Amazing, never paid much attention to it before but watching a program on bbc4 with hill ,jim clark etc.
No barriers and forests next to the track. Hard blokes
Agreed interesting program
A nun for the only first aid! Burned alive in the cars, shit.
Graham Hill taken to a hospital that was closed by a part time ambulance driver with two broken legs.
An ambulance driver with two broken legs ? Hardcore 😉
Brilliant programme. Getting misty eyed at the sight of those cars.
pah! they had seatbelts! fangio didn't (and a leather helmet) those were the true racing days
1 in three chance of surving a race arn't confidence inspiring odds, no wonder they were hell raisers off track
Holy cow. After that scene can see why we have a boring formula 1 races now.
[i]no wonder they were hell raisers off track [/i]
Including (the greatest of them all) Jim Clark? Gentleman on & off the track.
Horrific footage from Zandvoort at the end 🙁
Has anyone been to the Jim Clark Room in Duns? Worth going?
Amazing program...the scene at the end with the driver burning to death with one driver and a tiny fire extinguisher trying to save him while the race carried on was brutal.
There's a game for the PC called 'Grand Prix Legends' that was all about driving 1960's cars. As it came it was a poor looking but great to play game and a huge community built up around it because it was so easy to configure and created brand new circuit, car and helmet maps. Tools to modify the configs were developed, online racing leagues, the works. I loved it.
Just playing the game was amazing and showed you how hard driving one of those cars must have been. 500bhp and very little weight, they were horrendously nervous cars, must have taken some real skill driving one of the real things.
gpl is ace +1, and still is. one of the hardest driving games i've ever played. you can only imagine how hard it must have been in real life.
legends those guys.
have to look out the program on iplayer. what was it called?
grand prix something was on bbc4 tonight at 9 i think
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00z8v18/Grand_Prix_The_Killer_Years/
Massive respect for Jackie Stewart fighting the way he did for improved safety.
I went to Duns last year, I read Jim Clarks autobiography as a teenager and been a fanboy ever since. The "museum" is more of a private collection of his cups etc, very pleased I went but there isn't much there and its a 15 min visit really.
Mind you there is a pic of Ayrton Senna signing the visitors book and my 8 year old was made up standing in the same spot as Senna while paying homage to Jom Clark (actually so was I 🙂 )
The program is recorded and I hope to watch it tonight
Was a great programme. 1 in 3 chance of [u]survival[/u] as a GP driver!!!!
Some shocking footage. I find it hard to comprehend how only 40 years ago racing would continue past post crash infernos with no attempt to stop the cars to allow ambulance or fire team access (if they were lucky enough to have either available).
The 60's and 70's were indeed tragic, and regularly horrific decades in terms of driver deaths.
The thing I liked most about the racing back then was that you could actually see the drivers faces, see how hard they were working to drive the cars, and the drivers had real personalities.
Modern racing may be a lot safer, but with the drivers cocooned in their cars such that they are almost impossible to see, with relatively barely any emotion being shown when they do appear, the cars may as well be radio-controlled.
Their abilities and bravery are impressive, but I prefer Motorcycle racing simply because I can see the drivers properly. There's a much more human element, rather than watching a 4-wheeled computer...