Speed Is Expensive – yup, we know that and there’s a movie to confirm it. It’s the story of the rise and fall of Vincent motorcycles and the small and far from perfect team led by engineer Philip Vincent.
Vincent actually started as far back as 1928 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Vincent bought HRD Motors which had been founded in 1924 by Howard Raymond Davies, using JAP vee-twin engines. That firm went bust in early 1928 hence the sale to Philip Vincent.
The firm’s first vee-twin arrived in 1936, being basically two 500cc single-cylinder Meteor cylinders in a vee formation. Post-war, faster models followed, eventually leading to the Black Lightning, that reached 150mph in 1948, then 185mph in 1955, on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA.
But the post-war enthusiasm for motorcycles waned, especially for ones with old fashioned girder forks and needing intensive maintenance, and in 1955 Vincent stopped manufacturing motorcycles, out of cash.
The movie had its world premiere back in 2022, and will be officially released as a DVD on 25 September 2023. Speed is Expensive, follows Philip Vincent-Day, the grandson of Philip Vincent who never met his grandfather, as he embarks on a journey looking for answers about his grandfather’s amazing life and machines.
Philip talks to the men and women who built the bikes: racers, friends and family. He learns how Vincent and his workforce built such revolutionary motorcycles and the secrets behind the bikes’ amazing performance. There’s also contributions from US chat show host and petrolhead Jay Leno, and John Surtees, the only person to win world championships in motorcycle GP and car F1 racing.
The film was made by David Lancaster and there’s an excellent interview with him on The Vintagent.
