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From YouTube to the Big Screen
This is the 5th year that we have created the Best Performing Oils campaign, and what a way to celebrate! This year Jack our Supercheap Auto employee is tasked with getting the case to the runway before time runs out. The story includes a drifting Ferrari tearing up the Supercheap Auto warehouse, a supercharged G-Wagon in a quarry, a blown Mustang on a secret runway, and a jumping jet boat. What’s in the case? That’s all part of the fun!
Go behind the scenes to see how we did it! And most of all, to find out what happened to the boat? Did it land? Or was it smashed to pieces?
Renowned for building off-the-wall machines, Marty and Moog from Mighty Car Mods took to the challenge of creating a pair of maaad new vehicles for Supercheap’s 2019 Oils ad campaign like a pair of turbocharged ducks to a quiet pond. The JDM-loving lads knew the bad guys they were going to play needed plenty of attitude, some really loud engines, and something to hold all their deep-fried tofu they’d be chomping down while chasing poor Jack for the case. Of course, they knew exactly what they needed to build!
When you need to get somewhere off-road fast, there are plenty of expensive luxury 4x4s which can get you there. Doing it on a budget in a car you don’t mind putting over jumps and racing through exploding quarry walls realistically means you’re buying a used Subaru. Marty found the cheapest six-cylinder Subaru Liberty with a manual gearbox for sale online, then the MCM crew lifted it up, fitted a custom exhaust and bash bar, a number of crazy spotlights, along with a roll bar and bucket seats for safety… all in just a couple of days!
Bad guys and black motorcycles go together like hamburgers and beer. Marty and Moog love their bikes so it was an easy decision for them to mod up Moog’s mad Triumph Bonneville into a stripped-down, off-road-ready beast. With its classic styling Moog was able to take his freedom machine from a classic-looking motorcycle into a retro-inspired Scrambler that looks so tough it could give any secret agent the jitters if they saw it in their rear view mirror!
Story: Iain Kelly
Photos: Andy Green Photography
Sometimes one phone call can lead you to have the wildest experiences in life. This revelation struck me while standing in ankle-deep mud in a quarry near Brisbane recently, as a car my mates and I built raced a flame-belching AMG.
Taking this story back to the start, Marty and Moog from Mighty Car Mods rang me several months ago and asked me to help them source, build, and then transport the car they were going to use in the upcoming 2019 Supercheap Auto "Best Performing Oils Campaign". This wouldn’t be my first time working with these guys, as I’ve known the boys for years having helped write their book in 2017 and build their LS1 HQ Holden for the 2018 Supercheap ad.
Building the jacked-up, off-road-spec Subaru Liberty “Outfap” was a fun and full-on three days at the MCM headquarters with the boys, plus Mechanical Stig and Turbo Yoda. We barely got the car done before Marty and I loaded it onto the MCM car trailer and I hauled it 12 hours up the east coast to where the ad was being filmed.
Marty Moog and I checked into our hotel, then headed off to meet some of the shoot team, including Director David ‘Davros’ Wallin, and Taxi Production’s Mark ‘Bish’ Bishop. We couldn’t hang around, though as the first day’s shoot started with a pre-dawn 6:30am call at the Supercheap Auto HQ in Lawnton, 40 minutes from our hotel.
This shoot didn’t require the Subaru, just Moog’s stripped-down, café racer-style 2017 Triumph Bonneville. If you haven’t seen the build yet, check it out Mighty Bike Mods - Triumph Bonneville. The boys were the bad guys in the ad this year, so they were obviously going to end up on blacked-out motorbikes!
For 2019 Reece Moger from Supercheap Auto and Josh Weier from Black Wattle Studios had come up with a killer concept: the boys would be chasing a Supercheap employee who had been tasked with delivering a package by a spy, who was part James Bond and plenty Inspector Gadget. What’s in the case? That is all part of the fun!
Reece told me there were about 80 people on the shoot, but it seemed like a cast of hundreds. Production assistants, wardrobe, catering, grips, vehicle handlers, stunt co-ordinators and stuntmen, photographers, and dozens of other people were needed to ensure the ad would be a hit.
Dan Reardon & Corey Creed from The Drivers acted as stunt-doubles for Marty and Moog, beginning with some bike action inside Supercheap’s epic Lawnton warehouse. Even crazier than watching these guys race bikes millimetres from pallet racking was watching a crew of drone camera operators chase the cars and bikes at close quarters with their physics-defying flying machines.
Day One of the shoot ended with drifter Rob Whyte sliding a modified Ferrari Spyder around the loading docks at Supercheap’s headquarters, while drones followed his smokey trail. As soon as we heard ‘that’s a wrap!’ we were out of there as Day Two’s shoot was going to be a marathon.
After rising at 3am I collected the Liberty and trailer from the storage yard south of Brisbane to make it to a quarry in Mount Cotton by 6am. This was where our plans unravelled as, thanks to a week of rain, the quarry was a slimy mud pit. This meant the Liberty and AMG G-Wagen used on the shoot this day had to be pressure-washed after every single shot, using over 1200L of water in a single day to do so.
Marty and Moog filmed some close-ups and then handed the car to the stunt guys at about 10am, who proceeded to thrash it around the quarry doing the dangerous chase sequences. The Subie did an admirable job chasing the big G63 AMG, despite making several hundred horsepower less than the 4x4 so we were stoked we could drive it back on the trailer at the end of the day, long after the sun had set.
We had all Sunday to make our way 90 minutes south-west of Brisbane to the town of Kooralbyn, so we’d be ready for Monday’s pre-dawn kick-off. Taxi Productions had hired the semi-abandoned airport there for the day and, after we confirmed the Outfap’s clutch was operational, Turbo Yoda and I hooked into a delicious breakfast and several coffees.
After we scared the local roos off by starting the Outfap, the peace of Kooralbyn was once again shattered as Kent Dalton from Hi-Torque Performance kicked his V8 Mustang drift car into life. While the Outfap was much louder, it didn’t sound as sweet to my ears as Kent’s 800hp supercharged 5.0-litre Mustang!
As the wind sprung up the paraglider (who had a small but vital role in the ad) had to pack his gear away due to safety concerns. It was good he was down as, a bit later on, a plane randomly appeared on the horizon headed for the runway. Thankfully everyone cleared the area quickly and old mate in his Cessna was fairly shocked to see a full film crew staring back at him after he parked up.
The rest of the shoot went off uneventfully and, at 6pm, we heard Bish bellowing the magic words; “That’s a wrap, guys!” across the dark airfield, marking the end of my time on the shoot. Turbo Yoda and I got the Outfap on the trailer and I started my long journey back to Sydney, while Mr Yoda-esquire headed to the Gold Coast to film his cameo as part of the boat chase sequence.
I got to sneak a look at an early cut of the ad and I was filled with a sense of pride seeing some of my hard work blasting around the screen. Hopefully all the fun we had comes through on the ad and everyone digs the ad. Thanks must go to Reece and Supercheap, as well as Davros, Bish and the whole Taxi team.
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