Goodbye Speed!

You've been a staple of my tv watching experience since I was 10 years old. The past few years under Fox's leadership you have been quite miserable but you still provided some racing besides NASCAR.

The transition to Fox Sports 1 was a meh statement from Mike Joy. My facebook feed was filled with the meatheads I know excited they can watch all the new UFC programming. The least it can do is provide a better alternative to ESPN and hopefully continue to air Le Mans. Sad to see it go.

I used to rush home from school, flick it onto Speedvision, and absorb whatever was on. I didn't watch cartoons like most kids. I was deep into cars and racing at a very young age.

Goodbye, old friend.

Afterthought:

Does anyone remember when they showed movies on Saturday nights? I can remember watching Grand Prix, Two Lane Blacktop, Vanishing Point etc on there. It had a drive in theme and was hosted by Dave Despain.

We had it made! Let's hope that someone will fill the void, soon.

velocity is pretty good, not a ton of motorsport coverage but some good stuff.

Same here! I used to love watching the documentaries on old Grand Prixs and Le Mans. alain de cadenet's show driving old classics. Any kinds of the racing that were on, best channel ever as a childhood gearhead.

I was going to post an adieu... but not. Speed has been a staple in my life, I took it for granted/ being there forever... maybe the one reason I kept my E36 M3ty cable. Used to be damn near awesome motorsport-wise but the last few years degraded into meh, still good background noise over my internet browsing.

I used to be glued to the channel.... pure automotive goodness. They had it made w/ me back in the day, 'the' only channel. As of late knowing the end was nearing and coming off midnight shift I actually began to relish Pimp My Ride and PassTime w/ a few brewskis in the mornings to chill out.

Fox Sports 1 is a just a berkeleying ESPN wannabe.

TV is off tonight, this is a turning point for me. Maybe I'll get more E36 M3 done tho.

In reply to DirtyBird222:

Alain De Cadenet's Victory By Design

luvved it

It was kinda a like watching your favorite uncle die a long slow death. The good news is we now have Velocity.

Can't say I'll miss much of what Speed had become in the last few years. Who the hell did the have in charge of their programming, anyway? Certainly not real car people. Bottom line- if they'd had better content, they'd still be around.

What, infomercials aren't good programming?

BoostedBrandon wrote: Afterthought: Does anyone remember when they showed movies on Saturday nights? I can remember watching Grand Prix, Two Lane Blacktop, Vanishing Point etc on there. It had a drive in theme and was hosted by Dave Despain. We had it made! Let's hope that someone will fill the void, soon.

Wasn't it Bruce Dern who hosted?

In reply to drsmooth:

Yes

Aeromoto wrote: Can't say I'll miss much of what Speed had become in the last few years. Who the hell did the have in charge of their programming, anyway? Certainly not real car people. Bottom line- if they'd had better content, they'd still be around.

odds are that they're research told them that the programming we liked so much wasn't paying the bills ... what we tend to forget is that we're a pretty small viewing group in the overall TV audience

I haven't had cable for 5 or 6 years. I booted the subscription when speed stopped covering wrc.

Niche market with little payback me thinks.

In reply to drsmooth:

Whatever! To a 7 year old they look alike!

Hard to miss what i never had. Put this stuff on cheaper or base packages PLEASE!!!!!!!!! I refuse to pay $100 a month to watch tv, i'd rather work in the garage.

carbon wrote: velocity is pretty good, not a ton of motorsport coverage but some good stuff.

Velocity started out pretty good, but now they're showing a lot of typical Discovery nature shows and other non-automotive stuff.

I clicked it to watch some car build shows this morning, it's baseball.

I downgraded my cable package yesterday, on the lead that I was losing the speed channel. I won't be missing it now.

wbjones wrote: odds are that they're research told them that the programming we liked so much wasn't paying the bills ... what we tend to forget is that we're a pretty small viewing group in the overall TV audience

I remember back at the 2003 challenge there was a dude there from Speedvision. We were talking and I told him how much I loved the programming they offered. Then he dropped the bomb. He told me to "expect more NASCAR, lots more". I told him I was monumentally disappointed. He said he was as well.

Anyway, as far as the small group and little money coming in from it, I know of a magazine that caters to that group and has been growing steadily as they watch "the competition" magazines shrink and fall away. Heck, they even buy magazines like I buy crappy old Jeeps.

All that being said, I haven't watched speedvisionworldwhatever in 10 years.

I miss Victory by Design and Motorsport Mondial. Those shows were the best. Alain de Cadanet flogging on $1 million+ classics and weirdo racing footage (like the big truck racing!) was as good as TV got.

I also like Velocity. It has some decent programming. Wheeler Dealers is pretty cool!

About 10 years ago, I was in high school and worked at a resort at Lake Lanier here in north GA. Speedvision came and hosted a Moto Guzzi brand party that Dave Despain did the host work for. I got to meet him and hang out on a party boat (they called it working). He was a super nice guy.

They used to do great racing analysis and coverage. Since those days I just dumped TV altogether.

Velocity has been a decent alternative but it to suffers a bit of what speed what plagued by. All day today is chasing classic cars and fantomworks. It'd be nice if they had some motorsports on there.

I got my vintage speed in yesterday but visiting the Dulles air and space museum. Nothing like getting to see an SR-71 Blackbird upclose and personal.

Yep speed is gone. But on the good side of things I will now get more done around the house. We all really bashed speed for some of there less than stellar programming (like the street racing garbage) but in the end We are going to miss speed. Maybe it will open up a opportunity for some one to start a new network that caters to more grassroots racing / motorsports. Now all we have Saturday and Sunday mornings is Velocity and Spike. You know maybe spike will pickup where speed left off.

The King is dead, long live... aw crap