The Racers ... a HWM Stovebolt Movie

Feb 07, 2023

Stirling Moss at the 1950 Circuito del Garda

Movie Review:

This is not a particularly brilliant movie but as the words permanently etched into the sidewalk in front of the entrance at the Actors Guild say, … “It’s Work”.

In this (less than) epic formula movie, Hollywood, once again, proves that it does not have an original thought.

Carefully applying the craft of spinning a yarn based on borrowed history and a lot of trite romantics, the movie makers have trotted out a predictably lame cinematic effort.

Coles Notes on the Theme:

Handsome Hero (a racer) striving to be the Best ever meets a beautiful Heroin.

The opening scene lays down the back story of the protagonist. … ie racing on an underfunded independent team at a high level of motor racing.

In this scene, at a Grand Prix event he meets his Love interest and later demonstrates his driving prowess.

Although he crashes his race car (the HWM Stovebolt) into a casino, he manages to catch a ride with an established team and is then (as they say) off to the races.

In his single minded lust to find racing glory the movie Hero loses the favour of his love interest but earns his way back into her arms by the movie’s end.

Toward the end of the story the Hero finds his God moment when he exits a race to attempt the rescue of a fellow team mate (but racing rival) from a fiery crash.

Tragically, his teammate does not survive, … but it’s all good because, in the end, the Hero gets the Girl.

Truth be told, I really don’t care too much about the plot development or the quality of the acting. … The movie is mind numbingly tedious.

What I found interesting is the confluence of automotive stories and the cars woven into the undergarment of the plot.

Interesting how the HWM Stovebolt made it’s appearance in the beginning of the movie, isn’t it?

Have a look at the HWM story as told in the HWM Aston Martin webpage (https://www.hwmastonmartin.co.uk/about-us/) and you will see the story of both John Heath and George Abecassis.

It is noteworthy that HWM also had an eye for racing talent because the Stovebolt was one of the cars driven by Sir Stirling Moss at the start of his professional career.

In the factual HWM story you will see how the movie script has borrowed liberally to craft their narrative.

From Grand Prix races to Mille Miglia, the script writers freely helped themselves.

They even managed to incorporate a tragic death scene (paralleling Heath’s demise) into an epiphany where the movie Hero finds his Moral Compass.

That’s Hollywood!

“Like all good racing cars, however, the handful of HWMs that came out of this courageous little team lived on, and most of them have never stopped being campaigned. Today they are cherished by their handful of lucky owners as important, and very effective, historic racing cars. Britain’s all–conquering motor racing industry owes a great debt to those pioneering European forays of John Heath and George Abecassis.”

From HWM Aston Martin webpage (https://www.hwmastonmartin.co.uk/about-us/)