay in society and low supplies of petrol, no more
new
V8s engined cars will ever be produced. In the late 1970s (and even now) that is not too hard to imagine, especially after the 1973 oil crisis. Ford Australia stopped making V8s in 1983, and Holden stopped making large sedans (Kingswood etc) and moved to a smaller/lighter more efficient dunnydore (Commodore). Holden made their last 308ci (5.0L) V8 in 1999. All V8 engines fitted to Australian made cars (Commodore and Falcon) are now imported from the USA. It's only a matter of time till they stop making them as well. - The mechanic most probably had a shifty contact (presumably at Ford) who sold/gave him the engine, "a p-p-piece from here a piece from there".
- At the beginning of the film it shows Max under the bonnet tinkering around with the engine of his yellow XB Ford Falcon 'Interceptor'. I always took this to mean that he often works on his car in his spare time and therefore it is highly modified (when was the last time you saw a cop working on his cop car? lol). Hence his car being faster than the average cop car (in Max's universe) and how he catches up with 'The Nightrider'. Max is also the 'go to' guy, that's why they don't even involve him till
after
the other cop cars are all disabled, as if Max is thinking "ok so you guys failed, now move over and watch how it's done".
My best friend while growing up was a Ford fan and I was a Holden fan (motorsport), every time we'd watch the scene where Max catch up to The Nightrider my friend would turn to me and say something like "ha the Ford rips the Holden!" He still does it till this day.
Just to clear the cars up
Max's yellow car is a XB Ford Falcon 351ci (5.8L Cleveland V8).
Roop and Charlie's yellow car is a XB Ford Falcon 302ci (4.9L Windsor V8).
Big Bopper's yellow car is a XA Ford Falcon 250ci (4.1L inline 6 cylinder) (dunno how it kept up).
All the yellow cop cars are 4 door sedans.
The black 'Pursuit Special' that Crawford Montizano a.k.a The Nightrider stole with his 'floozie' at the start of the film was a Holden Monaro LS 2-door coupe with either a Holden 308ci (5.0L) V8 or a Chevrolet 350ci (5.8L) V8 (they came out with both, never mentions which in the film and there are no visual clues). I'd say the 350ci Chev, considering those (fake) side pipes.
For our American friends, Holden are the Aussie GM branch (who will sadly end local production in 2017 after almost 80 years).
Max's legendary black supercharged 'Pursuit Special' was a XB Ford Falcon 351ci (5.7L Cleveland V8) 2-door coupe (hardtop) with a Weiland 'blower' which in Max's world he can magically engage and disengage at a whim! We all know that that cannot be done in the real world, but we all wanted one just like that when we grew up! The blower itself was a plastic prop, it wasn't actually connected to anything and had no effect on the performance of the engine. There's a replica of Mad Max's black 2-door Holden 'Pursuit Special' at Silverton (near Broken Hill) with a very similar supercharger (even down to the Weiland letters), hasn't any booby-trapped boot-mounted fuel tanks though.
Sorry for the long post.
- I believe that the underground mechanic was alluding to the fact that with the decline in civilization, decay in society and low supplies of petrol, no more
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pjhook1972 — 10 years ago(May 30, 2015 11:13 AM)
It's been a long time since I've seen this so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember the movie ever specifically mentioning the engine sizes in any of the other vehicles.
In reality they all might have been V8s, but in the world of Mad Max they could have been V6s, four cylinders, whatever. Wasn't fuel supposedly becoming more scarce? It would be much more practical and cost effective for them to maintain a fleet of smaller sized engines, perhaps modified for greater performance.
Movie reality doesn't always follow true reality (just as you pointed out concerning the nonfunctional blower) so in the reality of Mad Max it could very well have been the only functional V8at least the only functional V8 left in the Bronze's fleet of pursuit vehicles. -
Lord_Wallace — 10 years ago(June 25, 2015 04:09 AM)
In actual fact, a supercharger can engaged or disengaged, Mercedes racing cars in the 30's had a system, whereby when you floored it, it clicked a button underneath the accelerator and engaged the blower.
There have even been people in modern times who've emulated the Mad-Max thing, using a clutch mechanism to engage the blower pulley (I think they used similar tech found on tractors to engage the PTO without having to press a clutch pedal). -
mcgmcgmcg — 10 years ago(March 01, 2016 06:10 PM)
From memory didn't the yellow pursuit cars have the XB tail lights but with XC interiors which would indicate they were XC's.
Edit - Found this
http://www.madmaxmovies.com/mad-max-fans/mad-max-replica-cars/mad-max-mfp/george-frederick-yellow-xb-interceptor-replica/george-frederick-car-show-display-2002-1.jpg
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