The year of 1967 can truly be called an epoch for Grand Prix racing – it is considered the penultimate of the “classic” GP years. This was the final season that the cars were painted in the colors representing their country of origin, it is the final year before corporate sponsors and ugly aerodynamic appendages appear on F-1 cars. This was also the second year of the 3.0 liter formula, the so called “return to power”, after the previous 1.5 liter engine rules.
Racing in this era was much different than today. A number of talented American drivers had infiltrated the Grand Prix ranks and the Formula One drivers had also come to the lucrative North America races venturing to try the Indy 500, stock cars, the Can Am series and long distance sports car races. There were also non-championship Formula one races and only six to ten points scoring Grand Prix races in a year, plus many of the top drivers also competed in Formula 2 races. But it was also extremely dangerous and often tragic - in the next few years such great drivers as McLaren, Rindt, Siffert, Clark and Bandini would all perish in their race cars.
It was a fascinating season of Grand Prix racing and interestingly that the Lotus nor the Eagle would win the 1967 World Championship that year. Neither the Lotus 49 or the Eagle lived up to their potential that season, both being hampered by terrible reliability, but the new Lotus and the handsome Eagle had glorious moments. Instead both the drivers and constructors championship would go to the talented and hard working Repco-Brabham team with Denny Hulme crowned the Grand Prix champion at the very last race of the year just barely beat out his teammate and team owner Jack Brabham (imagine that today!). The elegant simplicity of the Brabham provided outstanding reliability with competitive performance that on occasion was greater than the Eagle and Lotus - very impressive when you consider the engine power of the Brabham was much less than the other cars.
Read the rest of the review at this link.
