Film: Nine Days in Summer (1967 F1)

[Ace-Garageguy]

To me, this is one of the best racing films ever made. It's about the development of the 3-liter Cosworth-Ford V8-powered Lotus 49. 

Nice to see Colin Chapman and Keith Duckworth actually in the shops, supervising some of the work.

From my own perspective, this was the absolute golden-age of F1. The cars were clean, elegant, relatively simple and starkly purposeful...but still sensuously beautiful.

[Miatatom]

My sentiments exactly! Thanks for sharing!

[afx]

All Duckworth did was design the winningest engine in F1 history, the legendary Ford DFV.  It would dominate F1 of decades. Great film.

[Howard Cohen]

I just finished reading the story of Jackie Stewart and he, and other GP drivers, fought hard to get safer cars. Yes, the cars of the 60s were simple, stylishly beautiful and exciting to watch, but also death tubes with little hope of surviving a crash without serious injury  One of my favourite GP cars is the early 60s Ferrari Shark Nose followed closely by the rear engine Lotus. After reading so many books about GP driving in the 60s, I am amazed some of the drivers survived at all. 

Edited March 31, 2016 by Howard Cohen

[angelo7]

Thanks for posting this.  It was great.  The racing game Grand Prix Legends game was made to simulate this season, 1967.

[unclescott58]

Thanks for posting this Bill. It was great! And I've never seen it before. '67 my favorite year for everything automotive.

[Roger U]

Beautiful, my favorite era of F-1 cars. I remember hearing of this film but had never seen it before, thank you for posting it. 

[unclescott58]

Just found and ordered a copy of the film on DVD, on eBay. The price was right. The photo of the case it comes in looks like it's commercially made product. So hopefully the picture will be at least as good as seen above. Again, I liked this film. Yet I never knew of it before last night.

[Lizard Racing]

Thanks for posting this video, it brought back lots of memories.  I still remember who won all those races.

A good reference book for the 1967 season is Fast and Furious by Richard Garrett.  This is NOT about car thieves, but the author following each team through a race during the season.

[HotRodaSaurus]

Got this on video tape someplace. It was given away with copies of Motor Sport magazine. It actually made me go out and buy a big scale Tamiya Lotus 49(the green one) to build Graham Hill's version of the car.

[HotRodaSaurus]

Thanks for posting this video, it brought back lots of memories.  I still remember who won all those races.

A good reference book for the 1967 season is Fast and Furious by Richard Garrett.  This is NOT about car thieves, but the author following each team through a race during the season.

There are also a couple of films titled The Fast and the Furious not related to the modern series. One, a hot rod film staring 50s stalwart John Ireland and Dorothy Malone, the other a comedy mystery staring Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern. Nothing to do with motor racing, just thought I would point it out.

[Dragline]

That front run just kills me. Cold tires, lousy brakes. Those guys had more stones than brains.

[sjordan2]

My only experience of attending F1 races in person was at the French and British races in 1968. I was surprised at how high-pitched and bee-like the engines sounded. And yes, they were dangerous -- at the French Grand Prix, Jo Schlesser spun out past the curve where I was standing, rolled up a hill and burst into flames, killing himself and some spectators. Fortunately, most of the scene except for the flames and smoke was obscured from my sight by trees, so I didn't know exactly what was happening at the moment. But you don't want to know what the smell was like; it involved more than burning fuel and auto parts.

EDIT... Evidently, his Honda was a brand-new car with lots of magnesium parts including the chassis, which was largely responsible for it burning so quickly. The car was first offered to Surtees, who turned it down because he thought it was too dangerous.

Edited April 2, 2016 by sjordan2