Garage mechanic and racing enthusiast Nick Freeman (David Essex) inherits his dead brother’s revolutionary new prototype bike – the actual bike in the film was designed by Barry Hart of Welsh engineering company Barton Motors – and sets out to prove it can be a race winner in this motorcycling drama.
Consumed by a desire for glory on the racetrack he manages to get financial backing and enters the challenge for the world championship at Silverstone, accompanied by his mechanic and only friend, Cider (Clarke Peters).
Nick’s main competition is wily American Bruce McBride (Beau Bridges) who will stop at nothing to win both the title and Julie Price (Cristina Raines), the beautiful lady that both bikers fall for.
A vanity project from beginning to end, it tries hard to be a British Wild Angels(1966), Easy Rider(1969) or Electra Glide in Blue(1973), but Essex here is near the end of his heyday, dressing in leather, trying to be James Dean and keeping Brylcreem in business. He wrote the music, too.
Three top-secret racing bikes were made available for the film by Heron Suzuki. They also provided key technicians, equipment and mechanical expertise, as well as the services of their Texaco Heron Team Suzuki which had won the World’s Manufacturer’s Championship for the last three years.
Ex-champion racer Roger Marshall stood in for David Essex in the actual race scenes – many of which were shot during the actual 500cc World Championship at Silverstone in front of a quarter of a million people, using 16 Panavision cameras.
Nick Freeman
David Essex Bruce McBride
Beau Bridges Julie Prince
Cristina Raines Cider Jones
Clarke Peters Wiggins
Harry H Corbett Tina
Diane Keen Jack Freeman
Lee Montague Carol
Sheila White Ben Mendoza
David Baxt Al Peters
Ed Bishop Jack Davis
Nick Brimble Clarke Nichols
Stephen Hoye Bank Manager
T P McKenna
Director
David Wickes
Video
Related Posts
Sunstruck (1972) Young Welsh schoolteacher and choral director Stanley Evans (Harry Secombe) decides to emigrate to Australia where the New South Wales…
Speedway (1968) Racing driver Steve Grayson (Elvis Presley) owes a debt to the US government of $145,000 and is pursued by attractive…
Lathe of Heaven, The (1980) This provocative 1980 made-for-TV science fiction film is set in Century Portland, Oregon, at the end of the 20th-century in…
Insatiable (1980) One of the all-time adult blockbusters, mainly because of the much-awaited return of adult superstar Marilyn Chambers, who had taken…
Any Which Way You Can (1980) This sequel to Every Which Way But Loose (1979) typifies the kind of lightweight, disposable comic vehicles that paid Clint…
Spy with My Face, The (1965) The Man from UNCLE was such a cult hit in the UK that the seven movie spin-offs were made almost exclusively…
Strange Adventure, A (1956) 18-year-old hot rod enthusiast Harold Norton (Ben Cooper) is helping his mother at the small-town motel they own when he…
Hawk the Slayer (1980) Lord Grade's ITC gave director Terry Marcel a modest budget of less than a million pounds to throw his hat…
Nick Freeman
