20 replies to this topic

[Chris Skepis]

Why did Bruce McLaren changed three times the colour of his team?
In 1966 his car was white with a black stripe, in 1967 his car was red with a light blue stripe and finally in 1968 he adopt the orange colour. Does anybody know why? What was the NZ national racing colour then?

[Rob G]

Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to your questions, but just for the sake of accuracy, the stripe was dark green in 1966 and silver in 1967.

Did the fact that Gulf sponsored McLaren in 1968 have anything to do with the change to orange? Or perhaps it was simply to stand out in a field of green and red?

[William Dale Jr]

I'm sure I read somewhere that the orange had to do with Gulf Oil, but I'm also sure that someone else better qualified could answer this better

[Don Capps]

The orange and blue scheme was due to the Gulf oil sponsorship.

The red reflected the color of the sports-racers and Can-Am cars prior to Gulf coming on board -- it was the sponsor for the Can-Am effort in 1967.

The white was just a convenient color in part due to the Frankenheimer film and partly due to it was as good a color as any.

[Barry Boor]

Remembering that we were still in the days of national racing colours when Bruce first started with his F1 effort, I can remember being so disappointed that the car was not black and silver.

[Milan Fistonic]

This is what Doug Nye has to say about McLaren's orange colour.

Teddy (Mayer) had long been unhappy about the team's colours. They had changed from dowdy British Racing Green to black and silver, red with pale stripes, and now he fell for a bright yellow-orange papaya shade, prompted by Jackie Epstein's Lola T70 "which would show up like a beacon on TV". Once racing began with the M6A the team found slower drivers were instantly aware of that wicked orange flash in their mirrors.

[Chris Skepis]

WOW !! Thank you gentlemen for the answers. I have always wondered why Bruce choose orange for his team. I assume from the NZ rugby team that the national NZ official colour was black ( I didn't know about the silver). But wasn't orange the Dutch national colour ? ( Carel de Beaufort used to drive a orange Porsche) Didn't they have to race sporting their own national colours at that time? So, how did Bruce manage to enter his team in a different colour from his country ? I think Colin Chapman had a lot of trouble to get permission to race his team under Gold Leaf colours.

[Chris Skepis]

Don, you mean that Bruce actually got paid to be Pete Aron ??

[Roger Clark]

Don, you mean that Bruce actually got paid to be Pete Aron ??

(Chris Skepis)

There were a lot of drivers paid to be Pete Aron in 1966. MGM chose the colour so that it would look like a Japanese car!

Did the fact that Gulf sponsored McLaren in 1968 have anything to do with the change to orange?

(Rob G)

No, the Grand Prix McLaren's used Shell in 1968.

[Rob29]

Japanese colours were White & RED

[Chris Skepis]

Roger, Mike Spence also did one race (Zandvoort) wearing Pete Aron's helmet and driving a Lotus ( entered by Parnell) painted like the Yamura car. Was there any other driver wearing the same outfit for the film ?

[Rob29]

It was Chris Amon's helmet.Downfall of the Frankenheimer movie was that the plot called for Amon (AKA Pete Aron ) to become world champion,when in reality he managed only one DNS at Monza in a Brabham.I believe this was also painted white & green.

[Roger Clark]

Originally posted by Rob29
Japanese colours were White & RED

I know that but did MGM? Mike Spence also drove the Yamura at Monza, following Amon's failure to qualify. Bob Bondurant drove it at Spa (actually a Team Chamaco-Collect BRM P261)

[Chris Skepis]

Roger,
Did Bondurant wear the Aron/Amon helmet at Spa? Didn't he have a huge accident on the first lap ? Wasn't his BRM paited dark blue with a white stripe? I remember that just before the start of the race (on the film) there is some close up clips of some drivers and Bondurant is wearing his usual dark (balck or blue?) helmet with the white stripe. Let me take this hook and ask you another question about the film. Who's driving the Ferrari at Brands Hatch ? As far as I know Ferrari declared forfait and didn't take part on this race.
And another one; Was the French GP shot in 1965? We all know that the French GP in 66 was held at Reims and it was signed to Steve McQueen never released Formula One film. Was the French GP on the MGM film entirely fake ?

[Rob G]

One "Ferrari" at the British GP was Reg Parnell's Lotus 25, driven by Mike Spence. Jo Bonnier's Brabham was also painted red, but since his normal Cooper-Masers were always red, I don't know if the Brabham was outfitted exactly like a Ferrari or not.

[Roger Clark]

Chris,
This is the start of the 1966 Belgian GP. It's interesting to try and identify all the cars, but I believe Bondurant is in 10th place. Motor Sport said that his car was painted to look like a McLaren. You may be right about his helmet, I can't tell from this picture. you're certainly right that he had a big accident on the first lap.



As regards the British GP Motor Sport said:

"Bonnier was driving a Brabham-BRM belonging to MGM and it was fitted with dummy exhausts and painted red to look like a Ferrari"

and later:

"the Holywood film makers had got at Parnell's entry so that his Lotus BRM was red instead of green... Bonnier was still in the phoney pherrari no doubt more intent on being a fim star than a Grand Prix driver"

Spence in Parnell's BRM also wore a helmet to look like Mike Parkes, which is interesting as Parkes' first race was the French GP which, as you say, MGM didn't cover.

It's many years since I saw the film, so I can't help you on their coverage of the French GP.

[Chris Skepis]

Great Roger !!!

The 10th position car is probably Bondurant. But look at the 14th
position car. I think it's Phill Hill on a McLaren car painted like the Yamura and carring a MGM camera on the front right side (can you see the white spot covering the tyre ?). He filmed the first lap of the Belgian GP. It was him who first reported to the pits and race control what happened on the first lap accident.

[Barry Boor]

The French Grand Prix race in the 'Grand Prix' film was completely and totally fictitious. They took the whole crew etc to Clermont Ferrand to shoot the event because they couldn't use Reims for reasons stated above.

I have always believed that was the reason why the Clermont scenes are all arty-*arty and you get hardy any decent shots of that wonderful circuit. My suspicions are that they actually only used the pit straight and maybe a couple of other bits of track but made it look like more by fuzzing it over and fiddling with angles etc.

This is comfortably my most un-favourite racing bit from the film.

[Roger Clark]

Originally posted by Chris Skepis

The 10th position car is probably Bondurant. But look at the 14th
position car. I think it's Phill Hill on a McLaren car painted like the Yamura and carring a MGM camera on the front right side (can you see the white spot covering the tyre ?). He filmed the first lap of the Belgian GP. It was him who first reported to the pits and race control what happened on the first lap accident.

And he's already passed Jim Clark and Dan Gurney!

[vettefan]

For the writer who mentioned not having seen the '60's film "Gran Prix" for years, the Speedvision channel recently made a big splash of showing the film several times over a period of weeks. I'm sure many race fans used the opportunity to tape the show ... I did!

The movie was actually made much more interesting by intermissions filled with very interesting interviews by actor Bruce Dern of producer/director John Frankenheimer, star James Garner, and others. Included was much detail about the logistics of filming the movie. Also, Frankenheimer asserted that Garner was actually quite talented as a driver and did much of his own driving; supposedly he continued to do so during shooting even after Lloyds of London got nervous and pulled his insurance.

Also stated was that the British actor playing the (naturally) British driver character was a driving klutz who had only received his first drivers license, and that in many of his shots he had been only a passenger holding on for dear life in a two-wheeled trailer made from the back end of a F3 car disguised as an F1, and towed through tracks and around Monaco at a great rate of speed by a GT40 Ford!

[Chris Skepis]

All the 'fake' F1 cars on the film were made by Jim Russel in England. Jim told me this personaly when I payed him a visit at his home in Tetford (or somewhere near there) back in 1980 when I was racing F Ford . He told me that James Garner and Yves Montand did some really good driving when shooting the film,but Antonio Sabato and Brian Bedford had to rely on stunts. Denny Hulme, Jochen Rindt and Chris Amon did most of the 'fake' racing sequences on the film.Most of the parts which shows only the track in front of the car such as the Monaco sequence (entire lap) behind the Ferrari then Spa and Monza were shot with Amon at the wheel of a GT40.