In the Belgian GP at Spa-Francorschamps in 1966 Phil Hill started the race from the back of the grid in a McLaren-Ford. (There was another McLaren with a Serenisima engine and Bruce McLaren behind the wheel but that car was a non-starter.)
But almost nobody mentions that he participated this race.
One source mentions him as 'camera car'. Was he driving in a car outside the championship ? Was he filming for the movie 'Grand Prix' (as I suspect) ? Did he finish the race ? What was his pace ? Who prepared the car ? Who entered him (he isn't featured on Forix entry list for that race) Why a McLaren ? It was a new team and apart from Bruce nobody else had driven a McLaren before at that time, strange choice for a camera car, why not an old Lotus or something ?
Hopefully someone can shed some light into this strange afair.
BTW : Why did Bruce switch from a Ford to a Serenisima engine for a while in 1966 ?
Phil Hill @ Spa 1966
Started by
William Hunt
, May 05 2002 15:37
5 replies to this topic
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#2
Rob29
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Posted 05 May 2002 - 16:14
It was a camera car.Had a 4.7 litre Ford V8 motor-NOT F1. McLaren must have had a deal with MGM
#3
Milan Fistonic
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Posted 05 May 2002 - 20:16
The latest newsletter from the Bruce McLaren Trust has an article on the McLaren M3As. The car used in the Belgian GP was M3A/3 and was built for specially for the film work. It's later history is detailed with the car ending up in South Africa.
#4
Gary Davies
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Posted 06 May 2002 - 08:57
Here's part of a longer posting I submitted some time ago in another forum. It covers Phil's appearance at Spa in 1966.
" ... So to 1966 and the record shows that Phil had entries in 3 Grands Prix. But each of these was, in its own way ... different.
First up was Monaco. Remember, this was the year in which Frankenheimer's "Grand Prix" was filmed and Phil was recruited by MGM to obtain action shots during practice. The car to which a movie camera was attached was a Lotus 33-Climax which had been purchased from Bonnier's Anglo-Swiss Racing Team. The car (chassis R9, ex-Team Lotus/Spence) had been quite badly damaged in practice for the recent Syracuse Grand Prix by Baghetti (who only had it on loan!) when he spun into a wall in practice, bending the tub and wrecking the gearbox. Hill was an official entry at Monaco - issued with number 20 - and one source (Steve Small's Grand Prix Who's Who) suggests the entrant was listed as Phil Hill himself. He went out in all three sessions and received official times, ending up a little over 10 seconds off the pace. He didn't start in the race.
As an amusing aside, a lot of people, for obvious reasons, were hot under the collar about the Hollywood presence at the Grands Prix they filmed at, nowhere more so than at Monaco where everybody trips over each other anyway. Jenks, in Motor Sport, was more miffed than most and several times during the year, he "had a go" at the film makers, particularly over the presence of the camera cars. Here's part of his Monaco blast: "Certain members of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association opened their mouths to complain but before they could make a sound someone stuffed bundles of dollars into the mouths and that shut them up!"
Phil also ran at Spa (can't determine if it was an official entry or a "special exception" for MGM), this time in McLaren's third "customer" car, described by DSJ as "... in effect, single seater versions of the McLaren-Elva sports racer ...", fitted with a 4.7 litre Ford V8. MGM owned the car and as at Monaco, he was issued with a number - 28. At Spa, he only appeared in the first (Friday) session but he did start the race from the rear of the grid and came into the pits at the end of the first lap.
I wonder whether that was because MGM had only been allowed one lap by the organisers or did he come in prematurely because of the heavy rain on the other side of the track and resultant accidents all over the place? ..."
Gary
" ... So to 1966 and the record shows that Phil had entries in 3 Grands Prix. But each of these was, in its own way ... different.
First up was Monaco. Remember, this was the year in which Frankenheimer's "Grand Prix" was filmed and Phil was recruited by MGM to obtain action shots during practice. The car to which a movie camera was attached was a Lotus 33-Climax which had been purchased from Bonnier's Anglo-Swiss Racing Team. The car (chassis R9, ex-Team Lotus/Spence) had been quite badly damaged in practice for the recent Syracuse Grand Prix by Baghetti (who only had it on loan!) when he spun into a wall in practice, bending the tub and wrecking the gearbox. Hill was an official entry at Monaco - issued with number 20 - and one source (Steve Small's Grand Prix Who's Who) suggests the entrant was listed as Phil Hill himself. He went out in all three sessions and received official times, ending up a little over 10 seconds off the pace. He didn't start in the race.
As an amusing aside, a lot of people, for obvious reasons, were hot under the collar about the Hollywood presence at the Grands Prix they filmed at, nowhere more so than at Monaco where everybody trips over each other anyway. Jenks, in Motor Sport, was more miffed than most and several times during the year, he "had a go" at the film makers, particularly over the presence of the camera cars. Here's part of his Monaco blast: "Certain members of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association opened their mouths to complain but before they could make a sound someone stuffed bundles of dollars into the mouths and that shut them up!"
Phil also ran at Spa (can't determine if it was an official entry or a "special exception" for MGM), this time in McLaren's third "customer" car, described by DSJ as "... in effect, single seater versions of the McLaren-Elva sports racer ...", fitted with a 4.7 litre Ford V8. MGM owned the car and as at Monaco, he was issued with a number - 28. At Spa, he only appeared in the first (Friday) session but he did start the race from the rear of the grid and came into the pits at the end of the first lap.
I wonder whether that was because MGM had only been allowed one lap by the organisers or did he come in prematurely because of the heavy rain on the other side of the track and resultant accidents all over the place? ..."
Gary
#5
Ray Bell
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Posted 06 May 2002 - 09:07
This topic is discussed in this thread...
http://www.atlasf1.c...=&threadid=6190
.....and here is a picture showing the car struggling not to get amongst too many tailenders off the start:
http://www.atlasf1.c...=&threadid=6190
.....and here is a picture showing the car struggling not to get amongst too many tailenders off the start:
#6
Doug Nye
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Posted 06 May 2002 - 21:00
When Phil stopped at the end of the opening lap at Spa '66 he was the first to give news to the anxious teams in the pits about what had happened to so many of their missing cars and drivers. For example he was able to tell Tony Rudd and the BRM pit crew that he had seen Graham Hill 'standing in the grass by the trackside' and others that he had seen their cars spinning but was pretty confident that nobody had gone off "too badly". He had not spotted Stewart's BRM, smashed into a banana-shape and stowed away out of sight some 10-15-feet below track level in the garden/yard at Masta hamlet. The footage shot from his car on that opening lap is worth seeing, of course.
I should add that the crashing cars had severed the track PA system so there was deathly silence around the course other than the surviving cars still bawling round, and while the organisers' field telephone system was most probably still working there was absolutely NO feedback from them to the pit crews. They had simply seen an entire race grid storm away out of sight on a dry road ... and then after an inordinately long opening lap...very few widely spaced, rain and grime-streaked survivors come by...
DCN
I should add that the crashing cars had severed the track PA system so there was deathly silence around the course other than the surviving cars still bawling round, and while the organisers' field telephone system was most probably still working there was absolutely NO feedback from them to the pit crews. They had simply seen an entire race grid storm away out of sight on a dry road ... and then after an inordinately long opening lap...very few widely spaced, rain and grime-streaked survivors come by...
DCN
