4 replies to this topic

[R.W. Mackenzie]

When I was a young lad, our subscription to National Geographic brought, every month, fantastically visual journeys into worlds we could only dream of seeing. My personal favourites were always the articles on the Civil War or those relating to the ongoing struggle in Viet Nam.

That was of course until the winter of 1967/1968 when I saw the movie "Grand Prix". Then all of a sudden my favourite issue became April 1963 which featured an article about the principality of Monaco. The authors (Gilbert M and Donna Kerkham Grosvenor) had visited Monaco in June of 1962 and been there during the running of the Monaco Grand Prix that year. The article included several pictures taken during the race that had always stuck in my memory as amongst the best I had ever seen.

The family copy of this issue was sacrosanct and so I couldn't do anything but admire the pictures. However when my grandfather passed away and we inherited his set of National Geographic I grabbed the April 1963 issue and "surgically" removed the pages featuring this article. And as I often did, I wrote the names of the drivers on the pictures so I knew who was who.

As years went by and I went off to university and raced Formula Vees and Formula Fords and went through one unsuccessful marriage and entered a successful second marriage and sort of started a successful career (or is that started a sort of successful career). Along the way certain sacrifices had to be made and one night in Toronto as I was single-handedly moving from one apartment to another I made a tragic decision. In the over-tired mindset in which I found myself, it seemed to me that my days of obsession with the sport of motor racing was over and it was time to devote myself to more lofty pursuits.

As a result, I put out at the curb over two decades of Road & Track and Autoweek (decades during which they were magazines worth owning!), a decade of Autosport, my scrapbooks from 1968 to 1971 (starting with articles about the death of Jim Clark), all of my university notes taken during my four years studying mechanical engineering at Queens University.

Mixed in with all of the above was my National Geographic article from April 1963.

I've had many moments of regret since that evening and in recent years the one thing that I have missed the most was that article and the pictures from National Geographic 1963. A few weeks ago I finally bought another copy on eBay and I now finally have it again.

It's funny how the years distort certain things. I had always remembered that one of the pictures in the article showed the first corner accident and I remember it being an awesome photograph. But now that I see it again it doesn't seem quite the same. However, it's still an instant in motor racing history frozen in time.

This is a long lead-up to the topic here but I have decided to post that picture. I don't have their permission. (I wouldn't even know how to get it!) However I have marked clearly on it that the picture belongs to National Geographic. I am not trying to make any money off it and if anyone uses the image for their profit may they rot in Hell!

http://img191.images...161/wnames2.jpg

The picture shows the field as they are approaching the gasworks hairpin. Mairesse has already taken the lead by shooting between Clark and Hill. Behind all hell is breaking loose as Ginther and Trintignant are already sideways. I have marked on the picture who is who using Paint instead of the ink pen I used thirty-three years ago. The only person in the race not in the picture is Innes Ireland.

The article mentions that as the picture was taken (I assume by Gilbert) he realized that all was not well and he dove into the basement. He mentions that a track official was hit by a flying wheel and knocked unconscious. He doesn't mention that the official died and I assume he never knew.

The only other picture of the race shows Phill Hill rounding the same corner from a respectable distance. You can see the wheel from Ginther's car and part of Trintignant's nosecone behind the hay bales.

The only question I have from all of this is why was Bonnier driving a red 718 instead of the silver eight cylinder car he drove at Zandvoort in the first GP of 962?

Bob Mackenzie

[Bjorn Kjer]

Porsche at first declined to run at Monaco , but was then persuaded to run 1 of the 8 cyl. and an updated 4 cyl. both entered by Porsche , but the red being the one for Serenissima.
Reason ? Well they did not exactly show up fast at Zandvoort and one retired with gearbox trouble , so time was needed for better prep.

[Barry Boor]

Sadly, while Bonnier plodded on to a 5th place in the old Porsche, poor old Dan's Monaco luck was as bad as ever and he didn't even get around the Gasworks on lap 1. Plus ça change.......

[D-Type]

n his report in Motor Sport DSJ says that Porsche were disappointed with the performance of the 804s on their debut at Zandvoort and took them back to the factory for a thorough going over. They therefore borrowed back a car from Scuderia Venezia and prepared it for Bonnier. After the good performance of the 2 litre car in the Nurburgring 1000km they partially relented and ran one 8-cylinder car for Gurney

Edited by D-Type, 23 May 2011 - 20:58.

[Barry Boor]

But not for long!