Can You Really Use A Switch To Turn On A Supercharger, 'Mad Max' Style?

So you've just watched "Road Warrior," and now you're thinking about the cars – specifically, Max Rockatansky's fuel-saving electronic supercharger shutoff. Maybe you're looking to get some extra fuel economy out of your blown daily driver with a similar setup, or maybe you think the real world is going to start looking like "Mad Max" any day now and you just want to be prepared. Either way, it's a question anyone might ask after watching the movie for the first time: Can you really toggle a supercharger with a switch? 

Well, the simple answer is yes. Both Mercedes-Benz and Toyota have included similar setups in some of their older models, and toggling a supercharger electronically certainly isn't impossible with modern technology. But whether you could do it on a true "Mad Max" car — with a Roots supercharger on a '70s V8 — is a very different question. As it turns out, it's also a much more interesting one to try and answer. 

In order to electronically bypass a supercharger, you need alternate intake piping and fueling. Max's supercharger is a Weiand 6-71, which is a roots-style blower that incorporates its own intake manifold and fuel injection system (purportedly a Scott SuperSlot). The setup doesn't allow room for alternate intake pathways and fuel supplies, but there's the magic of filmmaking to consider here. Max's supercharger isn't mounted in place of the intake manifold on his Falcon, but is instead mounted far above the block in order to show through the car's hood more. Obviously, that makes it non-functional in the actual hero car for the film, but an enterprising enough engineer could — in theory — fill that extra space with custom intake ducting and some electronically-actuated throttle bodies and fuel rails to make the whole setup work. 

Would this be a good idea? Almost certainly not. You'd lose efficacy from the supercharger, and you'd have a bunch of custom parts that would be difficult to fix or replace in the post-apocalyptic Australian outback. Would it be great to see someone try, using their engineering know-how to build a functioning switchable supercharger that only uses period-correct late-'70s parts? Absolutely! If you've got the time, cash, and engineering chops to pull this off, let me know. I want to see this done for real.