primotipo…

As Jeremy Clarkson would say. The 3 litre Formula 1 ushered in another era when a surfeit of power over chassis grip made the cars spectacular to watch and a challenge to drive…

Here Graham Hill #7 gets off pole with a minimum of Firestone wheelspin, not so Jack Brabham #3 and Dan Gurney #9, Repco V8 and Gurney-Weslake V12 leaving behind plenty of ‘Goodyear’. The noses of the cars behind are Clark’s yellow striped Lotus and Bruce McLaren in Dan’s second Eagle, his own car being not quite yet ready.

Bruce McLaren getting the feel of the Eagle T1G Weslake. Q5 and retired on lap 26 with ignition failure. He also raced the car at Silverstone and the Nurburgring (The Cahier Archive)

Dan was on top of his game, he won the Belgian Grand Prix a fortnight before in his Eagle T1G and Lotus the first race for the 49 and its Cosworth engine two weeks before that. But it was the ‘old stager’ Brabham who took the French Grand Prix win in his BT24 from teammate Denny Hulme and Jackie Stewart’s BRM P261.

Brabham’s BT24 ahead of Dan Gurney’s Eagle T1G DNF fuel line. Circuit Bugatti 1967 (unattributed)

The Automobile Club de France laid out a ‘pissant’ circuit built for the racing school which also used the start-finish straight of the classic 24 hour circuit but the ‘Circuit Bugatti’ had none of the atmosphere, grandeur or challenge of Reims, Rouen or Clermont Ferrand the other options available to them!

The ‘punters’ reacted accordingly, only 20000 showed up, the race was held at Rouen the following year.

Grid ready to go, G Hill popping on the Nomex, Bruce McLaren in an Eagle T1G and to his right Jochen Rindt’s Cooper T81B Maserati DNF engine (Getty)

#4 Hulme’s Brabham BT24 Repco 2nd in front of Jack’s car, #16 is Guy Ligier’s Cooper T81 Maserati N/Class. Le Mans paddock 1967. How small, light and neat do those BT24’s look? Champions in ’67 of course with Hulme D (unattributed)

Superb shot of Chris Amon’s Ferrari 312. He qualified 7th and ran as high as 3rd before the throttle cable broke at half distance (Sutton)

Jack lookin’ pretty happy with a good days work in his BT24 Repco both before the race and after its successful conclusion…

(Getty)

Credits: The Cahier Archive, Getty Images, Sutton Images

Tailpiece: You can take the Racing Driver out of the Engineer…

Ever the engineer Bruce helps with a plug change on his Weslake V12. Le Mans 1967 (Getty Images)