The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
Revisiting Montlhéry – with John Surtees (2019)
Run Time: 2:32
Producer: Gerry Jenkinson, James Salter
Director: David Lancaster
Key Cast: John Surtees
FILM MAKERS
David Lancaster: A former director on BBC’s Top Gear, and one-time motoring editor of The Times (London), David took his first journey on a Vincent aged seven – on the back of his father’s Black Prince to the Lion Rally in Belgium. A year later, the pair rode from west London to the FIM Rally in Austria.
David, with co-producer Gerry Jenkinson, began work on SpeedisExpensive four years ago. Since then, they have tracked down the remaining 16 men and women who built the bikes at the Stevenage factory, have overseen the restoration of the Vincent family’s 16 mm film archive and interviewed Jay Leno, John Surtees, record-setter Mary Dickerson and filmed the Jack Ehret Black Lightning, back on its record-setting road.
David owns and rides the same 1947 Series B Rapide his father owned during the 1950s. His brother owns their father’s Black Prince.
SUMMARY
On a hot day in May 1952, multi-world champion John Surtees helped the Vincent factory set eight world endurance records at the banked Montlhéry circuit near Paris. In his last major interview, Surtees talks to us about the perils of riding on the banking at 130mph – with period film of the event from the camera of Philip Vincent himself.
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