So you may have heard that there's a new Mad Max movie coming out. And, aside from providing a ton of screenshots that could be mistaken for a day at Burning Man, there's one thing you know a Mad Max movie will provide: lots of heavily modified cars. Let's see if we can figure out what they all are!
For your reference purposes, here's the full trailer:
So, based on what we hear in the little bit of dialogue of the trailer, it looks like the world is screwed for lack of water as well as oil. That really sucks, because it kills my steam-car-based contingency plan if I ever somehow end up in this bleak dystopia.
Also, if water is so scarce, I'm a little surprised not to see more air-cooled cars here — the original movies were full of VW-based sand rails, which would seem like a pretty good choice for this environment. I bet there's a lot of peeing into radiators going on here.
The first car we see is a familiar one:
Yep, that's the Road Warrior's famous Australian-market 1973 Ford Falcon XB — the Pursuit Special, with a big supercharger. It's not actually said, but that would seem to confirm Mad Max still takes place in Australia, since these things are staggeringly rare outside of Oz.
That one's easy — these others get pretty tricky. Here's the next cars we see — we'll call this one Number 2:
That split-rear window car seems to be a 40s or possibly prewar car. The trunk lid is missing, as are the fenders, and there's a number of cars with similar roof and window lines. A '38 Plymouth? A Willys? Maybe the front will give us some more clues:
Now, everyone look at your computer screen and say "ZOOM AND ENHANCE."
Great, that helped. That grille sure looks like a '48 Buick, no? I'm still not sold on this one. Maybe you clever folks can help. Number 3 is the truck on the right, and that appears to have started life as a 70s Ford F100. The divided grille is a giveaway.
Number 4 is this spiky fellow. It's got that Beetle-like '40s-car shape, though it's no Beetle. That grille looks sort of like maybe it's from an Oldsmobile, but it's pretty hard to see enough here to be sure. So this one is unsolved at the moment, too.
All right, here's some stuff we can really ID. The brute in the middle (Number 5) is clearly a '59 Cadillac on some sort of truck chassis, and Number 6 to the right appears to be a big rig wearing a Mercedes-Benz W123 body. Classy. Number 7, the truck to the left, looks less modified, but I'm not as up on my big rigs as I should be. Even a cabover like this one. Iveco? We'll call that tank-like thing on the far left Number 8, but I can't really see enough to ID that yet. We'll have another picture of it later.
Number 9 is nice and clear, and looks like it could be a '48 Buick Eight as well. I'm open to suggestions, too.
Finally, another one I feel confident about! Number 10 is a 1945 (or nearabouts) Dodge pickup truck. Slightly modified, I'd say.
We've got quite a parade going on here. Number 11 is that Hummer on the right, and I think that truck-thing with the two Cadillacs is the side of Number 5, at this distance I can't do too much with the cars on the carrier, but I'm happy to see Number 12 on the far left, which appears to be an AMC AMX!
Number 13 is distinctive, and looks to be something early-mid '30s. There's a number of coupés of that era that look like this — possibly a '34 Willys (probably not), maybe a Plymouth, maybe a Ford? But the doors aren't suicide doors. Someone out there knows exactly what this is, I'm sure.
Here's a rear shot of Number 13, if that helps.
I'm pleased to spot what I think is the first actual Beetle, Number 14, acting as a sort of upper rear cab on that big (presumably) tanker truck on the left. Our still-unidentified Number 4 spike-car is at the rear there, and its curvy profile can be seen more clearly. I'm almost sure this is a 1940s car — maybe a Holden?
Number 15, on the left there, is a 1952 Ford Mainline Utility, which was manufactured in Australia until 1955. I'm not sure about Number 16, the middle big rig there (Peterbilt 379?) but Number 17, on the right, appears to be another mid-'40s Dodge pickup truck, widened.
This last shot seems to be a close-up of the actually pretty nicely-engineered tread system on car Number 8. That front end seems sort of... Mopar-ish? Maybe an early '70s Coronet or something?
So, let's use the power of our collective, humming brains here. Put what you think the cars are in the comments, and let's get this figured out! For science!