A molasses-paced drama about men who drive fast cars and the women who get frustrated with them. It’s one of director Roger Corman’s slickest (and dullest) films. A hoity-toity writer follows a womanizing racing champion to tournaments across Europe to write a scathing character assassination piece about him. Along the way, they become friends. As you watch this film plod along, you kinda get feeling Corman only made this for the overseas trip.
Aside from nice scenery in fancy European locales, the only interesting things about this snoozer are two pieces of trivia:
The writer is played on screen by pretty boy Mark Damon, but his dialogue is COMPLETELY overdubbed by William Shatner.
Roger Corman, always figuring out ways to stretch a dollar, squeezed a whole other movie, Francis Ford Coppola’s Dementia 13, into the budget of The Young Racers. Coppola worked on The Young Racers in the sound department and as a second unit director. Immediately after Corman finished shooting this, Coppola stayed in Ireland, along with Young Racers stars Luana Anders, William Campbell and Patrick Magee and banged out his Gothic horror film in short order. It wouldn’t be the last time Corman would cram two productions into one budget.