Cinema’s Greatest Races | Features

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Feature

Cinema’s Greatest Races
Ten movie circuits to get your wheels spinning

The new James Hunt biopic, Rush, is coming soon and with Empire heading down to the circuit to watch Ron Howard bring it together in the new issue, we’ve cast our mind over some of the other great racing flicks down the years. So which movie races are guaranteed to deliver a jolt of adrenaline and a waft of gasoline and burnt rubber to your nostrils? Here’s ten that get our checkered flag.

WORDS PHIL DE SEMLYEN

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Cinema’s Greatest Races | The Great Race

The Great Race

Movie: The Great Race (1965)
Vehicle: The Leslie Special
Driver: The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis)

This film is famous for boasting “the greatest pie fight ever” – a claim you can’t make about Senna – and The Great Race also lays claim to possibly the daftest car race ever to chug across the big screen. The course itself is from New York to Paris – no, not that way – and takes in a perilous crossing of the Bering Straits and the devilish attentions of Jack Lemmon’s villain, Professor Fate (the inspiration for Dick Dastardly, no less), and his sinister Hannibal Twin-8.

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Your Comments
1 You missed one of the best...
You forgot to include the REDLINE anime in your list of movie races! More

Posted by xenobyte on Friday July 27, 2012, 09:42
2 Here's a great race
The Romans!! More

Posted by phasetester on Thursday July 26, 2012, 19:28
3 "If you're gonna be a bear.......
....be a GRIZZLY!" More

Posted by Moorsie on Thursday July 26, 2012, 13:54

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