Ford v Ferrari

There were some good scenes sprinkled about in this, particularly the one where Eva “Boom Boom” Marie Saint is not allowed to ride in the back of the ambulance with Jean-Paul Sartre. But his real wife does. Take that, superficial girl-toy wenches.

And Eva “Boom Boom” Marie Saint earned her money in that last scene where she holds up her bloody hands to the crowed and yells, “Is that what you want?” That’s a great shot across the bow at the bloodthirsty press and public.

I remember the smarmy and dick-headed brother of Princess Diana at her funeral bemoaning the press and blaming them for her death. What a coward. If the public wouldn’t buy the newspapers filled with this stuff, the press would not have been following her. Kudos to the honest filmmakers of Grand Prix for including a scene like this.

If Mr. Kung weren’t already married, I think we would fight over this woman:

A different ending would most definitely have been preferred.

I would have put Eva “Boom Boom” Marie Saint in as a substitute driver for Maverick who, for some reason, started to feel light in the head. (“Boom Boom” can do that to any man.)

With her delicate bone structure, it would be an easy fit into the race car seat. Four tires, a full tank of fuel, and soon her long, blond hair would be flowing out the back of her helmet, waving in the 200 mph slipstream like golden threads of Frenchy freedom.

But instead of heading toward the start/finish line, she would hang a left at the next intersection (these tracks usually run through a small town or village) and head on to Paris for a shopping spree. The valet parking attendant would surely take charge as Eva Marie Saint, credit card in hand, could take the Metro Saint-Paul to sort through the fashion delights of Paris. The end.

The trivia section at IMDB for Grand Prix notes that James Garner was a very good driver and could hold his own in informal races with the professionals.

Swedish actress, Harriet “Boom” Andersson, was originally cast in the mistress role for Jean-Paul Sartre. But James Garner wanted, and got, Eva Marie "Boom Boom" Saint instead.



Harriet gets only one “Boom” in my book. And that may be generous.

One word that didn’t creep into my reviews of any of these racing movies is “cruel.” But that’s the word that was missing. The trivia sections mentions:



Some of the stark brutality comes through in the film. The trivia section also mentions a book, The Cruel Sport, by Robert Daley. One reviewer writes:



We saw that cruelty at the end of the Daytona 500. One driver might be dead (thankfully he wasn’t), but the celebrations by the winner go on. The same thing occurred in Grand Prix. One can certainly have an appreciation that the sensibilities are different. These guys are used to moving up in the pack when something bad happens to someone else. That’s just part of racing. And that’s probably never going to change, especially with the more frivolous yutes taking over as drivers as they have in NASCAR.

The Formula 1 season is coming up. I took a look and they now have about 22 races, an all-time high. That includes the one in China that has been officially postponed. There’s now a race in Vietnam, if you can believe it. But there is no longer a Formula 1 race in Germany. There must be a story behind that. The very engine of capitalism, modern Germany, has no race but the Communists in Hanoi do. Something is rotten in Denmark, although there are events in relatively nearby Belgium and The Netherlands.

The one crash by Jean-Paul Sartra that took out a couple spectators might have been a revisit of the 1961 Italian Grand Prix where driver Wolfgang von Trips tangled with Jim Clark on the second lap. Wolfgang von Trips and 15 spectators were killed. This was on the Monza course shown in the movie and it happened on the section just before the banked oval section. More on that race here.



Apparently these banked sections are no longer in use.

I don't recall any racers, but I did have some of those matchbook vehicles and such like.  I remember there were a few Saladin armored cars, which an Army brat naturally would recall.  There were also lorries and some older vehicles (I remember there was a Daimler).

I'm sure the squirrels and rabbits appreciate that old car as much as you do.

Let me say a bit more about what I thought was an excellent summary-view documentary of Formula 1 racing: 1

I found this to be a balanced documentary. It highlighted the dangers (and the reckless attitudes toward those dangers) as well as what drives the racers despite the obvious dangers. That is, this isn’t a hatchet-job by some effete journalist. Much of it is told from the inside by racers and those closely aligned with it.

One fellow makes a great point near the end. I’ll paraphrase: “If you offered these guys a choice between a car that was perfectly safe, and one that was very dangerous but two seconds per lap faster, all drivers would choose the dangerous car. Thus any kind of safety reforms must come from race organizers.”

There were drivers such as Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Niki Lauda who were staunch advocates for safety reform. But at the end of the day (despite pleas from driver union head), the pull of competition was too great. In one hilarious scene, the drivers had all agreed to boycott a certain track because it was deemed unsafe. But I think it was the true asshole Jacky Ickx who started his car in the pits. Hearing the roar of just this one engine broke the will of the other drivers and they all joined the starting grid. I don’t know if tragedy ensued in that particular race or not.

There were several milestones on the way to pulling back from being an outright blood sport, which Formula 1 surely was. One could say that three specific events were socially influential in effecting change: driver Jim Clark’s death (1968), Niki Lauda (driver, Ferrari) quitting a race during a pouring rain which he thought too dangerous to run, and finally the death of the wildly popular Ayrton Senna in 1994.

The number of deaths has steeply declined since then. There was a gap from Senna’s death to the death of John Dawson-Damer in 2000. Then there was a thankful gap from the death of Fritz Giatz in 2002 to the death of Denis Welch in 2014. There have unfortunately been a couple deaths since then. And this list of Formula 1 deaths.

While searching for programs on Formula 1 on my Roku, I ran into a program called Engineering Connection on a free channel called Real Truth. You can search for the channel and add it.

The Real Truth channel contains season 3 of Engineering Connections which includes a program on the technological advances made to Formula 1 cars. I found it fascinating from start to finish. Every principle mentioned is tangibly demonstrated in one way or another. Richard Hammond is the humorous, self-effacing presenter. But this is not dumbed-down. He does a great job getting behind the scenes and showing cool stuff.

He demonstrates by practical example how the Formula 1 engines (which are small by family-car standards) can produce so much power. The cylinders fit very tightly in their bores. He demonstrates what this means with a homemade air cannon.

I’ve watched another show on a liquid natural gas super-tanker. This was truly an excellent behind-the-scenes look at how all that works. I knew that stainless steel didn't rust (at least easily), but I never new it was strong even at cryogenic temperatures.

The Real Truth channel also offered a program on the HMS Hood and how it was sunk. A crew borrows Paul Allen’s yuge yacht (which doubles as a research ship) and goes to the Denmark Straight off Greenland to take a second look with an ROV. These fellows had found the ship in an earlier expedition but have kept the coordinates secret.

You get some interesting views of the wreckage. I can’t say I was astonished at the findings. This was obviously a lucky magazine hit by the Bismarck and supposedly confirmed in the wreckage by ROV cameras, although I found the interpretation of the wreckage to go by awfully fast and thus wasn’t particularly convincing.

The documentary does a slip-shot fast-forward of its explanation of how the shot was lucky and hit the magazines. It just said that it went through “a thin part of the deck” but shows no graphics in that regard or offers any context.

Still, the documentary is interesting in some aspect, if only to see this amazing boat once owned by Allen, the Octopus.

I think I would have been more thrilled at just a tour of the yacht. It looks amazingly impressive. But what we find out about the Bismarck is relatively nil. I’d put this documentary, although interesting in places, as one of those “puff” or filler documentaries.

But the one on the technology of the modern Formula 1 cars was very interesting. In concentrated on these aspects:

1) The ability of a smaller engine to produce more power. This was shown via his air cannon. Very entertaining in a Mythbusters sort of way.

2) The strength of carbon fiber. This was demonstrated amazingly in a torque machine. Presenter Richard Hammond holds in one hand a driveshaft made from metal. It is heavy and it looks strong. In his other hand is light and seemingly flimsy driveshaft made of carbon fiber.

He starts with the metal one and it fails after 1500 units (Newtons?) of twisting force. He then sticks the carbon fiber one in there and it doesn’t fail until about 6500. That is really an amazing demonstration. How can something that is so much lighter be stronger?

3) Another segment (not quite as interesting) was on the use of forged magnesium for the wheels/hubs. The gist of it is that they are very light and very strong (and very expensive). The slight change of igniting the rims (which has happened) is said to be more than worth it.

4) They show the new Kevlar/rubber enclosure for the gas tanks. He give a couple good demonstrations. One is how a solid tank is more subject to breaking open than a flexible bag type of one. The other demonstration involves a flaming arrow and a bag full of gas. Needless to say, the Kevlar/rubber gas tank stopped the arrow. But it was fun to see all the same.

5) It was also noted that carbon fiber is used in the body of the car. Basically the structure is so strong it needs no other framework. They didn’t get into that aspect in much detail.

All of these things, and more (such as changes to the tracks themselves which this didn’t get into), are extensive and expensive. But it has made Formula 1 crashes nearly as routine and safe as NASCAR crashes.



Again, I hate to be too picky, but it was a fairly slipshod documentary regarding the details. It did mention that both Naval inquiries (I think there were two) came to no firm conclusions. There just wasn’t much information to them other than “It blew up in one big explosion and then very promptly sunk.”

What this documentary did apparently establish was that the Hood was in the midst of a proper turn according to standard strategy wherein you would move full speed toward the target (minimizing exposure) and then abruptly turn broadside and bring all guns to bear. They could see the position of the rudder. It therefore seems likely that the Hood was hit while making its turn. But eyewitness accounts from the Prince of Wales apparently aren't helpful in determining much or confirming much, so who knows?

One of the highlights of the documentary is when they showed a newly discovered color movie taken of the Hood. Although you hardly need color to describe its big, imposing slab-gray paint job, it’s still a remarkable sight all the same.