10 replies to this topic

[RA Historian]

I am looking for a DVD, what have you, of the 1962 documentary by Bruce Kessler entitled "The Sound of Speed". This was a movie short, 20 minutes or so, of Lance Reventlow testing a Scarab F-1 car with a Chevy V-8 at Riverside. The film went from when the transporter doors opened until they closed, with testing in between. It was somewhat remarkable in that there was not a word of dialogue. Just the music sound track background and, well, the sound of speed.

I saw it in a movie theater in 1963 and was mesmerized. I have remembered it vividly ever since, but have never heard of it again. I have never heard of it being put out on tape or DVD. Does it even still exist? I would think that somewhere the original exists (Kessler?) and that there would be a market for it among us consumers in our little corner of the world.

Does anyone know anything?

[David Birchall]

RA; I have never suggested this to anyone before but, do a search of TNF--and then pm me, I can help

(Search under thread titles-for some reason i cannot post a link to the thread "The Sound of Speed)

[Hse289]

Mr Nye, any chance of this film being on a future Motorfilms quarterly dvd?

[David Birchall]

De'ja vu all over again!!!!!

[Tim Murray]

Here's the earlier thread:

'The Sound of Speed'

[RA Historian]

David, Tim, et al.
Thanks, I now know the situation and can do some searching. Appreciate the info.

[raceannouncer2003]

Bruce Kessler was at the Fabulous Fifties banquet last Wednesday, and they were showing "The Sound of Speed."



Here's what he had to say as part of his speech:

"...The movie that was running today on the screen was a film that we made...it was twenty minutes long. We took the single seater that was sitting empty at the time and put a Chevrolet engine in it. And Lance, of course, was the driver in the picture, but Chuck actually did the driving. One of the reasons was that, just before the picture started, I guess Lance stuck his hand through a window and cut his arm and didn't think that he could drive. That was a fortunate thing because I had Chuck to drive and Chuck could do everything that we wanted with that car. And what you are seeing in the film is 96%, all but the closeups of Lance, is Chuck doing the driving. We had all kinds of interesting misadventures with the car, we had a front wheel, I think it was a front wheel, wasn't it Chuck...a rear wheel? I remember seeing the wheel pass the car, yeah. It had to be a rear wheel! I was quite a ways from it, but, as you can see, what a great job he did of driving that car. And, without Chuck, of course, we would never have got that kind of driving into the picture..."

Vince H.

[Hse289]

The more i hear about it, the more i want to see it

[Gary C]

Vince, did you manage to have a word with Bruce about the film & if we can get it released on DVD??

[raceannouncer2003]

Gary

No, I didn't talk to Bruce about that, but I'll be emailing him about a couple of other things, so I can ask him. I emailed RA Historian to let him know that Dave Wolin is having an auto racing film festival in Oakhurst, California in March, which will include The Sound of Speed. I gave him Dave's email address, so we'll see if Dave knows if copies are available.

Vince H.

[RA Historian]

Originally posted by raceannouncer2003
I emailed RA Historian to let him know that Dave Wolin is having an auto racing film festival in Oakhurst, California in March, which will include The Sound of Speed.

Vince, Thanks much for the thought, but your e mail never arrived.
Tom