A movie-loving petrolhead has spent $125,000 to create his dream car – the Mad Max Interceptor. Michigan born Dale Walter, 50, fell in love with the powerful vehicle when he watched George Miller's seminal film over thirty years ago in a tiny theatre, where he told his friend 'someday I will own that car'. The famous car has featured in three of filmmaker Miller's four pictures, including the latest Mad Mad: Fury Road, starring British actor Tom Hardy in the title role. In 2008, Dale commissioned specialist company Mad Max Cars to convert his 1972 Australian Ford Falcon into the iconic Interceptor – a process which took five years and $125,000.
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MotorTranscript
00:00You can shut the gate on that one, Maxie. It's the duck's guts.
00:20Over three decades ago, 50-year-old Dale Walter from Michigan set his heart on recreating one of cinema's most iconic cars.
00:30Mad Max is one of my very top favorite movies of all time.
00:33And when I was sitting there in the theater and they rolled out that car in the scene in the garage where they first show it to him,
00:39I turned to my friend and I said, someday I'll own that car.
00:42And he said, yeah, right. Well, 30 years later, I sent him a picture of me next to the car.
00:47Just so bad. I mean, just such a bad car.
00:51But to build the replica of the Police Interceptor, which is so far featured in three films from the Mad Max franchise,
00:58Dean first had to get hold of an Australian Ford Falcon.
01:02I flew out to Washington to take a look at it.
01:05And when I first saw it, I remember saying, I have never paid more money in my life for a bigger piece of junk.
01:11Undeterred, Dean paid over $120,000 to convert the 1972 Falcon into a convincing Mad Max Interceptor.
01:23And this is the heart of the car.
01:27That is a 351 Cleveland. It's 450 horsepower. It was built by Proformance Engineering.
01:33We spent $12,000 on the engine alone.
01:36My favorite thing about the car is probably the engine sound.
01:40I considered putting a stereo in it, but that engine note off that 351 stroked to 390 is just so choice that I just like listening to it.
01:51The steering wheel is the Max Robb steering wheel that was used in the movie.
01:58And you can see in the shifter, it has the lever to turn on and off the blower.
02:02One of the interesting things about the car that I get asked all the time is, is the blower real?
02:06And no, it's not.
02:07Because if you remember in the movie, he would turn on the blower, which is the big scoopy thing, to get more power to the car.
02:15A real blower can't work like that.
02:17The way a blower works is it's forced air induction, and if you turned it on and off, you would probably blow the bottom out of your engine.
02:23So, the way this one works is it's on a magnetic clutch.
02:26When I pull the lever, it spins up the blower, just like in the movie.
02:29If you notice here, it has the RVS radio, just like the one in the movie had.
02:36And what Mad Max car would be complete without your handy dandy double barrel shotgun.
02:43So, we have a replica of that here, because these are really illegal, even in the United States.
02:48One of the other features of the car is it does have a movie accurate siren.
02:55It also has a movie accurate horn.
03:02And like the car in the movie, we have a PA system, as a police car would.
03:10Hey, you, stop.
03:13Hey, you know you're a turkey.
03:16Like Goose says in the movie.
03:18When I first saw the car, after it was rebuilt, I was absolutely stunned. Absolutely stunned.
03:24It took them five years to do this, but the wait was worth it.
03:28Well, you've seen it. You've heard it. How about we go for a ride?
03:36The Interceptor always turns heads, even on the highway.
03:43Ah, you get all kinds of odd looks.
03:45You get either, boy, that car looks familiar, or people whose eyes light up.
03:49And they go, that's the Mad Max car!
03:57I think it's great.
03:58It was a great movie.
03:59It's a great tribute to the car.
04:01I didn't see it first.
04:02I heard it first.
04:06Yeah, the car's pretty cool.
04:07I think the car is awesome, actually.
04:09It brings me back to when I was a little kid watching the movie for the first time.
04:13And the car's also attracted the attention of some other Mad Max buffs,
04:17who are keen to get their hands on the wheel.
04:19I get asked a lot of times, would I sell the car?
04:22And the car is pretty much priceless to me at this point.
04:25Of course, there's always a price.
04:27If somebody walked through the door with $25 million,
04:30I would pretty much head into a car.
04:41You know, this was such a dream for so long, 30 years,
04:45to now be sitting here behind my own Mad Max Interceptor.
04:51It's pretty cool.
04:52But for all its big screen bling,
04:56Dean's Interceptor does have its downsides.
04:59I often wonder how it would fare in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
05:03And I think not so well,
05:08simply because it gets about six miles to the gallon.
05:12And, you know, you could tell in the second movie,
05:15Max added those huge tanks.
05:17There's a reason for that.
05:18This thing sucks gas like it's going out of style.
05:21So, for that reason, not so well.