rec.autos.simulators

Grand Prix Legends - Spa-Francorchamps included!

Barton Spencer Brow

Grand Prix Legends - Spa-Francorchamps included!

by Barton Spencer Brow » Sat, 07 Feb 1998 04:00:00

<<I think Dan Gurney is lurking there in the drivers' meeting,
too!  Anybody else anyone can identify?  I'm curious....>>

Hmmm...from memory, Gurney for sure, Richie Ginther, Bruce McLaren, Bob
Bondurant, Jochen Rindt, Jack Brabham, possibly Jo Siffert...an in
scenes elsewhere Juan Fangio, Paul Frere, Baron De Graffenreid, Denny
Hulme...there must be more. Of course, the most notable "missing" prson
is Jim Clark, who apparently was disgusted with the whole circus, as was
Henry Manney III -- his contemporary articles in Road & Track positively
rail about the disruptive presence of Frankenheimer and his crew. I have
a couple shots of the Ford GT MkII camera car from Watkins Glen that
year -- of course, they didn't use any of the Glen footage, except for
Brian Bedford bringing the trophy back to his motel room -- which was
probably in Petaluma, California.

I like trying to pick out all the "real" drivers in the "Michael Delaney
pitwalk" scene in LeMans; I see somebody new every time...Siffert,
Rodriguez, Elford, Attwood, Beltoise, Pescarolo, DeAdamich, Stommelen.
And, as I'm sure you know, you can see the Porsche 908 camera car in at
least one scene -- they stopped over 40 times just to reload the camera,
and still finished well up in class! I'd love to see ALL the on-course
footage -- there must be 3 or 4 days' worth, counting the camera car
that raced, and the footage shot when McQueen rented the track...

Bart

Michael Tra

Grand Prix Legends - Spa-Francorchamps included!

by Michael Tra » Sun, 08 Feb 1998 04:00:00

On Tue, 03 Feb 1998 23:45:42 +0000, Barton Spencer Brown



>> Bart...
>> It *had* to be used in "Grand Prix", even though the cars depicted were 3 litre vehicles.
>>The script called for a car to soar off a banking and onto another part of the track below.
>>Monza, with the banked section, was the only one available at the time.

>Bruce--

>I'm hip. If they'd taken all that romance and "*** sport" nonsense
>out, it would have been nearly as good as "LeMans" -- in fact, that's
>what *I* do whenever I watch the tape; just fast-forward through the
>horse manure...

Granted, there is much filler in _Grand_Prix_ ("Do you ever
get tired--of the racing?"), although the opening sequence
alone makes it arguably the best racing movie of all time.
But _LeMans_ might have been much better if McQueen had not
gone overboard trying to make it hyper-real; the studio
yanked control from him after it became apparent that
McQueen was obsessed.   _On_Track_ had an interesting
article on the subject a couple months back.  I don't think
it was McQueen's idea to start the movie with a flashback of
a flaming wreck.

Absolutely, Phil was a total hoot!  I like the look Hill
gives the injured driver's wife.  

I think Dan Gurney is lurking there in the drivers' meeting,
too!  Anybody else anyone can identify?  I'm curious....

He was one cool cat, no doubt.

Michael Tracy

------------------------------------------------------
Lisa: "That's specious reasoning!"
Homer: "Thanks, honey."
------------------------------------------------------

DPHI

Grand Prix Legends - Spa-Francorchamps included!

by DPHI » Sun, 08 Feb 1998 04:00:00

You've got that right! Last summer I had the chance to see "Grand Prix" in a
small theater at the LA County Museum of Art. I had only seen it once before in
a theater when it was first released. What a thrill! The opening scenes just
give me chills, those shots of the run through Monte Carlo are better than most
of the "high tech" in-car shots we get today from the real GP cars. Get the
tape and play  it while you're racing GP2/F1RS, I guarentee it will knock half
a second off your lap times! ( just be watching your monitor and not the TV!)

don

Michael Tra

Grand Prix Legends - Spa-Francorchamps included!

by Michael Tra » Mon, 09 Feb 1998 04:00:00

On Sat, 07 Feb 1998 02:19:31 GMT,


>Absolutely, Phil was a total hoot!  I like the look Hill
>gives the injured driver's wife.  

I realize the second sentence was ambiguous--I meant to say
that *Graham* Hill gave a look....

Michael Tracy

------------------------------------------------------
Lisa: "That's specious reasoning!"
Homer: "Thanks, honey."
------------------------------------------------------

Michael Tra

Grand Prix Legends - Spa-Francorchamps included!

by Michael Tra » Mon, 09 Feb 1998 04:00:00


Yikes!  _Grand_Prix_ on the big screen again?  And I missed
it?  Shoot!  But even on video the beginning of the film is
(to use a much overused term) *awesome*!  I would probably
have heart failure if I saw it in a theatre again.  

Michael Tracy

------------------------------------------------------
Lisa: "That's specious reasoning!"
Homer: "Thanks, honey."
------------------------------------------------------

Michael Tra

Grand Prix Legends - Spa-Francorchamps included!

by Michael Tra » Mon, 09 Feb 1998 04:00:00

On Fri, 06 Feb 1998 22:57:14 +0000, Barton Spencer Brown


><<I think Dan Gurney is lurking there in the drivers' meeting,
>too!  Anybody else anyone can identify?  I'm curious....>>

>Hmmm...from memory, Gurney for sure, Richie Ginther, Bruce McLaren, Bob
>Bondurant, Jochen Rindt, Jack Brabham, possibly Jo Siffert...an in
>scenes elsewhere Juan Fangio, Paul Frere, Baron De Graffenreid, Denny
>Hulme...there must be more.

To quote Benny Parsons, "Wow!"

An interesting contrast to the media-friendly attitude
today.  At least they didn't have radio communication, the
better to interview drivers during yellows!

Cool.  Are the shots on the net?

You flatter me sir.  My ignorance is as deep as it is wide.
For example, Siffert is the only name in the preceding
paragraph of which I have even a vague recollection.  (At
least I recognized a majority of the _Grand_Prix_ names,
though.)

Seconded.

Very interesting!

Michael Tracy

------------------------------------------------------
Lisa: "That's specious reasoning!"
Homer: "Thanks, honey."
------------------------------------------------------

Number

Grand Prix Legends - Spa-Francorchamps included!

by Number » Mon, 09 Feb 1998 04:00:00

I snuck into my college's theatre a few months back, and popped my
widescreen video edition of "Grand Prix" into the video projector, and
fit it to the screen perfectly.  Then I cranked up the audio, and sat
front and center on the first row.......INCREDIBLE!!!!!

Brandon Reed



>Yikes!  _Grand_Prix_ on the big screen again?  And I missed
>it?  Shoot!  But even on video the beginning of the film is
>(to use a much overused term) *awesome*!  I would probably
>have heart failure if I saw it in a theatre again.  

>Michael Tracy

>------------------------------------------------------
>Lisa: "That's specious reasoning!"
>Homer: "Thanks, honey."
>------------------------------------------------------

Number 6

                Every Other Man Productions
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http://www.***highway.net/~blreed
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Matthew V. Jessic

Grand Prix Legends - Spa-Francorchamps included!

by Matthew V. Jessic » Wed, 11 Feb 1998 04:00:00


> I think Dan Gurney is lurking there in the drivers' meeting,
> too!  Anybody else anyone can identify?  I'm curious....

Bob Bondurant (of the 'Bob Bondurant School of High Performance
Driving') discusses working on the movie in his book,
as it was his first experience teaching. A picture captioned
"Some of the driving crew from Grand Prix..." features
Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, James Garner, Guy Liger, Dan Gurney,
Jo Schlesser, Bruce McLaren, Antonio Sabato and Jo Siffert.

- Matt

"Bob Bondurant on High Performance Driving," Bob Bondurant,
John Blakemore, Motorbooks International, Osceola, WI, 1993.
ISBN  0-879380751-3


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