Saturday 11 February 2012

Silver Dream Racer

Just the title will have some of you cringing!
Silver Dream Racer was a 1980 film starring pop singer David Essex set in the world of motorcycle racing. The racing sections of the film were filmed at real race meetings, with real riders having their race bikes repainted to match the characters' in the film. I was at a race meeting at Donington Park, and between races, bikes were filmed from a camera car, as were sections of the crowd, cheering when directed. As I was there, it's possible that I appear in at least one of the crowd scenes. (But you'd have to look very carefully!)
I went to see the film when it came out, and to be honest, it was dreadful! The story line - a young man (Essex) inherits an unsuccessful racebike but inexplicably wins the World Championship on it the following year, despite the machinations of his unsporting rivals. Also, he gets the girl. Yes, it's as bad as that! In fact the best bit is the theme tune sung by Essex himself (and that's not saying much!)
At the time, the bike looked quite stunning:
It was based on a real race bike which used a Barton square four 2 stroke engine. The 'real' bike was unsuccessful, and the engine ended up in a racing sidecar.
On another blog I found (almost) the whole film in sections, should you be interested (or bored enough) to want to see it: here
I say 'almost', as this is the US edit of the film, which has the 'happy' ending. The UK release of the film had an extra few seconds at the end: (excuse the Russian(?) soundtrack!)

There's an article on the bike here, and a listing in IMDb
The theme song 'Silver Dream Machine', had the hook line:
'I've a dream, a Silver Dream Machine' which a friend's sister thought was
'Ivor Dream, a Silver Dream Machine', where Ivor Dream was the name of Essex's character!

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like an updated version of George Formsby's "No Limit" in a way.

    Have heard that it (SDR) was as bad as all that, so I think'll pass on it.

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