The History Of The Mad Max Interceptor
Part 4 - Current Day
Eventually Bob's other interests took residence, and the car was loaned to the National Motor Museum of Australia, at Birdwood, South Australia.
Birwood Motor Museum (thanks to Nick Frame)
The car became the museum's greatest attraction, which is not surprising, as the car must rank as THE most famous Australian car, with the Mad Max films being the most successful Australian film series. For some further pics from the Birdwood Museum, see Steve Pfeiffer's sub-page.
In 1993 the World Forum for Motor Museums was held in Germany. One of the participants at the forum was John Cashen, the director and curator of the Birdwood Museum. Another was Dr Peter Nelson, the compulsive collector of film and TV vehicles and owner of 'Cars of the Stars Motor Museum' in Keswick, in the English Lake District.
Peter and John eventually met at the forum and when John mentioned that they had the Interceptor at their museum Peters ears pricked up. Although John would not disclose the name of the owner of the car, he promised he would pass on Peter's interest in the car to the owner.
Bob Forsenko phoned Peter one lunchtime and disclosed his asking price for the car. After a number of air mail letters and faxes, and after Peter had received documents and photographs proving conclusively that the car was the original one, a deal was struck.
Cars Of The Stars Motor Museum
The car now resides in 'Cars of the Stars Motor Museum' in England with other famous cars like The Batmobile, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Munster's Koach, Mr Bean's Mini, FAB 1, KITT, etc etc. However, the Interceptor is one of Peter's favourites. "This is the one and only Mel Gibsons Mad Max Police Interceptor" says Peter, "Any others are obviously fakes, I wouldn't part with this car for a million Australian dollars simply because it is such an important car, although I hope someday it will return to its native lands because it is a big part of Australian history".
Much of the "History" information and images on this page are provided courtesy of Cars Of The Stars. Obviously I cannot stop the information and images reappearing elsewhere on the web, but if you do copy anything from this page, please have the courtesy to link the Cars Of The Stars web page as your source. Thanks.
Back to the History of the Mad Max Interceptor, Part 3