Mad Max's Ford Interceptor returns

The original Mad Max film of 1979 earned plaudits and success at the box office for its vision of one man's tale of revenge -- replete with high-speed stunts. Fast forward 31 years; two Mad Max sequels have followed and there's a fourth on the way, with Australian director George Miller filming the latest installment -- titled 'Fury Road' in the Aussie outback.

And that can mean only one thing -- all-new Ford Interceptors.

Chris Svensson is the Design Director for Ford Australia's Asia, Pacific and Australia studios and the Melbourne-based designer tasked his team to come up with futuristic Interceptor to celebrate the impending movie.

According to reports from inside Ford's design studios, Svensson has "thrown the full weight of Ford Australia's Research Centre behind the project" with two possible designs being readied for the motor show circuit.

"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," Svensson explained. "We had a special screening of the original movie so they could understand it."

Todd Willing, the chief designer for passenger cars Asia, Pacific and Africa, revealed that a small group of designers had created a number of concept cars that paid tribute to the original Ford XB Coupe Interceptor. The list was whittled down to two concepts (pictured) and readers of the TopGear Australia magazine are invited to vote on which model they think should be built.

The first design is by Simon Brook, who explains the car's on-board weaponry: "During high-speed pursuits, the wheels' inner spokes on my design would pop out and start ripping up other cars. They'd do some serious damage to other people's vehicles."

Brook used the FG Falcon for inspiration but made sure a number of vintage styling cues made it in there. "I wanted to keep it clean and aerodynamic in its essence, but still brutal and tough," said Brook.

The second design is by Nima Nourian, whose futuristic Interceptor boasts an 'industrial-strength' tazer integrated into the front apron, purposely designed to incapacitate motorcycle-mounted perpetrators of the law.

This second Interceptor design also features titanium-plated body panels to "interrupt police scanners" according to Ford, while the wheels have concealed and extendable spikes to "shred enemy vehicles".

Nourian said that the 1970s Interceptor was a big inspiration for his design, but noted that he wanted a contemporary look and feel. "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. 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."

A clay model of the winning car design will be developed, to be turned into a scale version of the vehicle that is "expected to be revealed later this year" according to Ford Australia.

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