Grand Prix

Grand Prix (1966)

2 corrected entries

(2 votes)

Corrected entry: In almost every scene of Garner in the Yamura, the roll bar does not clear his helmet, a flagrant violation of safety regs. This was because James Garner was so tall that even after removing the seat cushion, forcing him to sit right on the metal body pan, he still didn't sit low enough.

Correction: In 1966, the year the film is set, the regulations did not require the hoop to be higher than the driver. This is amply proven by looking at contemporary race footage and photos. This weakness in the regulations mostly defeated the purpose of having rollover hoop at all, but that is what was the case.

Corrected entry: In the last race of the movie, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the cars race on the fully combined 'figure eight' main circuit and oval. The film was made in 1966, supposedly depicting the 1965/66 World Championship season, but the last time the 'figure eight' circuit was actually used for a WC Grand Prix season in real life was in 1961.

Correction: During the overhead shot of Black and Gold GT350 driving around (Disk 2, 46:28), the announcer says "The last time this combined circuit was used was in 1961". I think any movie of this type (Days of Thunder, Le Mans, Little Big League) are not documentaries of a season, they are just using it as a setting.

Continuity mistake: The cars change shape frequently during the movie. That depends on the fact that many scenes were filmed at real races, with real F-1 cars. The cars that the actors drove were, for the most part, disguised F-3 racers. There are at least three fake Ferraris, and they all look different. One of them seems to have been built to resemble a 1965 F-1, but altered to look like a 1966 model. The non-existent Yamura (built to resemble a Maclaren), that James Garner drives is actually two cars with different chassis, one of them seems to be used very little, except when it catches fire in a scene.

More mistakes in Grand Prix

Jean-Pierre Sarti: The danger? Well, of course. But you are missing a very important point. I think if any of us imagined - really imagined - what it would be like to go into a tree at 150 miles per hour we would probably never get into the cars at all, none of us. So it has always seemed to me that to do something very dangerous requires a certain absence of imagination.

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Trivia: Scott Stoddard's teammate at BRM, Bob Turner, is played by British Two time F1 Champion Graham Hill. Pete Aaron's teammate at Yamura, Tim Randolph, is played by American 1961 F1 Champion Phil Hill.

David George

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