Thursday 21st August 2014

Tom Cruise races a 300ZX: Time For Tea?

Not for a film, not for TV, Tom Cruise was an actual racing driver in the 80s. It's eventful!

---

Amazing the stuff you can find on the internet sometimes. Here we have one of a few videos recently published documenting Tom Cruise's motorsport career. Really.

Turns out the post-Top Gun Cruise was keen to emulate Paul Newman and make a racing career from an acting one. Newman in fact ran a Nissan 300ZX in Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) events and here we see a young Mr Cruise as one of the drivers.

He looks good too, albeit perhaps a little too brave for his own good when he spins the Nissan. An old Jalopnik interview with an SCCA champion states Cruise's attitude was "go fast all the time" and that he "was very aggressive" in the car. So Tom didn't make a career of racing like his hero Paul but it does explain some of his later gung-ho driving. Days of Thunder remains bemusing though.

Watch the video here.

 

 

[Source: Jalopnik]

[mrclav]

It's funny, I was watching Mission Impossible II last night and all I could think was after seeing both this clip and the movie is "Damn, he's aged well"...

[k-ink]

You can tell he is a car guy from the motors in is movies.


Btw, I've never heard of the manufacturers "Neeesan" before. I clearly need to brush up on my motoring history.

[burwoodman]

mrclav said:

It's funny, I was watching Mission Impossible II last night and all I could think was after seeing both this clip and the movie is "Damn, he's aged well"...

He looks good for some simple reasons- a full head of dark hair, he is very trim/fit and he doesn't drink. One gets the impression he is in bed by 9pm with his warm milk. Fair play to him. Those that knock him are only jelous

[DonkeyApple]

A lot of thin people in America back then.

[Edmundo2]

DonkeyApple said:

A lot of thin people in America back then.

Was that an American movie clip...?

[iloveboost]

k-ink said:

You can tell he is a car guy from the motors in is movies.


Btw, I've never heard of the manufacturers "Neeesan" before. I clearly need to brush up on my motoring history.

Hehe I've not heard of 'Jag-gwar' either. I think the Japanese pronounce it 'Nee-san' so them saying 'Nee-sun' is half 'right' like us saying 'Niss-san'.

I think Tom's a 'car guy' but he seems to like motorbikes more. Also he doesn't appear to have any fear and is ego driven. There's a clip of him driving an F1 car on youtube like a nutter. Unlike Richard Hammond he's not afraid of it he just wants to see what he can make it do. Then he crashes.

Even on 'Top Gear' on his fast lap he wasn't bothered as he almost rolls the car! He drives on track like I drive in GTA.

[USABRZ]

k-ink said:

You can tell he is a car guy from the motors in is movies.


Btw, I've never heard of the manufacturers "Neeesan" before. I clearly need to brush up on my motoring history.

As an American, one of the things I love about this site is the small languange differences. In this case it is interesting that the company actually pronounces itself "Neeesan" in the US, perpetuating the split pronunciation.

[burwoodman]

USABRZ said:

k-ink said:

You can tell he is a car guy from the motors in is movies.


Btw, I've never heard of the manufacturers "Neeesan" before. I clearly need to brush up on my motoring history.

As an American, one of the things I love about this site is the small languange differences. In this case it is interesting that the company actually pronounces itself "Neeesan" in the US, perpetuating the split pronunciation.

It could well be Nee. How many people call Moet fizz 'Mo ay' and think the name is french when it is not.

[bimbeano]

The comment, the background music, the people on that vid, the cars and the way Tom ran off the track causing a lot of dust flowing makes me think this is a typical American television-series from the eighties :-)

[DaveyBoyDave]

Why did they add the very faint rubbish background music? Isn't the racing exciting enough.

And at 3:09 they appear to have added skidding sound effects!

Bizarre motorsport coverage that!

[marcusp88]

Matt this is an S12 Silvia he's racing not a 300zx.

Surely I wasn't the only one to notice?!

[sutats]

Quite enjoyed his moments of stunt driving in Knight and Day.

[leedsutd1]

cruise does a lot of his own stunts and would do them all but obviously the film producers wont let him do stunts where he could be off the set injured, There is a picture /video on you tube filming the last mission impossible where he got up early and got the stunt guys to take him to the top of the hotel
( the Burj Khalifa , in Dubai, the tallest building in the world, ) in a helicopter and he jumped off onto to the spire and took a selfie

Edited by leedsutd1 on Thursday 21st August 20:33

[Rumblestripe]

leedsutd1 said:

cruise does a lot of his own stunts and would do them all but obviously the film producers wont let him do stunts where he could be off the set injured, There is a picture /video on you tube filming the last mission impossible where he got up early and go the stunt guys to take him to the top of the hotel
( the Burj Khalifa , in Dubai, the tallest building in the world, ) in a helicopter and he jumped off onto to the spire and took a selfie

Pedant point though, it's not a "selfie" as he isn't holding the camera!

Mind, I can't even look at that picture without carping myself!

[Dave Hedgehog]

Look mum no shoes!! That's one mental mother lol

Dud he mention his racing history when he was on top gear

[leedsutd1]

another view of the building

[gowmonster]

marcusp88 said:

Matt this is an S12 Silvia he's racing not a 300zx.

Surely I wasn't the only one to notice?!

TOP LURKING!

[jezhumphrey75]

cruise has some large ones

[Itsallicanafford]

Porscher nine Twenty four!

[Krikkit]

Seems a shame he joined those lunatics at the end of the day.