All language subtitles for Speed20Is20Expensive202023[_20147]

[film whirring]

[engines roaring distantly]

[engines roaring]

[soft music]

[engines continue roaring]

- [Marty] Riding flat out
with his feet out the back

and in a bathing suit,
sneakers on his feet,

probably the most famous
motorcycle photograph ever.

- [Ewan] During
the 1940s and '50s,

Vincent set more speed records
than any other manufacturer.

It proved that the
Vincent Motorcycle

was the work of a genius.

With the aid of unearthed
family films and recordings,

this is the untold
story of Philip Vincent.

- The reason guys write
songs about Vincents

is because it's
arguably hard to find

a more iconic motorcycle.

- [Commentator] Bob
Burns roars past

three shattering, ear-splitting
runs on Black Lighting.

- A true a hundred-mile-an-hour
motorcycle.

- [Alain] Without any doubt,

the most famous
bike of all time.

- [Ewan] Today, collectors have
paid over a million dollars

for bikes which carry
the Vincent name.

- Well the Vincent, it's
like a mythical beast

and very few are able to
get their hands on one.

[engine roaring]

- It was a short while,
that they were really big,

but it's so important
that it still lives on.

- [Ewan] Who was Philip Vincent?

How did his machine
set so many records?

Sell today for millions-

- [Auctioneer] Well
done, the Aussies.

- [Ewan] Yet their designer
end his days in poverty.

- [John] They were there
to make motorcycles

and they forgot
about making money.

- [Dee] He was
becoming less coherent

and he'd start to wander off
in flights of fantasy almost.

- [John] And a very
aristocratic lady

that he courted for a long
time and totally lost out with.

- I did say to him one day,

"Well, why don't you ride
a motorbike anymore?"

and he said, "Well,
I can't now."

"If you can't do it anymore,
do you love it as much?"

- [Ivan] He said, "I'm
going to let you know

that maybe in the
next few weeks,

this company's not
going to exist anymore."

- I think the strain
of it all, you know,

shortened her life
and his as well.

- [John S.] The tragic
thing for Vincents

and for Mr. Vincent was
that accident because-

[camera clatters]

he was a changed man.

[wind whistling]

[engine roaring faintly]

[wind continues whistling]

[recorder clicks]

- [Ewan] Vincent had no interest
in staying in Argentina.

His family, typical of the
colonial upper middle classes,

saw his future in England

at one of its most exclusive

and most expensive
private schools.

[jaunty music]

- [Ewan] Harrow
boys, Harrovians,

were known to be arrogant,
ambitious, standoffish,

and Philip Vincent
could be all of these.

- It was while he was at Harrow,

he started drawing motorbikes.

He kept little books with
masses of drawings there.

And indeed, one of those
drawings was the first one

where you saw the
V-twin engine design.

[jaunty music continues]

- He was mad about bikes

and apparently, he even
had a motorbike at Harrow

that he tinkered around with.

And that was his driving force.

- [Ewan] Fees then, as now,

were out of reach to
all but the very rich.

The school turned out
bishops by the hundred,

generals by the dozen,

and no fewer than
six prime ministers,

but only one
motorcycle designer.

His privileged upbringing
imbued him with a quality

which would be tested to the
limit during his lifetime.

A breathtaking self-confidence.

- When he was
finishing at Harrow,

his father said,
"Well, you better go

and do mechanical engineering
or something at university,"

so he got a place in
Cambridge at King's College,

but he felt it was
just all too slow

and all too old-fashioned.

He said, "They're not
keeping up with things.

I'm going to build
my own motorbike."

- [Ewan] By the time
he went up to Cambridge

to read engineering in 1926,

the quest for speed had
become a global obsession.

[engine roars]

- [Commentator] On those
wet, slithery sands,

people held their breath
as time and again,

Blue Bird made her runs.

Gearbox troubles, speeds
just short of the record,

but finally a triumph.

The new world's record
stood at 174 miles per hour.

- [Ewan] And there
was no more famous

or dangerous theater of speed
than The Isle of Man TT.

Since 1907, races on the island
have claimed over 250 lives.

Few better to
provide this passion

than Vincent's teenage hero,
First World War fighter,

and TT winner,
Howard Raymond Davis.

- My father absolutely
worshiped HRD.

- [Ewan] Howard Davis
remained the only competitor

to win the TT on a
motorcycle of his own design,

and the only one to win the
Senior 500 race on a 350.

- [Ewan] His team of riders

were some of the most
talented and bravest.

- [Ewan] Vincent was
becoming obsessed

with building his own motorcycle
and impatient to do so.

In 1928, his time at
Cambridge University

came to an abrupt end.

[gentle music]

- Eventually, the college master

wrote a letter to my
grandfather saying,

"I think you need
to remove your son.

He's spending far too much time

playing about
building motorbikes

and not enough
time in lectures."

So of course, my grandfather
confronted him with the letter

and said, "Right, what are
we going to do about this?"

So my father said, "What
they're teaching me is all old.

I've got my own ideas;
I've got new ideas.

I want to build those."

And my grandfather
at this point said,

"Okay, that's what
we're going to do."

[gentle music]

- [Ewan] One of the family
ranches in Argentina was sold.

For the sum of 450 pounds.

At just 19, Philip Vincent

became the world's youngest
motorcycle manufacturer.

- The fact that HRD's
name had become available

made it the obvious choice

to buy it and to
start manufacturing.

- [Ewan] A factory
was found in Stevenage

and the Vincent HRD was born.

- He was an absolutely
hardcore motorcycle enthusiast

with a vision of some unique

and beneficial redesigns
of the basic motorcycle.

- [Ewan] With his closest
friend, Bill Clark,

Vincent would travel and
compete in trials across the UK

promoting the motorcycles
by riding them.

Clark was a brave, gifted rider

and one of the few believers
in Vincent's radical ideas.

- [Ewan] A young man with
a vision, with money,

but no experience of business.

It was the gambler's
first roll of the dice.

[troubling music]

A year later, the stock markets

of London and New
York collapsed.

Vincent was in trouble.

With the factory on
the edge of folding,

Clark had persuaded his father
to make a cash injection,

giving the firm breathing space

to weather the worst
of the depression.

It was a gesture Vincent
would never forget.

The company would be selling
highly-expensive motorcycles,

in a country which, as
J.B. Priestley observed,

was becoming one of-

- [Tim] Slums, fried fish
shops looking much worse to me

than some of the French towns
I saw at the end of the war.

- [Ewan] Yet Priestley
spotted an emerging world too.

Then as now, there was
more than one Britain

and this was one of-

- [Tim] Cinemas and
dance halls and cafes,

cocktail bars,
Woolworth's, motor coaches,

factory girls looking
like actresses.

- [Ewan] Vincent's customers
would be from this Britain

dashing early street racers
known as Promenade Percies.

A million motorcycles
took their owners to work,

but to this cohort,

style, performance,
speed were everything.

[engine roaring]

[mellow didgeridoo music]

Some 7,000 miles from Argentina,

another maverick was growing up.

Like Vincent, isolated
in a sprawling outback,

he too would drop
out of college.

Phil Irving was also
as driven, confident,

and prodigiously bright
as his future partner.

He crossed to England
from Australia

on the back of an
HRD sidecar outfit,

and in 1931, joined the firm.

Lennon had met his McCartney.

[shutter clicks]

What was the secret

of motorcycling's most
successful partnership?

Vincent's grandson visits
Phil Irving's widow

to find out.
- [Phil] Hello, Edith,

nice to meet you.
- So lovely to meet you too.

- [Phil] I feel like I've
waited my whole life for this.

- Yes.

- Yeah, it's funny,

that's obviously
quite special to you.

- [Edith] Well, any
photograph of Phil

is special to me, of course.

[laid-back music]

When I was studying,

I would have to read and read
and read and read something

to make sure it stuck in.

Phil would read a page and
that was it, it was there.

If geniuses are what
people say geniuses are,

he definitely was because
I had to live with him,

but there were times

when he was not an
easy man to live with.

I just loved him like mad.

- Irving was a rough,
tough sort of a guy.

- He was a very cool customer,

always straight to the point,

and an engineer who
would hand grind a cam

and do it as best as a man who'd
been doing it for 20 years.

He was a practical
man down to his marrow

and yet capable of
understanding anything

to do with higher
mathematics or torque figures

or anything to do
with spring rates,

anything that's just,

might as well be Dutch
to a lot of people.

- Phil's theory was
it's all common sense.

And that was Phil.

You do have to have
the opportunist, which
was Phil Vincent,

and then you have to have the
realist, which is Phil Irving,

and between the two, they'll
end up with a success.

Each needs each other
to make it work.

- Irving would quite openly say

if something was crazy or not.

And I think there was
an honesty between them.

- They got on fairly
well basically.

Had their arguments,
of course, naturally,

but your Phil had
some wonderful ideas,

but sometimes they'd get
a little bit above the top

and Phil would very gently
bring him back down to earth.

And that's how the bike
in the finish got designed

with its engine the way it was.

It's beautiful.

- [Ewan] The location of
the factory in Stevenage

was as unconventional
as the company itself.

30 miles north of
London yet far removed

from the industrial heartlands
of the British Midlands.

- When I went out there on
the Green Line bus, I thought,

this is a hell of a nicer area

than living in the middle
of Birmingham, for example.

- [Ewan] Philip Vincent's
self-belief and vision

helped recruit the best
motorcycle minds of the day.

It was a playground
of two-wheeled talent.

- It was like a
very early iteration

of the sort of campus

a company like Google
would have today,

where you have a lot

of extremely high-level,
intelligent people

that are at the forefront
of what they're doing

and they're in this one
place working on it together.

- [Ewan] Factory riders
lacked access to a racetrack,

but they still needed
to test at speed.

A game of cat-and-mouse
with the local police

became a regular occurrence.

- The thing was that Vincent
motorbike was way faster

than any of the
vehicles the police had,

so they'd be up there waiting
to catch them for speeding

'cause they knew they were
going to test the bikes.

- [Ewan] Mostly their luck held,

until George Brown, the
fastest of the test team,

was arrested for clocking
up nearly 110 miles an hour

on the Great North Road,

only for the magistrate
to declare that-

[gavel banging]

"110 miles an hour on a
motorcycle is impossible.

Dismiss the charges."

And warned the police

not to waste the court's
time in the future.

[engines rumbling]

The factory had entered
a team into the 1934 TT.

Vincent decided his
bikes were ready

to go up against the
best in the world.

[engines roaring]

- [Ewan] Bought-in engines
from JAP let them down badly.

Top speeds were 10 miles an
hour below the leading Norton's.

Vincent swore he never wanted

to see another JAP engine again.

Irving announced that he could
design a better power unit

with his hands tied
behind his back,

but could he?

Could the factory build it?

The decision was made to try,

a massive undertaking
for a small firm.

What's more, the
new 500cc engine

would need to be
designed, manufactured,

and tested in just a few months.

- It wasn't until Irving
arrived on the scene

that they had the confidence

to go ahead with
their own engine,

which was, you know, a
very brave thing to do.

- [Ewan] The Comet was
light, it was powerful,

but would the new
single-cylinder machine

have any chance
against the might

of Norton, Moto
Guzzi or Velocette?

[film clicks and whirs]

In June, 1935,

the factory team, Vincent
with a Cine Camera,

set off for the TT.

[mellow music]

After the disaster of
1934, another poor showing

could prove fatal for
the young company.

[engines roaring]

One lap of the Isle of Man
sees thousands of gear changes.

Bike and rider are
steadily punished.

The factory showing
was impressive

with finishes at
7th, 9th, and 12th.

The small firm pioneering
rear suspension

and untried power units
was firmly on the map

and his many skeptics were
silenced, at least for now.

Vincent was quick to make
the most of the results.

His dream of building fast,
innovative motorcycles

was, at last,
becoming a reality,

but the customers wanted more.

- [Ewan] A Stevenage-built
one liter V-twin

had long been his dream.

- [Ewan] Like the Vincent,
the Brough was hand built.

Each one came with a guarantee
to reach 100 miles per hour.

Riders included
Lawrence of Arabia.

George Brough was
a marketing genius.

He somehow convinced customers

that his motorcycles were
built by men in white coats.

His chutzpah seduced

the world's most
prestigious car maker too,

and Brough was sanctioned
to sell the bikes

as "the Rolls Royce
of motorcycles."

The new machine would need

to surpass the Brough
in every sphere;

be lower, lighter,
faster, but how?

Based on what?

- [Jay] This is a
500cc single bike,

and of course, this is
the Series A V-twin.

The rumor is that,
you know the old story

that Phil Irving was
sitting at his desk

and someone laid a
piece of tracing paper

with a cylinder on
it next to that,

"Oh my God, a V-twin,
look at that."

I find it hard to believe

that a brilliant engineer
hadn't thought of that already.

- When Phil first designed

that high-camshaft
engine of the Series A,

no one had produced a V-twin
with such a short wheelbase

or with such handling.

From a business point of view,
someone must have accepted

it would cost as much
as a Grand Prix machine

and the forecast that there
would be enough people

with that amount of money ready
and willing to pay for it.

- [Ewan] The 1937 Rapide
stunned the buying public

with a top speed of
110 miles per hour.

It was the fastest
motorcycle in the world.

[light jazz music]

Vincent seemed to have got
all he ever wished for.

His motorcycles were setting
records, winning races,

and plaudits from the press.

His secretary, Ethel
Chelsom, became his lover,

sharing his passion for
the good things in life,

fast motorcycles, exotic
cars, international travel.

- Naturally, human
beings speculate

about the boss and
his private life

and at times unkindly perhaps,

but the fact is she was
his secretary for so long

and we thought, well,
surely to goodness,

it wouldn't be that farfetched
if he finally popped the word

and said, "Let's get married."

[air raid sirens blaring]
[artillery booming]

[serious music]

- [Ewan] For Vincent,
there was no time

for plans of marriage.

Once again, the future of the
small firm was in the balance.

The war was a hammer
blow for the company.

The machines they built were
unsuitable for military use,

racing stopped
virtually overnight

as a young John
Surtees witnessed.

- Although I was taken
to races before the war,

I don't remember anything
about racing during the war

because there was no activity.

- [Ewan] For Vincent himself,
it meant finding a lifeline

of war work to keep
his company afloat.

- Sort of besotted with
people going off to war

so they had women working
there making munitions.

- [Ewan] Philip Vincent's
contacts would prove useful

in securing access to
senior government personnel,

but his arrogance
could cost him dear.

A dispute over the design of
some parts soon escalated.

[door slams]

[bright music]

- [Ewan] Miles from the
Luftwaffe's bombing targets

of London, Coventry,
and Liverpool,

the factory's eccentric location

was in some ways a blessing.

Stevenage suffered privations,

yet for a young man of means
in a reserved occupation,

life went on.

Once again, there was
more than one England,

But in 1943, the war became
all too personal for Vincent.

Bill Clark had risen
quickly in the RAF

to become a squadron leader

flying Stirling bombers
out of RAF Chedburgh.

On a freezing night in February,

his crew were first out of 10
bombers headed for Hamburg.

Just six returned.

The flight wireless operator

who survived due to
Clark's bravery that night

would recall the events later.

- [Tim] On the
outskirts of the target

flack hit the fuselage.

At the same time, the upper
gunner fired two bursts.

The enemy fighters' second burst

set fire to the incendiaries.

At this moment, an enemy
Junkers 88 shot one engine out.

The rear gunner reported
another enemy fighter,

who was then killed.

The captain, with
the presence of mind

to fly avoiding the sea to
give his crew an opportunity

to bail out over land.

After the enemy
fighter broke away,

the engineer bailed,
then the bombardier.

As I reached the
front escape hatch,

the captain was still
at the controls.

Squadron Leader Clark's
final words were,

"I'm sorry, chaps, I couldn't
do better than this."

- [Ewan] When Dutch
civilians arrived

at the wreckage of the Stirling,

his body was still
at the controls.

Bill Clark's son, Michael,
Vincent's God's son,

was just three months old.

[gentle music]

[strained music]

- [Ewan] They looked towards
a land fit for heroes.

The riders who had lost
friends and loved ones,

had witnessed
indescribable horrors,

deserved nothing less than
an all-new motorcycle.

As George Orwell put it, "We
grow greater or we grow less."

- [John S.] How many
peoples all went along and,

you know, treated the
engine as a stressed member?

We'll put a steering
head on this,

put a rear suspension
on there, and that's it.

- [Ewan] The new design would
dispense of a frame altogether

leaving behind the last vestiges

of the Edwardian
motorized bicycle.

Against the odds, the
small company achieved

what giants Triumph and
BSA found impossible.

The Series B Rapide
launched in 1946,

a generation ahead of its
predecessors and its rivals.

[mellow jazzy music]

For Philip Vincent,

a motorcycle was always
more than a vehicle,

it was a statement, an
expression of his ideas.

- [Ewan] New ideas,
quality were everything.

He looked down on his
rivals with disdain.

- [Ewan] It was a sign of
Vincent's ambition or arrogance

that a world scarred by war

deserved a
110-mile-an-hour motorcycle

which no one needed
and few could afford.

- Each one was
essentially hand-built,

so consequently, you can't
put out that many a day.

- For a factory that was
making a hand-produced product,

it was by no stretch
of the imagination,

a mass-produced motorcycle,

- [Jay] They'd build one,
"Whew! Ah, Nigel, well done.

Let's take the day off. Whew.

What? We have to build
another one tomorrow?"

You know?

I mean, it just, mass production

really was not something
that they did very well.

[ethereal music]

- [Ewan] Grandsden
Aerodrome near Stevenage,

Vincent took the chance
to try out his new models

on a closed circuit.

[engine roaring]

He wasn't wearing
a crash helmet.

The gearbox seized at
over 80 miles an hour.

[camera clatters]

- I've been led to believe,
but believed at the time.

Okay, I knew he'd crashed
and he'd injured his head,

but it's only since
then that I've been told

that he was in a coma
for God knows how long.

- Anybody who gets
injured is a tragedy,

but it was also a tragedy

in that it had that
ongoing effect.

- [Ewan] Vincent suffered
severe head injuries.

The full extent of these would
not emerge until much later.

[spirited music]

- [Ewan] It would be the
first of several visits

which had the potential

to transform the
fortunes of the company.

[rustic folksy music]
♪ Said Red Molly ♪

♪ To James ♪

♪ Well, that's a
fine motorbike ♪

♪ Make a girl feel special
in any such a way ♪

- [Ewan] Whilst post-war Britain
suffered major rationing,

everything from food to
petrol was in short supply.

The U.S. had open
roads, cheap gas,

and some of the bravest, most
skilled racers in the world.

♪ It's a Vincent Black
Lightning, 1952 ♪

[engines roaring]

- [Ewan] Rollie Free
was one of them.

In the late 1930s, he'd
scored numerous victories

on two and four wheels.

Harley Davidson had held

the American motorcycle
speed record since 1937.

Free and the wealthy John Edgar
had read about the Vincent.

They'd seen the early models

which made their way to the U.S.

Edgar wanted to own
America's fastest motorcycle

and Free wanted to ride it.

[engines roaring]

- [William] My father
went to see Mickey Martin,

who was the local Vincent
dealer in California,

and talked about a Vincent
to run in Bonneville.

Mickey Martin wrote to
his friend Rollie Free

and told Rollie that John Edgar
was going to have a Vincent

to take to Bonneville and
if he would like to ride it,

and of course, Rollie being
Rollie, the answer was yes.

[light music]

- [Ewan] In California, Vincent
held meetings with the pair

and dispatched an
order to his factory.

- Meeting Philip Vincent
for dinner in Los Angeles,

my father thought that
Philip was a bit odd,

but after a couple of scotches

and realizing how totally
dedicated Philip was,

they got along well together.

- [Ewan] A prototype
Black Lightning

was built in six frantic weeks.

Testing in England
on public roads

was limited but promising.

- Ted came down there

and he had Rollie Free's
Vincent engine in a slave frame.

It was on the Vincent
two-inch pipes,

and, you know, the
Lightning pipes.

He didn't turn into the factory,
he just wound that thing.

Now they would do about
90 in bottom gear.

And he rode it up to
the village of Graveley,

where we used to
have a warehouse,

and turned around and came back.

He got there and clocked
in before I did. [laughs]

- [Ewan] The bike made it
to the USA just in time.

Harley's record stood
at 136 miles per hour.

Vincent assured Free and Edgar
the machine could reach 150,

but could it?

It was barely run-in.

Could Rollie Free do it?

He was 47 years old.

All his major victories
had come years earlier

and he was out of shape.

- Free was just a
little plump from being,

you know, past his prime.

And there was something
about hamburgers,

and if, you know, if I
would've cut back and...

- [Ewan] The Salt Flats in Utah

sit at an elevation
of over 4,000'.

There's plenty of space,
but the air is thin.

It's unkind to engines.

The surface is
hard-packed rock salt,

which can split and
splinter without warning.

Any rider taking a high-speed
fall on a motorcycle

risks broken bones,

but the greatest
danger at Bonneville

is not broken bones,
it's abrasions.

A blowout, a seizure,
a speed wobble,

and the surface would
act like a grinder.

As the day unfolded, it
turned out Rollie Free

would risk more than
anyone before or since

in pursuit of a record.

- [Rollie] Every chance I got

when I got to ride the
Vincent, of course,

and found out how fast it was,

I couldn't wait to go up
to get a record from him.

[engine roaring]

- [Jerry] Rollie made a total
of eight passes that day.

In other words, you go
up and you come back

and you have to take an
average of those two runs.

- [Ewan] Adjustments were
made, sprockets changed.

144,

and then 148,

but the magic 150 seemed
just out of reach,

and then Rollie
stunned everyone.

- [Rollie] I took my clothes
off, did a strip tease.

- [Jerry] Is that wind
resistance or weight?

- [Rollie] Yes, wind
resistance, wind resistance.

[uplifting music]

[engine roaring]

[engine continues roaring]

[shutter snaps]

[flash bulb plinks]

[shutter snaps]

- Well, this was probably

the most famous motorcycle
photograph in the world,

and it might still
be to this day.

I can't think of
another iconic photo

that flashed around the world
like this did back in the day,

You know, 150 miles an hour
just wearing a bathing suit,

if you fell down, you
fell down on salt.

Talk about rubbing salt
in your wounds, oh my God.

- [Rollie] I made four runs
that I truly do not remember.

They carried me in and put
me in a motel with ice packs.

I'd have blacked out.

- The record was set,
and I'm not saying

that it would not have
been set with the leathers,

but it wasn't, and it didn't

- [Rollie] See, Joe had owned
the record for 11 years,

I owned it for 21.

Or the Vincent
did, I should say,

I didn't do anything
except ride the damn thing.

Oh, you can go to sleep on
the bike, it handled so good.

- [Interviewer] Mm-hmm.

- [Ewan] The runs made
headlines around the world,

but Vincent and LA
dealer, Mickey Martin,

wanted more than posters
and press reports.

A radical and illegal
plan was hatched.

Today, it would be called
guerilla marketing.

[mischievous music]

A young LA racer was hired
to travel hundreds of miles

from Los Angeles
with one mission:

find the fastest bike
or car in a town,

take them on and win.

That racer was Marty Dickerson.

- I didn't have a
job at that time,

and a distributor for Vincent

had 28 brand new Rapides
still in the crates

and he wasn't selling
any, so he offered me

that if I would do it,
he'd pay the expenses.

He couldn't pay me any
salary or anything,

but I could get a commission
if I sold any bikes,

so I agreed.

- [Ewan] Often run at
night on the edge of town,

the special Harleys, Indians,
and hot rods, which competed

were expertly tuned and fast.

Local riders and drivers

knew every bump and
kink in the roads.

Marty was on and
out-of-the-crate Rapide,
no special parts,

no friends on hand to
help, miles from home.

- I went into a
drive-in restaurant,

parked out in the parking lot.

Then there was a big crowd
of people around my bike.

Well, it turned out they
were a bunch of bikers

and one guy says,
"You ever race it?"

I thought about a bit,

and I said, "Well,
that's what I'm here for.

Yeah, I'll race it."

[contentious showdown music]

The guy showed up with
his '32 Ford Roadster,

it was a big engine in it.

And he looked down at
the end of his nose like,

"Huh, another motorcycle."

I followed him out in
the middle of nowhere.

It was pitch black dark.

And he gave the nod, and I
screwed it on and I left him.

[engines roaring]

But he began to
catch up with me,

and I went into third
gear a little prematurely,

and it started misfiring,
and sputtering.

He passed me, and I
shifted into fourth gear.

I went by him like he
was standing still.

He was a poor loser. [chuckles]

I met Phil Vincent

at Vincent Martin's
distributorship in Burbank.

I asked him if it was feasible

that I could reach
135 miles an hour

on 8:1 compressions and
regular pump gasoline.

He said "Yes, it's
quite feasible."

And then I asked him,
"Well, is it possible

that I could obtain
some Lightning cams
and exhaust pipes?"

He said, "Well, we
might possibly be able

to provide you with that."

I said, "Well, how much do
you think that'll cost me?"

He didn't even hesitate,
he just looked down at me

and he said, "Son, speed
is expensive." [chuckles]

He was so right. [laughs]

- [Ewan] Marty would go on

to reach 177 miles
an hour on a Vincent.

The factory could see a market

for what would become
the very first superbike,

[subdued music]

and perhaps the most famous
name in motorcycling.

The new model was tuned

to reach an amazing
125 miles an hour.

Yet the Black Shadow very
nearly didn't happen.

- It was a name that
resonated, a Black Shadow.

Well, I mean, to call a
motorcycle a Black Shadow

was really a minor triumph.

- Yeah, Strummer wrote this
lyric for "This Is England"

and it starts off, "Black
shadow of a Vincent

falls on a Triumph line.

[engine rumbling]

I've got my motorcycle jacket

but I'm walking all the time."

And personally, I feel all
motorcycles should be black.

- [David] The best model
made was the B Black Shadow.

It's a toy to ride compared
with a heavier bike.

[subdued music continues]

- [Ewan] Montlhery, spring 1952,

the scene of the Vincent
factory's record attempt

to maintain 100 miles
an hour for 24 hours.

Since the 1920s, the
purpose-built circuit

has been the destination

for Europe's fastest
riders and drivers.

Its banked corners
rise to near vertical.

It's fast, dramatic,
and dangerous.

Tuned Black Shadows
were shipped out

to the banked
circuit near Paris.

As advanced as the
motorcycles were,

the Britain the team
left behind that May was,

as George Orwell noted,

a country still struggling
to recover from the war.

Would the machines
be up to the task?

Who would ride?

A young factory
apprentice, John Surtees,

joined some of the top names
from the UK and France.

- They looked around
and who did they see?

An apprentice who'd been
racing and everything else

and, "John, would
you have a go?"

- [Ewan] Surtees' father,
Jack, sold and raced Vincents,

and John's first
taste of competition

was in the family sidecar.

- So I went out and
I did some laps.

[exciting music]

The big thing about the
bankings, of course,

is hanging on to them.

People said normally
it's so bumpy,

I mean, whether it happens
to be cars or bikes.

The bankings do the
steering for you.

Your main problem you
only need to watch is

being at the right place going
on, and the place coming off,

and not, obviously,
going over the top.

- [Ewan] They
circulated for hours

at speeds of up to
140 miles an hour.

The searing heat wasn't
the only challenge.

Tires, riders, engines,
all took a hammering.

Their ambition was
to maintain a speed

of 100 miles per
hour for 24 hours.

That eluded the team,

but eight world endurance
records were claimed that day.

[exciting music continues]

[fireworks popping]

His machines had become,

as the advertising
accurately claimed,

the world's fastest
standard motorcycle.

Vincent's confidence
was at an all-time high.

In a letter to a customer, he
wrote that 130 miles per hour

was just so low for
one of his machines,

that we should not
bother to advertise it.

- That time the English had

the world's fastest motorcycle,

the world's fastest saloon,
the Bentley Continental,

and of course, the world's
fastest sports car, the XK120.

Those were pretty heady days.

- [Ewan] The Vincent
was now the motorcycle

for the well-heeled
mavericks around the world,

who were determined to
enter the record books.

And there was no
one more maverick

or more determined
than Mad Jack Ehret.

[desolate music]

- [Bill] It's good to
see the old thing again.

And it's pretty much the
condition I remember it last,

except that it's lost about
half a hundredweight of dirt.

- Literally when I
walked up to the bike,

well A, it's probably cleaner
than I've ever seen it

'cause dad was,
for all his faults,

he was a great rider,
but he wasn't a show pony

and I don't think that
he'd ever polished

a bike part in his life.

- As a result of
his unarmed combat,

he was scared of no one.

One motorcycle club
asked him to leave

because that year
he won everything.

- [Ewan] Just a handful of
the 31 Black Lightnings built

made it to Australia.

- [Bill] There was a
company on Parramatta Road

called Burling and Simmons.

It just sat there and Jack
had a mate that said to him,

"If you don't buy
that motorbike, and
somebody else does,

you're not going to be
King of the Kids anymore."

- [Ewan] Realizing the
potential of the Lightning,

it was faster than a full
Grand Prix race bike,

Ehret decided to go for broke

and set a new Australian
land speed record.

Jack strong-armed
the local authorities

into closing the road,

and persuaded Australia's
Auto Cycle Union

to sanction the runs.

On a January morning in
1953, he went for it.

- Well, I understand
you were there

on the day that Jack
broke the record.

- Yeah, there was a big crowd

either side along the property
fence, and he made two runs.

On his second run
they had to abort it

because there was a lady
driving a Ford Prefect car

coming through the police
block and wouldn't stop

because she'd had too much
alcohol in her system.

After they got her out of the
road, then proceeded again.

- Monday January the 9th, 1953
and it says on the headline,

"Land speed record smashed.

Jack Ehret record of
141.5 miles per hour

on the Tamworth Road."

[engine roaring]

- It's still in one piece.

It hasn't been over-restored.

It hasn't been butchered.

It hasn't been cut up,
and it's probably one of

the last original
Lightnings in the world.

What a marvelous piece
of bloody history,

and an Australian
land speed record too.

- [Ewan] But did speed
records mean sales?

Vincent was convinced
they still did,

but he was becoming increasingly
isolated in the firm,

and at times erratic.

[eerie music]

- P.C.V. would hire and
fire people awfully easily.

It was not a good
atmosphere in there at all.

- There was a feeling that
any one of us could be sacked.

Mitchell himself said
at times he'd come in,

he'd put his head in his hands
after a fight with Vincent,

and he'd say "Oh, that man."

- [Ewan] The man who
had once attracted

the most loyal and
brightest of minds

now seemed to be set
on driving them out.

- [Ewan] Phil Irving was
followed by other key figures,

such as racer and
sprinter George Brown.

- I heard the
stories about George

and how he left, how
he slammed the door

and the glass fell out

of Vincent's office
door when he left.

- [Ewan] Those close
to him now believe

the brain damage he suffered

had a deeper, more
insidious legacy,

a change in Philip
Vincent's personality.

- My father knew Philip
Vincent before the accident.

He said he would come up to you

and talk to you, and [mumbles]

but you've got to remember

after he had his
accident brain damage,

he was in hospital for
nearly nine months.

- The tragic thing for Vincent's

and for Mr. Vincent
was that accident,

because he was a changed man.

[lonesome music]

[lonesome music continues]

- [Ewan] Tensions were beginning

to plague Philip
Vincent at home, too.

Ethel Chelsom was now a
constant part of his life.

They traveled in style across
the UK and into Europe,

but beneath the
surface, Vincent's
problems were mounting.

The relationship
was an open secret

at the firm and amongst friends.

- Here was a bachelor
who ran a factory

that had become quite famous.

The secretary had
been there with him

almost as long as the
company had existed.

What happened? She obviously
got fed up with waiting.

This was our conclusion.

- The very aristocratic lady

that he courted for a long
time and totally lost out with.

- She just disappeared

We never saw her or
anything after that.

- And he went to The Cromwell

as he did every lunchtime
with his cronies,

met an Irish barmaid and
within not months or years,

but within days or maybe a
few weeks, they were married,

and we thought, "What's he
doing? Trying to play catch up?"

[tender music]

- [Hans] We didn't
eliminate the idea

that it could have
been true love.

These are personal
things, I know.

- [Ewan] Soon Vincent
and Elfrida's daughter

Deirdre was born.

It was a happy, if
brief, distraction

from the mounting
pressures of work.

Life at Stevenage was becoming

to be one of crisis management,

chasing sales and suppliers,
dealing with creditors.

The company was now
being led by a receiver;

such was the state
of his finances.

- The sales from '53 were
going down catastrophically

at a time when the British
motor and the cycle industry

really had the
world at its feet.

[jaunty music]

- [Ewan] His motorcycles
were being caught

by the opposition.

The latest Triumph was
as fast as the Rapide,

but less than
two-thirds of the price.

It was also lighter, simpler,

and marketed in
bold, modern colors.

A generational shift
was taking place.

The market was being
driven by the young.

- [Commentator] With a fine
weekend, a powerful motorbike,

and a girlfriend on the back,

the Ton-Up Boys set
off to wind and weave

and often, to be a menace.

- [Ewan] The gentleman rider,
a pipe-smoking caricature

still used in the
company publicity

was being replaced
by the Ton-Up Boys,

dance music by rock-and-roll,
tweed by leather.

[gentle music]

As the long-term
effects of his crash

were becoming more evident,

Philip Vincent was looking older

and so were his motorcycles.

His solution? Nothing less
than a radical redesign.

The future as he saw it

would be one of experimental
materials and full enclosure.

- [Ewan] Expensive new machinery

was purchased to
build the new bikes.

A gamble the like of which
Vincent had never made before.

Many of the revisions were based

on a survey of
existing customers.

The result was to offer
a design geared towards

the needs of long-term
owners, not finding new ones.

- See the idea behind this was,

this was a motorcycle with full
weather protection. [laughs]

In England this would be
full weather protection.

And in fact, you see ads
with a guy with a bowler hat,

there's not a
wrinkle in his suit.

He's been driving
in the pouring rain

apparently for an hour.

You know, It was sort of silly.

- First of all, it
was too damn heavy,

the fairing, I don't know,

and doubt that he
ever wind-tested it.

It had got those silly little
protrusions on the front,

the large seat area with an
inverted bathtub on the back,

I don't think is a
motorcycle by my definition.

- [Ewan] The scooter-type
enclosure would mean

that the world's
most beautiful engine

was hidden from sight.

- It looked like a giant
motor scooter, basically.

It was a motorcycle a little
bit ahead of its time.

- [Ewan] Vincents were
now offering a machine

at the price of a small house.

- I think for Vincent to turn
a very fine sport motorcycle

into an old man's wheelchair
was a horrible mistake.

- [Ewan] Philip Vincent was
ahead of his time, certainly.

Fully-faired motorcycles
are now the norm

yet being too far ahead is as
bad as being too far behind.

- Before, the company
had had people

who were very positive
in their own views

and everything else.

It appeared to me what
you did afterwards

is you'd got people who

didn't have strong
opinions themselves

or strong convictions.

They were a bit yes-men

and this is I think
why it all floundered.

- [Ewan] In July 1955,

a streamlined Black Lightning
achieved the ultimate.

Two outright world
speed records.

On a perilously narrow
road in New Zealand,

Bob Burns raised the world
sidecar speed record.

- [Commentator] Bob
Burns roars past

for three shattering,
ear-splitting runs
on Black Lightning

and bingo, we've got a
new world sidecar record

at 163.06 mph.

[engine roars]

- [Ewan] The same Black
Lightning in solo trim

took Russell Wright

to an outright world
motorcycle speed record

of 185 miles an hour.

[engine roaring]

Once again, high-speed headlines
came the factory's way.

Once again, Vincent's
critics asked,

"Does that sell motorbikes?"

And to those left in the
factory in Stevenage,

the answer wasn't
long in coming.

- The man who was a
general manager there,

Mr. Heptonstall,
a Yorkshire man,

he called me in to his office
and he put me in the picture.

He said, "Look, Ivan," this
is virtually his words,

he said, "I'm going
to let you know

that maybe in the
next few weeks,

this company's not
going to exist anymore."

- [Ewan] Vincent, by now a
lonely frustrated figure,

had misjudged the market badly.

The final motorcycle
left the factory

on the 16th of December 1955.

The Vincent was no more.

- I think my father
was so fully invested

in what he was doing that
I think the day he had

to announce they were
stopping manufacturing

must have been
really hard for him.

- Mm-hmm

Hiya, mum.

- [Dee] Hi, Phil.

- [Ewan] 90 years after
Vincent started his company,

his daughter and grandson
visit the factory

where it all began.

- So I've been told that
this was the chroming room.

- Yes, I wasn't actually
allowed in here.

So it's quite nice
to come inside.

- There's so many
mavericks that worked here,

so many people that
have achieved so much

that spent so many years here.

You really feel like there
are souls in these walls.

[gentle music]

- [Ewan] The years after
Stevenage were tough.

Vincent's family
fortune was exhausted.

The house in rural
Essex had been sold,

as was the land in Argentina.

He'd traveled the world.

His motorcycles had
dominated speed records.

- [Robin] And they were,
you know, skint, I suppose.

They moved back down to London

into a basically a bed and
breakfast in Bayswater.

- We were all
living in one room.

It wasn't luxury.

- [Ewan] Vincent
worked spasmodically,

writing for the motorcycle
press, consultancy work.

- [Dee] Meanwhile,
my mother went out

to work in various
hotels in the West End.

- [Ewan] Few had risen so
high and fallen so far.

The reputation of
the motorcycles
themselves suffered too.

A loyal cohort kept the faith,

an owners club
became established,

but to the young guns at
the Busy Bee or Ace Cafe,

the Vincent had become
an old man's bike.

Worse, with no spares backup
and complex engineering,

the Vincent gained a reputation
for dangerous handling.

Secondhand values
hit rock bottom;

a Black Shadow could be bought
for as little as 45 pounds.

But the designer was looking
forwards, not backwards.

- He always used to say to me,

"There's no such word as can't.

If there's something
needs doing,

you will find a way to do it."

He always felt that
he could keep going.

- [Ewan] Philip Vincent's
vision was again,

ahead of its time,
a rotary engine.

Discarding conventional pistons,

built using futuristic
ceramic materials.

His former colleagues
were unconvinced.

- [Phil] This is
when you met P.C.V.?

- Yes.
- In London?

- In London I met
your grandfather.

He gave me oh, sheaves
of paper with diagrams

and descriptions of it all

and asked me to bring it home

and get Phil to tell him
what he thought of it.

When Phil had read
it, thought about it,

he just looked at me quietly
and he said it won't work.

And that was that.

- [Ewan] The cost of building
a prototype mounted swiftly.

The obsession was
costing more than money.

- [Ewan] What had
driven Philip Vincent

so hard early on in his career,

a determination in
the face of doubters,

was in danger of
becoming an obsession.

- He was becoming less coherent.

And he'd start to wander off
in flights of fancy, almost,

when he was talking to you.

- When he had his first stroke

and he was getting
out of the ambulance

and it was so painful
to watch him struggle

with his right
hand and right leg

trying to drag his
left leg and left arm

and dribbling at the
mouth and you know.

And so I said, "Mr. Vincent,

can I pick you up
and carry you up?"

He says, "Oh, would you?"

- [Ewan] The family moved
to council accommodation

in the West London suburbs.

- He also got to the
point where he said,

"This isn't fair on
you," to my mother.

One day he said, "You
shouldn't be living like this."

She never cared.

She loved him without
any, you know, barriers.

- [Robin] It's very difficult
for a 48-year-old woman

to look after a 70-year-old man.

You know that's
completely and utterly,

highly mobile, but practically.

- [Ewan] In March
1979, Philip Vincent

was admitted to
Ashford Hospital.

[somber music]

- It was very brief,
he'd developed pneumonia.

I think Brian Phillips from
the Vincent Owners Club

had rung my mother and
she sounded distressed.

So he then rang me
at work and said,

"Your mother sounds
very distressed,

I think you might
need to get home."

And by the time I
got there, he'd died.

- I think all of us in
life have our dreams.

And I think that the same
thing must have applied

to the small team down
there in Stevenage

and Mr. Vincent,

when they created the
sort of postwar Rapide.

It was, all right,
something which at times

turned into a nightmare,
unfortunately,

but just the same,

it had its special day.

And I think what it is,

or what is special about it

is that it stood
the test of time.

And despite some of the
problems that all happened,

look at how people think
about Vincent today.

That says an awful lot

for those dreams that
that little team had.

And I think, in a way,

Dad and myself

both feel as we
were part of that.

- [Director] Wonderful.
Thank you very much, John.

- Yeah.
- That's great.

[wind rustling]

- I remember years ago,
my husband at the time

saying to him, "Oh, but this
is going to die at some point."

And he said, "No, it won't die,
it's going to get stronger."

[gentle music]

- [Ewan] While the price of
one remained within reach,

a cult grew up around
the Vincent motorcycle.

It became the choice
of those in the know,

the eccentrics, the oddballs,

even struggling
stand-up comedians.

- This one came from
Christchurch in New Zealand.

The guy said, "I
can't let you take it,

but you can ride
with me on the back."

"All right." So I
get on the back.

And of course, since he's
trying to sell the bike,

he's going as fast
as he possibly can.

And he said, "It'll
do 100, no problem."

I go, "That's
great, that's great.

You know, we're in LA traffic.

And I said, "No,
look, I'll buy it.

Just, if you just stop
now, I'll buy it."

- [Ewan] The reputation of
the Vincent was in transition

from an old, if still
fast motorcycle to
becoming a classic.

Perhaps the ultimate classic.

Japanese motorcycles,
even Italian ones,

brilliant, fast, competent,
seem to be missing something.

But what?

- There's an art movement

in the beginning of
the 20th century.

And around about this time this
fella called Jacob Epstein,

he made the sculpture
called "Rock Drill."

There's a sort of continuity
of design and thought process

that had gone into
creating the sculpture

but also the motorcycles.

It is like a work of art to me.

It's like a moving sculpture.

I just think the
sort of the mess

of the structure of the engine.

That looks like that could
take you to the moon.

- "Wheelie in the Stars,"
it's a children's book,

but I read it as
an adult, you know.

That was a magical
story to read.

One of the people living
on the Moon has a Vincent.

- [Ewan] The Vincent
gained a second life.

From the U.S. to
Australia to Switzerland,

riders took tuning
to new levels.

The Egli-Vincent is often cited
as the ultimate cafe racer.

It had style, handling, speed.

In the UK, riders such as
George Brown and Brian Chapman

began to dominate sprint racing,

reaching breathtaking speeds.

- [Brian] You can't miss a gear

or muck a gear change up.

You'll lose.

[engines roar]

- [Director] The fastest
speed on the Twin?

- It was 170.

- [George] I'm not
boasting when I say

coming down Elvington runway
probably in excess of 200 mile

by the time it gets
to last 100 yards.

You could actually have read
the Daily Mirror on the tank,

you could have opened it
out on the tank and read it.

I've never felt
anything so safe.

- [Ewan] It was a
similar story in the USA.

The Barn Job remained one of

the fastest motorcycles off
the line right into the 1980s.

- You could lift the front wheel

with a blower on it,

it would be just
rolling the throttle,

rolling and not snapping it.

It could lift the front wheel
at like even 160 mile an hour.

[phone trilling]

- [Alma] HRD Motorcycles? Hello?

- [Director] And what's the
best thing about The Vincent?

- I like the engine; I like
the character of the engine,

the babum-babum-babum.

- When I hear one. I can
pick it out in a gale.

- Everybody knows Vincent.

It's like a Rolls
Royce of motorbikes.

- And from a Vincent,
you come back, usually,

relaxed with a big
smile in your face.

- It definitely had the
edge on BSA or Triumphs,

until the modern era.

- It was a dirty, grimy
engineering company,

except at one end of it,
they built motorbikes.

- It was great. It was
great and still is great.

- Yes. I wouldn't mind
one myself right now.

[both chuckle]

- I wasted a lot
of money on cars.

I should have wasted
it on Vincents

- [Auctioneer] 300,000
is the opening offer.

There it is, the Black
Lightning for 300,000.

Yes, 500,000.

At 620,000.

700,000.

835,000!

[crowd and bidders cheering]

- So over breakfast
that morning,

we ended up spending over 1.2
million Australian Dollars.

- [Auctioneer] United States
of America, you're done.

Great Britain, you're out.

[gavel bangs]
Well done the Aussies.

[crowd cheering]

- The first bike in the world

to sell for over
a million dollars.

- [Ewan] In 2009, Marty
Dickerson came out of retirement

to set one last class record

at just over 155 miles
an hour, aged 83.

- Yes, Marty.
- Yeah, Marty! [whistles]

- [Marty] It's been
really a good life.

I can't complain if it
ends tomorrow, that's it.

I wouldn't have no complaints.

I told my kids
that when I croak,

cremate me and bury my ashes

or spread them out all
over the salt. [laughs]

[engine roaring distantly]

- [Ewan] If you can make one
heap of all your winnings

and risk it on one
turn of pitch and toss,

and lose and start
again at your beginning

and never breathe a
word about your loss,

yours is the Earth and
everything that's in it,

and which is more,
you'll be a man, my son.

[engine roaring distantly]

[engine continues
roaring distantly]

[rustic folksy music]

[radio chattering indistinctly]

♪ Says Red Molly, to James ♪

♪ Well, that's a
fine motorbike ♪

♪ Oh, a girl could
special on any such like ♪

♪ Says James, to Red Molly ♪

♪ My hat's off to you ♪

♪ It's a Vincent
Black Lighting, 1952 ♪

♪ And I've seen you on the
corners and cafes, it seems ♪

♪ Red hair on black leather,
my favorite color scheme ♪

♪ And he pulled around behind ♪

- [Racer] So excited.

Finally get to have my go on
the Irving Vincent sidecar,

Can you maybe give us a few tips

so I can stay on this thing?

- [Driver] Absolutely.
You're gonna love this...

[driver chattering indistinctly]

[rustic folksy music continues]

♪ Says James, to Red Molly, ♪

♪ Here's a ring for
your right hand ♪

♪ But I'll tell you in
earnest I'm a dangerous man ♪

♪ For I've fought with
the law since I was 17 ♪

♪ I've robbed many a man
to get my Vincent machine ♪

♪ And now I'm 21 years,
I might make 22 ♪

♪ And I don't mind dyin'
but for the love of you ♪

♪ But if fate should
break my stride ♪

♪ Then I'll give
you my Vincent ♪

♪ To Ride ♪

[rustic folksy music continues]

[rustic folksy music continues]

[rustic folksy music continues]

[rustic folksy music continues]

[rustic folksy music continues]

♪ Come down, come down Red
Molly called Sargent McCrea ♪

♪ For they've taken young
James Aidee for armed robbery ♪

- Basically, really hard
work but amazing fun.

Yeah. Thrilling.

- [Driver] Well done.

- Yeah. Cheers mate.
- [Driver] No worries.

[rustic folksy music continues]

♪ And he gave her his Vincent ♪

♪ To ride ♪

[audience applauds]