The Pursuit Special is the fictional model of car driven by the officers of the fictional MFP (Main Force Patrol) in the Mad Max franchise of films.

[edit] Mad Max

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2010)

A replica with intact air dam and headlight covers.

Replica of the Pursuit Special as it appeared in Mad Max

The first car shown in the film with the title Pursuit Special is a Holden Monaro stolen and driven by the escaped criminal, the Night Rider. The more famous Pursuit Special is a modified 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT. Within this storyline, Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) is offered the black Pursuit Special as an incentive to stay on the force as their top pursuit man after he reveals his desire to quit. Although Max turns the offer down, he later uses the black car to exact his revenge on an outlaw motorcycle gang who killed his wife and child.

Origins[link]

This car started out as a standard white 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT Coupe. Then in 1976, film makers Byron Kennedy and George Miller began pre-production on Mad Max. Murray Smith was hired on as part of the film crew, and one of his tasks was to put together the Pursuit Special. He started by acquiring the XB Falcon, and along with Peter Arcadipane, Ray Beckerley, and various others, proceeded to modify the car to what was needed for the film.^{[citation needed]} The main modification is the front nosecone, made of fibreglass and designed by Arcadipane (marketed as the "Concorde" style), the eight individual exhaust side pipes, and a non-functional supercharger protruding through the bonnet.

[edit] Mad Max 2

A replica Mad Max Pursuit Special vehicle on display outside the Silverton Hotel, the main location for filming

In the meantime, the low budget Australian film had gained worldwide success, prompting a sequel, Mad Max 2. The Pursuit Special was reacquired by Kennedy and Miller for use once more.^{[citation needed]}

The rear wheels, supercharger and pipes were changed. The car was further modified to fit the setting of the new film, with large petrol tanks fitted in the back, and its general appearance given a more used and stressed look. The front end was also modified by removing the bottom section. As well as modifying the original car, a duplicate car was also put together for Mad Max 2.^{[citation needed]}

It is during Mad Max 2 that the character known as The Mechanic describes the Pursuit Special to Max as "the last of the v8 interceptors."

When eventually the story required for the car to be destroyed by rolling down a ditch and then blown up, a duplicate car was used, leaving the original car.^{[citation needed]} The car was rescued and restored somewhat, having a new nose cone fitted but retaining the fuel tanks from Mad Max 2.^{[citation needed]} It was shown widely in Australia before being sold and shipped to the Cars of the Stars Motor Museum in England.

External links[link]

• Mad Max Movies – The most comprehensive Mad Max site online. Includes extensive information on the vehicles used in all three movies.
• Mad Max Replica Stats – Displays a comprehensive list of all known Mad Max Replicas in the world.
• MadMaxCar.com – An extensive look into a Mad Max Pursuit Special replica project that spanned nearly 5 years.
• Mad Max Online – Home to the original Mad Max movie, maintained by members of the cast and crew.
• Cars of the Stars - Home of the original Pursuit Special
• Mad Max Photo Archive - Discussion of the two types of Pursuit Specials seen in "Mad Max," including a script excerpt.

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2011)

Max Black (24 February 1909 – 27 August 1988) was a British-American philosopher, who was a leading influential figure in analytic philosophy in the first half of the twentieth century. He made contributions to the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mathematics and science, and the philosophy of art, also publishing studies of the work of philosophers such as Frege. His translation (with Peter Geach) of Frege's published philosophical writing is a classic text.^{[citation needed]}

Born in Baku, Russian Empire [now Azerbaijan] of Azeri-Jewish descent, Black grew up in London, where his family had moved in 1912. He studied mathematics at Queens' College, Cambridge where he developed an interest in the philosophy of mathematics. Russell, Wittgenstein, G. E. Moore, and Ramsey were all at Cambridge at that time, and their influence on Black may have been considerable. He graduated in 1930 and was awarded a fellowship to study at Göttingen for a year.

From 1931–36, he was mathematics master at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle.

His first book was The nature of mathematics (1933), an exposition of Principia Mathematica and of current developments in the philosophy of mathematics.

Black had made notable contributions to the metaphysics of identity. In his "The Identity of Indiscernibles", Black presents an objection to Leibniz' Law by means of a hypothetical scenario in which he conceives two distinct spheres having exactly the same properties, thereby contradicting Leibniz' second principle in his formulation of "The Identity of Indescernibles". By virtue of there being two objects, albeit with identical properties, the existence of two objects, even in a void, denies their identicality.

He lectured in mathematics at the Institute of Education in London from 1936 to 1940. In 1940 he moved to the United States and joined Philosophy Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1946 he accepted a professorship in philosophy at Cornell University. In 1948, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1963.^[1] Black died in Ithaca, New York age 79. His younger brother was the architect Sir Misha Black.

Selected bibliography[link]

• Black, Max (1937). "Vagueness: An exercise in logical analysis". Philosophy of Science 4: 427–455. Reprinted in R. Keefe, P. Smith (eds.): Vagueness: A Reader, MIT Press 1997, ISBN 978-0-262-61145-9
• Black, Max (1949). Language and philosophy: Studies in method, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
• Black, Max (1954). “Metaphor,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 55, pp. 273–294.
• Black, Max (1962). Models and metaphors: Studies in language and philosophy, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
• Black, Max (1979). “More about Metaphor,” in A. Ortony (ed): Metaphor & Thought.

References[link]

• Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed.

External links[link]

• Biography at the MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
• Guide to the Max Black Papers, Cornell University Library
• The Prevalence of Humbug, The Prevalence of Humbug and Other Essays (Cornell University Press, 1983.