"Grand Prix"

[Heel n Toe]

I watched and recorded it on TCM tonight. It's been a while since I've seen it... such great racing scenes showing those beautiful old F1 cars.

Question... remember the scene with the exhaust piece falling off and bouncing/sliding back and down the Monza banking and hitting the Ferrari?

Have any of you ever read anything about how that was done? In today's world, I wouldn't think twice about it because I'd know it was CGI.

I wonder if they experimented with a rearward shot from the camera car, dropping a piece of exhaust (probably made of plastic) from a certain point on the banking until they knew exactly how far back the Ferrari should be in order for the piece to hit it.

[sc_rufctr]

That was probably a fluke... A lot of things happened while shooting that movie that weren't supposed to.

Also... Some time ago I read about one of the drivers in the film loosing part of his foot
because he injured it in a crash and some brake fluid got into the wound.

They also burned a Ferrari by accident!

[David]

I love this story about the movie:

"At the start Enzo told Frankenheimer that not only could he NOT use any of his cars, he couldn’t use the name Ferrari in the movie. After shooting live footage at Monaco, Frankenheimer called Enzo to ask him to reconsider by just watching the 30 minutes he’d put together. Of course Enzo replied that he didn’t have a projector, blah-blah-blah. Frankenheimer replied: Will you watch it; Yes or No? Frankenheimer chartered a plane, took movie, projector, AV aides, etc and set it all up in Enzo’s office. According to Frankenheimer after the film finished Enzo “bear” hugged him and said you can have anything. The factory, the race team, and the cars, anything!"

[URY914]

[URY914]

[URY914]

I'll post the rest of the story if you ask nice..........

[RPKESQ]

Richard Sylbert was the Production Designer on this film and was a very good friend on mine. We have spent hours together and did quite a bit of fly-fishing and shooting together. I miss him immensely.

[GLASEM]

As this aging baby boomer recalls it was David Piper that lost his foot during the filming of "Le Mans" and not "Grand Prix"

[URY914]

[hcariss]

Hi
Please would you e-mail the scans of that article to me, I would really like to have it for reference. huge at amonggiants.net
Its really tough to shoot cars creatively. I think those scenes are terrific and would really like to read that and see pics of the camera mounts / system.
HughR knows far more about H&S on set than me but Im 100% certain you would never get away with that now the sad thing is CGI work can never match the real thing.
Cheers

[URY914]

Hugh,

I sent them to you

Paul

[URY914]

[URY914]

[URY914]

[URY914]

Hugh,

PM me your email address. The email I sent you bounced back

Paul

[URY914]

[URY914]

[Zeke]

I saw "Gran Prix" in the mid afternoon at a theater near to the college I was attending in the first week of distribution. Being the afternoon, I wasn't the least bit high or imbibing, both things college age guys did and do frequently. The theater was all but empty.

I left a changed person and went to work in the race car industry thinking I could manage to race someday, somehow. Furthest I got was in karts and I did karts for many years, on and off. I hung the last kart on the wall at age 47, but I managed to get some DE days in a 911 and 914 since.

If you've driven a kart on a normal sports car track at speeds of 100 mph, or so, depending on the track, you've basically experienced what those early F1 drivers were doing. It's rough, nasty and will render you into rubber.

But, it's damn good stuff.

This is me circa 1987 at Riverside going into T6:

[Zeke]

I found this:



These guys are doing at least a buck and a quarter on the straights. Talk about getting to know your fellow racer!

[David]

Cool video!

I raced big tracks for 5 years. I haven't raced for almost 3 years now, but here's a shot from us on a big track. I'm #9.