Warner has corrected this with a terrific letterboxed transfer that shows this film off to it's best advantage. The sound is mono at this point. As the opening prologue concludes the scene fades to the full Panavision frame of Max racing down the highway and the surrounds kick in at the same time. This great opening is, of course, completely lost with a cropped transfer. The image quality is quite good.
Colors are solid with no noticable noise.
Contrast and brightness are excellent, as is image sharpness. Overall, the image is very smooth while retaining very good detail. Audio quality is also suprisingly good. I am often suprised at the quality of soundtracks on films that I saw years ago in poor theaters and never considered to be this good. It is this that makes even a well remembered film almost a new experience.