Motion Pictures The Worlds Fastest Indian

Freakin AWESOME movie ! !

 

When Burt's Indian was on display at the Hershey Meet back in the 1990's I didn't know a thing about it or him, it was just a great looking race bike. Saw the movie when it first came out, have it on tape and watch it once in a while, Redhead is one of the best looking Bonneville cars ever built IMO. Bob

 

romeo palamides' interpretation of the traditional bonneville streamliner took the style to the absolute extreme; and in doing so, built one of the most memorable of the bonneville 'liners.

actually, the story i heard, oh so long ago, is that romeo's son was eating cereal and doodling and drew the first draft of the redhead.

it was a real honor to have been able to drive it to a record!

 

How about a little salt on that Seed. Here's a few I took during World Finals 2004.

 

Read somewhere Burt had a Myford english lathe, and wore out 3 leadscrews in its use.



Ago

 

Well, I gotta throw these pics into the mix. Munro and the Gyronaut team of Tremulis, Leppan and Bruflodt had quite the time on the salt. They pitted side-by-side, went to see private-time events on the salt, Munro would stay over at Tremulis' house in Ventura to/from Bonneville, and they had a blast. Just too awesome to think about...


On the salt, 1965:



At Walt Arfons' runs in the Wingfoot Express:



Working on the Munro Special on Tremulis' patio:



And with Alex, Chrissie and Chrissie's brother, Pete, in Ventura:

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

My friend who i rent my shop from has a room at his house full of old mags, the first time i walked in the room i thought to myself i wonder if any of these have stories on Burt Munro, the first pile i walked up to about three mags down i found this.

 

That flicks one of the best "gearhead" movies out there. Showed what a backyard mechanic can do with alittle"drive".

 

these are great pics, todd!

this pic of the redhead was obviously shot after the scene where bill lattin drove it off the starting line, took it up to about 100 mph and deployed the chute.



the engine in the redhead for the film was a mildly modified flathead as roger wanted to get it in motion and with the chute coming out. we bought a pound of cornstarch and dumped it into the chute for that shot. you'll notice in the movie when the chute comes out there is a puff of white. it is not salt.

one of my favorite memories of being involved in the film is helping jim travis unload "the challenger" from the car hauler.



another great memory was having two mickey thompson streamliners to look at.

this pic of one of the replica munro specials and the chevy was like seeing a ghost. the first time i remember seeing burt's bike ('63 ?? / '64 ??) it was being towed by the same model and color chevy.



i never really looked closely at the little trailer that burt was using in the early days, but my memory says it looks very much like what was used in the movie.

 

Hi Bill.
great to see you here,i love reading about you and the weslake upping the record in little steps,keep on going (how is retirement?).
With the way the economy is going we think it will deffo be 2015 we will be back
the i will be 62 and maybe retired,i hear there is a guy,Jim Manning going for our record this year,say's he is hoping for 148mph,MJ thinks he is very optomistic but hopes he does well (keep a look out on him for us).
best regards to you and veronica and happy 4th.

David.

 

I was sitting in the chair a couple of months ago when my barber asked if I had ever seen WFI. I told him I had not taken the time. I am NOT into bikes & saw no need to view it. He simply said "You've cheated yourself, big time."
When I got home I ordered a used copy from Amazon. He was right, I had cheated myself, but no more. I sent a copy to my son in Afghanistan who love it, as did his entire platoon. None of them had ever seen it. Me? I'm still NOT into bikes, but I'll stnad in line anytime to watch this one again!

 

I'd like to comment here;
Dean Hensley in Pasadena Ca. is the guy who, years ago, with the help of Steve Huntzinger, found & restored the Burt Monroe Streamliner.
Dean, Steve & I all grew up & went to school together. Dean was a natural born motorcycle rider/racer. After racing for 4 years, he was paraylyzed in a racing accident at age 18. From his wheel chair he did more than most people. He became a succesful business man, which allowed him to continue his passion for motorcycles, by collecting vintage mc's. His collection focused on Indian racing machines, and he had some of the very best.
Dean started collecting before it was fashionable, he collected out of pure passion. Steve became one of the premier motorcycle restorers in the country. Steve did all of Deans restorations, and this was decades before any body would have dreamed that bikes would be shown at Pebble Beach. Yes the Monroe bike is restored to a high level, but I saw it when Dean got it, and Dean chose to do the restoration that he felt the bike deserved.
Steve, by the way, showed his own 1915 Excelsior M/C at Pebble Beach, aug. 2010 & won his class, then in sept. he road it coast to coast, from Kitty Hawk Nc. to Santa Monica Ca. with out a problem.
I worked extensively on the restorations of both the Doan Spencer roadster, & the Bob McGee roadster. Both of these cars were restored out of passion, not because they were going to be shown at Pebble Beach, although, later they both were shown there.
These are quality machines worthy of quality restorations.
I don't believe " do they really have to ruin every thing " is the case here.

Pete Eastwood

 

That is Steve Huntzinger in the black sweatshirt with his back to the camera, and that is his gray & red Excelsior in the background

 

Pete, thank you for the info on Dean Hensley I only met him the one time he was at Hershey with the Monroe INDIAN and an earlier one that some woman did circus stunts with back around 1910. That was less than a pile of bent steel befor Steve Huntzinger restored it. When it comes to historic race vehicles, I'd rather see one over restored than poorly restored. Bob

 

Or left to rot away to nothing, Bob. I still have my unworn T shirt that I bought from Dean from that visit to Hershey. Bob, we could have been looking at the bikes at the same time back then. I had never even heard of Burt Munro before that.

 

I stood at that exact spot where the above picture was taken at Pebble Beach. It was awesome to stand that close to a piece of history. We were there with the Fred Carillo Bonneville 27 T and it too was restored far nicer than it was in the day. These machines were restored as labors of love and my hat is off to anyone that shows respect for history. It doesn't have to be restored to anyone's guide except the person performing the labor of love.

 

Where in the world did you get a Triumph TRW? And yeah, 55 was about it for one of them LOL.

 

Same here. My Monroe T Shirt is worn to the point I can't wear it any more. I had my Riley 4port at Hershey that year and it got judged before they got to the bikes. Dean didn't have the fire extingusher with the bike, and AACA won't judge any vehicle without one. Dean started wheeling himself off to their fleamarket spot to get it. I stopped him gave him mine since the judges were through with Race Cars, and his INDIAN got judged. I got a T shirt as a thank you,I think of him every time I find it in the shirt draw. Bob

 

The beautiful Pumkinseed streamliner next to challenger wasn't built by Mickey Thompson.One of my favorite streamliners of all time along with Challenger.

 

So glad to see this thread a month before speedweek.Great pictures on here for a great movie.Thanks to all who have shared the pics.

 

Burt Munro............
I seen Burt's Indian on the Salt in '87 when Dean owned it.
GREAT SCOOTER, GREAT BUILDER, GREAT RACER & A GREAT MOVIE!!!

 

Great movie, loved it!. It's now in my collection.

 

George Begg was a talented man in his own right designing his own Formula 5000 race car amongst others. Burt only used Caterpillar axles for his connecting rods and the one time he didn't ...he had rod failure.

Roll on Bonneville this year. I'm looking forward to stopping by the sign with a tear in my eye......some things you just gotta do !!

 

I need it twice a year...

 

xx2

 

built by bill burke, if i remember correctly. mickey, however, did own it at some point.

 

Yes...Bill did build the original car and I think M.T. bought it after Bonneville 1961.Im not sure what year M.T. Enclosed the cockpit and painted it but I sure do love that car.I was so happy to see it in the movie.

Also....the pumpkinseed is what Danny Thompson drove to get himself into the 2 club if my memory serves me right.

 

Nice to see this thread resurrected - I have somehow (!) missed it until now. Lots of great background info here.

I concur that it's one of my favorite movies. At the time the DVD came out my wife and I owned a local video store. Didn't know anything about the movie but talked the wife into ordering a copy. Loved it. Recommended it to a lot of our customers including plenty of non-gearheads and everybody that rented it liked it. Most were totally blown away that Anthony Hopkins had actually starred in a movie that nobody ever heard of!

 

Here is a great book on his life. Sorry if someone already posted this.
ONE GOOD RUN