Smash Palace - Car Chase Scene

[Steve Holmes]

Just watched this classic New Zealand movie last night for the first time in many years. I'd forgotten all about the brilliant, if very short, car chase scene (for want of a better term) where the main character, Al Shaw, played by Bruno Lawrence, is testing his Ralt RT1 on the public roads around his car wrecking business. The car wreckers is the famous Horopito Motors, which has since become synonymous with the movie.

Steve Millen does all the driving of the Ralt, in fact, it was/is his own car, painted up specifically for the movie. There are also a couple of racing scenes from Pukekohe and Bay Park. Millens driving in the chase scene is brilliant, and Roger Donaldson does a superb job capturing the raw speed and skills demonstrated by Millen.

[CUSTAXIE50]

talk about public road testing for race cars i have been told of a number of road race cars testing on auckland motorway,going back to around about 1968 i was over at jim boyds place he was working on the new motor that he had put in the t70 sports car that he was going to race ,he said to me lets go for a test run down the road talk about fast thats how it went on in the old days.george begg also did this with all his race cars.

[Steve Holmes]

Some beautiful photos here, captured by Terry Marshall, that show Millen during the 1981 season in the Smash Palace Ralt.

At Pukekohe inside David Oxton



At Bay Park



In the pits at Wigram

[Steve Holmes]

talk about public road testing for race cars i have been told of a number of road race cars testing on auckland motorway,going back to around about 1968 i was over at jim boyds place he was working on the new motor that he had put in the t70 sports car that he was going to race ,he said to me lets go for a test run down the road talk about fast thats how it went on in the old days.george begg also did this with all his race cars.

Thats a great story! Must have been fun.

[conrod]

I too watched the movie for the first time in maybe 20 or 30 years, it was on Maori channel last week?
One little gripe though, did you notice how many times the wheels were changed on the Ralt during the car chase scene?!! Started off on wets, changed to slicks mid way through, then on wets for the final bit. Same goes for the race at Baypark, race started on slicks, began to rain and then cars were magically on wets! I guess the non trainspotting non motorsport public would not have noticed!........ Steve has bought this old Ralt back about 10 years ago,restored it, and races it occasionally in the US in club events.

[Steve Holmes]

Yeah I did notice that Conrad, the rain tyres appeared every time the car was on gravel! Same in the race at Bay Park. Millen did actually win both races at Bay Park, and it was a wet/dry meeting. I guess thats why it kept switching from wet to dry etc. The in-car footage at Bay Park was obviously staged, as Millen was just blowing by other cars on the straights. I assume this must have been filmed during lunch break or something at the event, because the crowds were all there?

I saw a Roger Donaldson doco several years ago in which Millen was interviewed about Smash Palace. He said when he tracked down the Ralt, he had to get someone else to go buy the car for him, otherwise the seller might have suddenly increased the price on learning who the buyer was.

[BMCBOY]

[conrod]

Yeah I did notice that Conrad, the rain tyres appeared every time the car was on gravel! Same in the race at Bay Park. Millen did actually win both races at Bay Park, and it was a wet/dry meeting. I guess thats why it kept switching from wet to dry etc. The in-car footage at Bay Park was obviously staged, as Millen was just blowing by other cars on the straights. I assume this must have been filmed during lunch break or something at the event, because the crowds were all there?

yes I noticed the speed he blew past the other cars too, if only it were that easy! I believe Steve entered the car under the name "Al Shaw" too.

I saw a Roger Donaldson doco several years ago in which Millen was interviewed about Smash Palace. He said when he tracked down the Ralt, he had to get someone else to go buy the car for him, otherwise the seller might have suddenly increased the price on learning who the buyer was.

I think he got Andy Mcelrea to go and buy the car, and if memory serves me correctly Ken Smith was the seller The car is in a dark green now, which I believe is a former colour back in the day.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Conrad, yeah thats right, was green at one stage, and thats how its been reverted back to, although I think it has Stillen signage on it now instead of Chardon?

[Steve Holmes]

Thats a neat photo Ross!

[conrod]

Hi Steve, yes the same green as the Chardon livery, but with Stillen on the side as you say.
A friend of mine's wife was one of the pit bunnies for this car back then. (she won't admit that to anyone now, even though she is still smoking hot!)

I just gooled Chardon, and they still sell the stuff! Can't believe anyone still drinks it From the advertisement at Liquor King:

Chardon Pink
750ml btl
A sweet wine with a pink colour. A drink that has been popular with the early drinkers in our country "

http://www.lk.co.nz/wine/wine-sparkl...024310457.html

[Chris Read]

Is damn hard to get a real copy of Smash Palace but I hounded the video stores a few years ago and got two as they said it had gone off the hit list. I look at it from time to time as that run down the road is legendary and what we all wanted to do (and some of us obviously did including me). I owned the Ex Oxton B29 Chevron that I think was the car dicing around in the staged ducking and diving.
When I was in Dunedin we had no circuit and so we had a piece of flat sealed road on the Taieri with no side roads or houses that we used to do an 'Al Shaw' on - no helmet just sunnies.
ahhhh the good old days eh!

[GD66]

I believe Steve entered the car under the name "Al Shaw" too. [/QUOTE]



He did, and certainly at Bay Park and I think at Puke too they called him Al Shaw in the circuit commentary, in case the audio made it into the film. I hurried along to see it at the cinema when it was released, and sparked up when the glorious howl of the little Cossie on full whack filled the theatre. Horn !

[Sorekiwi]

I managed to pick up a (DVD) copy of Smash Palace here in the US about 5 years ago. It was packaged with "Sleeping Dogs".

Myself and another expat kiwi watched "Good Bye Pork Pie" over a couple cold ones a few weeks ago.

[conrod]

Myself and another expat kiwi watched "Good Bye Pork Pie" over a couple cold ones a few weeks ago.

Another iconic Kiwi movie; " it will pull like a schoolboy"

[CUSTAXIE50]

no steve mad thats what it was.

[Steve Holmes]

Is damn hard to get a real copy of Smash Palace but I hounded the video stores a few years ago and got two as they said it had gone off the hit list. I look at it from time to time as that run down the road is legendary and what we all wanted to do (and some of us obviously did including me). I owned the Ex Oxton B29 Chevron that I think was the car dicing around in the staged ducking and diving.
When I was in Dunedin we had no circuit and so we had a piece of flat sealed road on the Taieri with no side roads or houses that we used to do an 'Al Shaw' on - no helmet just sunnies.
ahhhh the good old days eh!

Great post Chris! Stunning car. Where was this photo taken?

[seaqnmac27]

The whole movie is on Youtube by the way. Started watching it the other night, got very hard to watch.

[seaqnmac27]

In the footage from Baypark there are 2 pieces of footage that have no place being there, before Bruno gets in the car and immediately as the race starts there are shots from Pukekohe edited into the shots from Baypark, one the dummy grid then the race grid. They both show Dave McMillan in his RT1 not the RT4 he raced at Baypark. You see as the cars come round after lap one that Mr Shaw is leading 2 RT4's. Also a couple of nice shots of what I guess is rare race footage of the Cuda JR5 as driven by Adrian Reynard, as SHaw fights his way through after stopping for the misfire.

[Sorekiwi]

talk about public road testing for race cars i have been told of a number of road race cars testing on auckland motorway,going back to around about 1968 i was over at jim boyds place he was working on the new motor that he had put in the t70 sports car that he was going to race ,he said to me lets go for a test run down the road talk about fast thats how it went on in the old days.george begg also did this with all his race cars.

In 1992 I watched a young Ashley Stitchbury take a brand new Opel-Lotus car down a small local road in the mountains of Austria. Just a quick run down the road and back to make sure there were no leaks, bed the brakes and make sure it shifted ok. We then loaded the car into the transporter and took it to Bryno in Czechoslovakia where an even younger Alexander Wurz put it on pole in his first (Opel-Lotus) race.

I think Stich wore his helmet though...