A lovely build, David, and a great concept.
Tony was right in saying a Parnell Lotus 33 was also used as the 'Yamura' in filming Grand Prix. I've just realised there's a photo of it in the 1966 Dutch GP in Paul Parker's Formula 1 in Camera 1960-69. Same colours. Engine a low-exhaust two-litre BRM V8. (Another book lists the Parnell/Mike Spence car all year as a 25, which would be getting on in years; perhaps it was a rebuilt 25.)
Spence is wearing a Chris Amon-style helmet (minus the kiwi emblem) as used by James Garner in the movie. The original plan was to film Amon as 'Pete Aron' racing a McLaren M2B during the 1966 season but, as mentioned above, the team never got that second car to a race and other drivers wore 'his' helmet, including Bruce McLaren.
McLaren's sole racing white and green M2B was apparently filmed with both the Ford V8 (high, central exhausts) and the side-exhaust Serenissima V8.
I haven't seen the film for many years and can't recall how they coped with several different cars for the 'Yamura'. Probably not very well.
Yet another car used in filming was a two-litre Brabham BT11-BRM, owned by MGM and presumably white+green too, but it never started a GP. Amon tried unsuccessfully to qualify it for the Italian GP. Michael Clark's 2010 book Chris Amon quotes him as recalling that 'it was very much a "film-car" ... it didn't exactly have all the right bits on it'.
Chris did do a lot of other driving for the film, but at the wheel of a GT40 camera car. Phil Hill drove a Lotus 25 purely as a camera car, and apparently the GT40 too.
Another car used for filming, at least as a camera car, was a Formula Libre McLaren M3A (chassis 3) with a 4.7-litre Ford V8. It or its components were later sold to Bobby Olthoff in South Africa and he rebuilt and ran it in the combined F1-F5000 national championship there for some years. I have a few photos of it (in red and yellow) at Kyalami in 1968. UK veterans may remember M3A-2 as Patsy Burt's hillclimb and sprint championship car.
Rob J
Tony was right in saying a Parnell Lotus 33 was also used as the 'Yamura' in filming Grand Prix. I've just realised there's a photo of it in the 1966 Dutch GP in Paul Parker's Formula 1 in Camera 1960-69. Same colours. Engine a low-exhaust two-litre BRM V8. (Another book lists the Parnell/Mike Spence car all year as a 25, which would be getting on in years; perhaps it was a rebuilt 25.)
Spence is wearing a Chris Amon-style helmet (minus the kiwi emblem) as used by James Garner in the movie. The original plan was to film Amon as 'Pete Aron' racing a McLaren M2B during the 1966 season but, as mentioned above, the team never got that second car to a race and other drivers wore 'his' helmet, including Bruce McLaren.
McLaren's sole racing white and green M2B was apparently filmed with both the Ford V8 (high, central exhausts) and the side-exhaust Serenissima V8.
I haven't seen the film for many years and can't recall how they coped with several different cars for the 'Yamura'. Probably not very well.
Yet another car used in filming was a two-litre Brabham BT11-BRM, owned by MGM and presumably white+green too, but it never started a GP. Amon tried unsuccessfully to qualify it for the Italian GP. Michael Clark's 2010 book Chris Amon quotes him as recalling that 'it was very much a "film-car" ... it didn't exactly have all the right bits on it'.
Chris did do a lot of other driving for the film, but at the wheel of a GT40 camera car. Phil Hill drove a Lotus 25 purely as a camera car, and apparently the GT40 too.
Another car used for filming, at least as a camera car, was a Formula Libre McLaren M3A (chassis 3) with a 4.7-litre Ford V8. It or its components were later sold to Bobby Olthoff in South Africa and he rebuilt and ran it in the combined F1-F5000 national championship there for some years. I have a few photos of it (in red and yellow) at Kyalami in 1968. UK veterans may remember M3A-2 as Patsy Burt's hillclimb and sprint championship car.
Rob J
