Motion Pictures The Worlds Fastest Indian

A lot of the hotrods in the movie belong to my buds here in Salt Lake City. We run a modified roadster out there, and in 2004 we went through the movie set and talked to Anthony ang the guys for a. minute.
It turely is an addicting place out there.

 

The original bike was at Pebble Beach this year and was restored to a perfection that it never had in the day.

 

Just watched the movie on Netflix. So inspiring! Where can I find the documentary "offerings to the god of speed"? I don't own the movie to be able to watch the bonus features. I checked youtube and netflix with no luck. Any ideas?

 

I picked up the DVD on Amazon a few weeks ago for under $10 (I think $8) and the documentary is on there too. Super cheap, and worth owning.

 

well, another proof that ton's of money cannot buy taste!! this is ridiculous. the bike never looked like that.
why don't those pebble beacher play with the duesenbergs and co??? do they really have to ruin everything??

but back to the movie: I need it twice a year to shorten the wait for next speedweek...

 

Unless it were in very very poor condition, I think the road rash would be much more interesting than its present condition. Not taking from the restoration, beautiful job, but damn some things should just be left alone.

 

I'm not much into the fancy moving pictures anymore, but sounds like maybe I should check this out.

 

Was in major cinemas here, and on the big screen - awesomer!

 

I saw it at the local Art Deco Cinema in Murwillumbah on the last showing it was awesome, I dragged my dad along he hadn't been to the movies in years, he loved it.

 

I lived and worked in Invercargill for 6 years in the late 90's early 00's. I was working at the aluminium smelter there and became very good friends with the cheif carbon engineer. He's in his late 70's now, but the last time I was in NZ I had dinner with him and he was telling me stories from his apprentice days about Burt coming into the workshop & using the machinery for free as he was the local eccentric. Think they stopped him coming in when he exploded a drum of quenching oil all over the shop. Apparently Burt used to get around in a long trenchcoat & hat and if not for those would have ended up not being the subject of a movie.....
Oh, and my friend's wife well remembers as a young girl crossing the street to avoid him!
They filmed the movie a couple of years after I'd left to come home to Australia, but due to them filming on location in Invercargill, I spent a good portion of my 1st viewing picking out various places and people I knew. Took me a few goes at it to actually watch the movie for it's own sake.

 

Great movie, really enjoyed it.

 

That "thing" at Pebble Beach is NOT a restoration. The original bike NEVER looked like that. Years of history went down the drain as soon as that, I can't use the word restorer as whoever ruined that bike obviously hasn't a clue about restoration, got his hands on it.

 

that's the point, it never been like that in the day, so why not have left what Munroe had built?

 

There is another thread about "Patina" and I agree that some have gone too far making some cars look like they just came out of a junk yard. I have restored 5 NASCAR race replicas and try to make them look like they actually raced.
THIS IS RIDICLOUS! The bike NEVER looked like a show bike! I don't know what it was like when he found it... but he WAY overdid it and ruined a piece of history!!

 

Love that movie! Watched it on the salt in my camper last Aug. Then did 55 on my Triumph.

 

Loved the movie. Great cars, great acting ,great bike,lousy restoration.

BC

 

I loved the movie too. I went to see a Wednesday afternoon matinee show in the theater with my buddy. Couldn't have been more than 20 people in the theater.

As he was driving across the west my buddy poked me and said the old Chevy is still in park!!! Only a gear head would notice that. I can't watch the movie without looking at the gear selector now.

 

I just read in the TRJ "Duece" book last night that one of the cars in the background in one of the Speed Week scenes is the body of the original Veda Orr '32 roadster. I haven't yet watched the movie to look for it, but it's now flat black and wears some Speed Week stickers on the cowl. Anybody spotted it?

 

it is a great movie, i watched it again last night, i loan my copy out to all my friends, funny you saw that the car was in park, i watch the part where he is filing the piston down, no way someone would try that with a lathe sitting 2ft away, 1/2 inch strokes and an old rusty file..lol..i have been known to take the water out of my cooling barrel to make my MR Noodle..

 

I too was at the World Finals while the film was being shot. We went to the set a couple of times and were like "yeah, thats how it was in '63". Beer may have been involved.

I told this story on the other thread I think. My wife and I went to the artsy film house at the end of the run in our neighborhood. After dinner and some drinks we went to the show. One part of the film shows Burt at WFO down by the 10 mile sign. My wife says, "What is he doing down there? There are no timing lights at the 10 mile". Right out loud, gotta love her!

DW

 

that was a good car movie some of the cars i've seen in person

one thing i did come away with, not sure if i'd drink lemonade made with lemons from New Zealand

 

I haven't run my copy of the DVD for a few years but for those that haven't seen the extras that go with it, those old Bonneville cars that are used in the movie apparently were some genuine cars from the old days that Rodger Donaldson got together for the movie. I think it was the first time some had been together in the same place. The doco about the making of the movie is near as interesting as the movie. They were lucky to get the salt scenes finished as a storm blew through the night after and nearly washed everything away. Some of the background cars were used more than once - I think there is a black early Valiant(?) which is seen more than once.

 

Lots of good info in these threads. Just takes a few seconds to search

Mike Bishop thread about the cars

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29812&highlight=movie

 

And another one from Mike, sadly some pictures are gone.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32306&highlight=movie

 

A friend of mine found the bike in 1986.He was wheel chair bound since 19. It was sitting outside I think in SoCal. In the eighties, that is the way people restored stuff. We'd do it different now.He use to take it to shows and fire it up.You could hear it from far away! He even blew it up one day along with another Indian he had. Unfortunatly he was killed in an accident in 1989.His family kept it.They also loaned it to the NHRA museum.
Its nice that it just survives and people can enjoy it and hear it.

 

I travelled around the US in the summer of 1978 and on my way back west after visiting Florida I made sure I went via the salt. It was sometime in about mid-July - I was heading for Harrah's car museum at Reno and arrived there about a week after Bill Harrah died. That scene in the movie where Burt arrives at the salt for the first time brought back memories for me. One question - is the sign in the movie the one that was there in '78? Or was it made for the movie? While there I drove out on to the salt for a short distance - just so I could say I had done it.

 

here is my blog report of being on set and working on wfi.

and this is my photo album of pics taken while we were on the salt providing cars for the movie and even a few bodies in some of the scenes.

 

if you look through the pics in just posted i the above post, you will see the sign used in the movie.

it was a repop!

 

I saw it on Netflix over the holidays. Great movie. Well worth seeing.