You’ll Be a True Road Warrior in This ‘Humungus Machine’

• Fuel is expensive. Is it time to lead a gang of roving wasteland scavengers?
• Here’s the perfect vehicle to do just that: a flame-shooting single-seater straight out of The Road Warrior.
• Or you could buy a hybrid, but in this scenario, that feels like giving up.

With fuel prices higher than ever, here are some helpful tips to help you save at the pump: Always make sure your vehicle’s tires are properly inflated. Avoid jackrabbit starts. Don’t speed. Or, alternatively, become the leader of a band of merciless and psychotic wasteland warriors.

Anyone going the latter route will want to know about a special vehicle that’s just turned up on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos). This 1984 Ford F-150 was converted into Lord Humungus’s vehicle from the second Mad Max movie. Is it a hybrid? Does it offer an automatic start-stop button? No! Instead, it has a PA system for issuing threats, and it shoots flames out of the exhaust pipes.

Obviously, some sort of disclaimer has to be issued here about not actually capturing your local Buc-ee’s and turning it into a wasteland fortress. Mel Gibson would be very upset with you for doing so, to say nothing of how Tom Hardy might react.

However, this massive rig is just the thing for some hockey-masked cosplay on Fury Road. It was built by a Tacoma-based specialist called (fittingly) Mad Max Cars, which does all manner of movie car replica builds. If you’re looking for one of the last of the V-8 interceptors, they’re your folks.

This literally humongous machine started out as a 1984 Ford F-150 with a 5.8-liter V-8. That’s plenty of displacement, but like Lord Humungus himself, it’s a bit more show than go: from the factory, this engine made only around 200 horsepower. Still, plenty of torque is on offer, which is handy when you’ve got six wheels to turn.

Practicality? Well, it only seats one, plus whatever mutated miscreants can hang on to the side. The cargo space is decent, with room for two captured enemy scouts to be tied onto the front, and while the rear spoiler doesn’t actually produce any downforce, it does look cool.

Were it to enter a comparison test versus the 2027 Toyota Prius, this wasteland war-wagon offers both advantages and drawbacks in the race to keep fuel costs low. Granted, Toyota has done a good job refining its hybrid powertrain, but only the Humungus Machine offers flamethrower exhaust pipes. Choose your fighter.

The auction ends on September 23.

Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels.