In 
an email today, Jeff mentioned a movie I had not heard of called DIRT (IMDB Link). Released in 1979, the movie follows a narrator around as he explores the wide-world of offroad racing. It’s got some especially great/scary clips of early auto racing. The rest of the movie shows all kinds of different offroad racing in the US during the late 70s (sand, water, hill climbs, baja, snow climbs, and more). One item I had hoped to see, but didn’t, was PNW racing, though I didn’t have time to watch every clip.
Currently, you can watch the movie for free via YouTube. However, you can also order a DVD from Turner Classic Movies (about $11) or from Amazon.com (About $6).
Here’s the first YouTube installment. At the end of each installment, there is a link to the following installment (10 total).
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=MfByldRKTo4
I remember this movie. I never cared to go to movies much, but a friend of mine talked me in to going. As a teenager, I was impress with how fast they would drive their buggies off road, but I knew racing the Baja 1000 was too much excitement for me. All that vehicle thrashing made me drive more conservatively along the local trails so I wouldn’t beat up my old willys wagon. (After all, I paid my life’s savings for my Willys when I was 16. Of course, I didn’t have a morgage payment back then. lol.) I prefer to drive in low range to crawl through the rills of a dry creek bed, rather than jumping them. Unlike many hardcore “crawler guys”, I’m proud that I’ve never rolled my Willys after driving it up any hill I needed to climb in the past 35 years. I’ll have to open these movie clips to see how much of the movie I remember.
**Steve E.**