Car customization can be as easy or as hard as an individual makes it out to be. That’s what makes Robert Selby’s Mad Cat tribute car so special because he didn’t just recreate a movie car from the same model used in Mad Max. Instead, he’s built a modern iteration of the Pursuit Special with a Dodge Challenger Hellcat at its core. Now, he’s blending it with real pieces from classic Aussie muscle cars.
The original Pursuit Special in Mad Max was a Ford Falcon, so why did this build start with a Challenger? Selby had the vision to see that dimensionally, and spiritually, the two cars were very similar long before he made a single modification to the 2020 Challenger Hellcat underneath the custom bodywork you see before you.
The wing at the back of the roof is from a 1980 Chevrolet Camaro and the gills just behind each door are from a 1973 Ford Falcon. They’re not the only original Aussie DNA that the car will end up with though. Selby is now in the process of adding an Arcadiapane Falcon nose to the front of the car. He’s not stopping there though. He’s also procured a 1970 Torino fastback that he’s planning to graft onto the Challenger.
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While this creation is far from finished, it’s easy to see just how much attention Selby has paid to get the details and the spirit of the build just right. The blower sticking up out of the hood is, like the movie car, completely non-functional, but it has the same sort of mechanism in the car that allows the driver to turn it on just like in the film.
Those are custom one-off wheels at each corner too. They mimic the original design while being big enough for the modern size of the Challenger. To ensure that the braking components would fit, Selby added Challenger Demon brakes in place of the already-potent stock parts. Those side-exhaust pipes work too and just like the fake blower up front, they can be turned on and off through a switch in the cabin.
The video below shows the Mad Cat in action before Selby got a hold of the new front bumper and the Torino shell that he’s working on now. We can’t wait to see the finished product.
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