Car History Brief

Mad Max's black Pursuit Special was a 1973 Ford XB Falcon GT351, limited edition hardtop (sold in Australia from December 1973 to August 1976). The car was modified by Murray Smith, Peter Arcadipane and Ray Beckerley. After filming of the first movie was completed, the car went up for sale, but had no buyers and eventually it was handed over to Murray Smith (film mechanic).

When production of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior began, the car was purchased back by George Miller for use in the sequel. Once filming was over, the car was left at a wrecking yard in Adelaide since it again found no buyers, then was bought and restored by Bob Forsenko. Eventually it was sold again and put on display in the Cars of the Stars Motor Museum in Cumbria, England. That museum closed and the car is currently in a collection in the Dezer museum in Miami Fl.

The Product

My sample arrived in a standard size model car box. Inside I found a multi-media kit featuring chrome, clear and black plastic parts, rubber tires, a photoetch fret, paperboard cut outs, decals and a small metal chain. All the parts were packaged in poly bags. Upon closer inspection I found them to have excellent detail with crisp panel lines and flash free.

The instructions are easy to read with detailed illustrations. The photoetch fret has its own set of instructions with color photographs. The set includes replacement items such as a rear deck stowage rack, windshield wipers, head light grills, dashboard items, plus complementary cable cutters and crowbar.

The Build

I noted that the bottom half of the engine, the headers, and drive line are molded into the bottom side of the chassis. I began by adding the front end suspension, steering parts and wheel assemblies. Then I finished up with the rear axle and leaf springs, including shocks. I encountered no problems to mention and the pieces fit perfectly.

The kit also includes one of Max’s butcher knifes to be added to the side of the gas tank, and an arming panel with bomb in the same area. The instructions would have you installing the chrome drag pipes at this point but I decided to leave them off until after I attached the body.

Next - up the tire and wheels. There is a choice of a matching rim set or differing rear rims, true to the film version. The famous Weiand supercharger becomes a unit with seven chrome parts. Sadly my sample had trash in the plating on the top piece. This assembly is attached from the underside of the hood and looks pretty convincing when viewed from the top.

Turning to the interior, I completed the dashboard including Max’s gadgets with no problems. The kit includes decals for the instrument cluster and steering column mounted tachometer. The roll bar is simpler than it looks and fit nicely into place. I finished out the empty areas with more of Max’s personal items like the cardboard cutouts that are folded into “Dinky Dog Food” cartons, a five piece photoetch crow bar and a cable cutter made from two pieces. Other cool items include his sawed-off pistol grip double-barrel shotgun, another butcher’s knife with ammo belt, a metal chain, a decaled dog food can, and six pack cooler. Max’s companion the ‘dog’ (not included) has his jump seat attached to the passenger door facing inward and his photoetch food tray is mounted to the dash panel.

Max’s stripped out rear deck has a stowage rack that was easily replaced with photoetch. The car’s rear window is gone and the trunk has been modified to fit extra fuel tanks to the rear of the car. All these pieces fit great and were added after the car’s body was attached to the chassis. Lastly, the photoetch windshield wipers were kind of tough to fold up and after several tries I decided to use the plastic ones. The flat black on gloss black paint scheme is nice but it doesn’t photograph very well.

The Bottom Line

Awesome kit, a real pleasure to build. I recommend this baby to anyone.

Thanks To: Aoshima, Dragon USA and IPMS for allowing me the opportunity to present this fine model kit.