That would be one Steve McQueen, as shown in this commercial for Honda’s all-time badass motocrosser, the almighty Elsinore CR250M.
Repops of that great orange and black Elsinore jersey McQueen sports in the vid can be had all day long for about 40-50 bucks, my lifelong friend and vintage-dirt-bike enthusiast Stan tells me. By contrast, Steve’s smoke-tinted helmet visor with the little rearview mirrors mounted on each side are rare as hens’ teeth, going for around 3-400 smacks when/if you’re fortunate enough to find one at all.
The video is a commercial McQueen made for Japanese TV, for which he got paid a cool million bucks. He actually ran the Elsinore Grand Prix (for which Honda’s first two-stroke MX bike was named) himself in 1970 under the hilarious nom de badass Harvey Mushman—no, really. Of that historic race, McQueen had this to say:
“When you’re runnin’ with the top ten, as I was, you’re really honkin’ on pretty good an’ what happpens is that with so many bikes choppin’ up the dirt the holes in the course get worse…deeper with each lap.
“I was comin’ out of a wash under a bridge with this road dip ahead and I just kinda took one of those big jumps where you’re sure you’re gonna make it but you don’t. And I didn’t. My bike nosed into the dip, which was, like, deep – and I went ass-over the bars into the crowd. Didn’t hurt anybody but me. My left foot was busted in six places.”
This wasn’t enough to stop him however, as he got back on the bike and finished the race, still finishing in the top ten!
What’d I tell ya? Badass!
Harvey? I feel for those kids that has to put with the ridicule all through grade school with that name.
Hey, but it’s better than being A Boy Named Sue.
Or at least it used to be. Now it gets you access to the Girl’s Locker Room and all the other fellas are trying to convince you to take one of those miniature cameras in and gets some “closeups”, IYKWIMAITYD.
McQueen is among a handful of hollyweird types that were actual men and not just actors.
And I do mean handful. There are not many.
Another one was Paul Newman. When at the race track the celebrity part was ignored and the racer part admired, because he was pretty darn good at it. I have some good stories about Newman.
McQueen could walk the walk as it is often said.