Due to a recent national holiday I was able to find a good excuse to buy
this video, subject of which is the 1991 (reenactment of the?) Central
American road race which was famous for a brief period in the early 1950's,
last run in 1954. For various logistical and health-related reasons (a few
people who were healthy before the race were permanently dead after it),
it had not been run since then, but in 1991 they decided to hold it again
with vintage motorcars, and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and Nick Mason
elected to join in, driving a couple of nice Jaguar C-types (which were
described as "reproductions", so perhaps those were not vintage...). They
also brought a film crew.
Car & Driver gave this video a polite review, saying something along the
lines of "it will appeal to only die-hard Pink Floyd fans or car enthusiasts",
so between my wife and I, it seemed we had the bases covered. Some thoughts:
Car & Driver is right, in a way; it's not the best car documentary I've ever
seen (David Lynch did a nice one 2 years ago on his short TV documentary
series), but it has lots of nice cars and music. It tends to get a bit clip-
happy and repetitive at times -- after you've seen two dozen cars going by
the same three dfferent spots in the road, you begin to wish they'd pick the
camera up and take it to a few more locations. Similarly, after hearing
promising starts to several well-known Floyd tunes, you want them to keep on
going and actually complete one occasionally. However, after a slightly draggy
start, they get a bit more coordinated in covering the chronology of the race.
They also snagged some motoring embarrassments along the way: several drivers
discovering turns a bit tighter than 1954-vintage cars can manage, and that
sort of thing. One particularly hair-raising scene shot on home video from
the side of the road shows an old Chevy spinning out and stalling in the
middle of a blind curve, the drivers then trying to push it out of the way
before anybody else comes round. The absence of narration at that point, com-
bined with the shaky video picture, keeps you glued to the screen to see
how it comes out... There were several minor prangs and a couple of big ones
throughout the race, but apparently no one was permanently the worse for wear
afterwards.
The cars are of all nationalities, with LBCs well represented. It's a nice
way to spend 65 minutes if you need some inspiration to overcome a mild bout
of Shipwright's Disease, or want to see what a 1954 Cadillac looks like in a
power slide. Rent it if you can, buy it if you have to, preferably on laser-
disc to make the most of the soundtrack. Sony Music Video Productions makes
it: $30 for the laserdisc, probably a bit less on videotape. Happy New Year!
-- Andy
Andrew C. Green
Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@dlogics.com
441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg
Chicago, IL 60610 FAX: (312) 266-4473
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