I must admit, the gaming world is something that I’ve never felt the need to venture into. That is until I found out that the Mad Max Magnum Opus car actually existed…
Mad Max is a video game based on the movie franchise and embraces the idea of an apocalyptic world where botched together cars are the kings of the terrain – if you have a good car, you have a chance. For gaming addicts, it’s been a long time coming, but the wait is finally over and Avalanche Studio’s Mad Max will be available next week.
The modus operandi for this game is to create your very own Magnum Opus, a tank-like car built from scraps that Mad Max can run riot across the Wasteland with, following the loss of his infamous Interceptor car, which you may recall from the original movie.
Promotion is key in this day and age of course, so what better way to promote your game than to commission the famous West Coast Customs to build a real working Magnum Opus?
When the Mad Max team met with West Coast Customs it must have been a dream-team in the making; perfect, detailed inspiring images of the Magnum Opus already honed and refined for WCC to get their teeth into.
West Coast Customs kept the flow with the Magnum Opus, whereas the original Interceptor started life as a Ford – a 1973 GT Falcon Coupe – the donor cars for the Magnum Opus were also Fords. A rather nice looking 1971 Ford Maverick was completely stripped down. Once stripped, the body was then fitted onto a Ford Ranger chassis and an Edelbrock supercharged power unit was added along with Camburg suspension, Fox shocks and ABT brakes – with a Playstation added inside for good measure.
I’m not sure that the Maverick didn’t look nicer, but that’s kind of the point with a transformation like this. West Coast Customs can do some truly amazing things with automobiles and in this case, they have made a rugged car out of bit parts, which looks homemade. Spot on then.
One of the first ports of call for the real life Magnum Opus was the annual Wasteland Weekend in California’s Mojave Desert. Ever since 2010 this four-day long celebration of Mad Max-themed fun has drawn ever-larger crowds each year. It is clearly the perfect home for the Magnum Opus and the car went down a treat.
Now if you haven’t already watched the film of this fun journey from Maverick to Magnum Opus, scroll back and do so now; it’s a great film.
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