This short film was shot in 1987 as part of the British sports television show “Grandstand”, it could very well have been lost to history but fortunately it’s been uploaded from an old VHS tape to YouTube.
The clip includes Murray visiting the Ferrari headquarters in Maranello to speak personally with Enzo Ferrari about his past and present, Enzo would pass away a year after this was filmed, and it remains one of the last on camera interviews he gave.
Later in the short film Murray goes to visit John Barnard in Guildford, England, where he had set up Ferrari’s Guildford Technical Office – so named as its initials were “GTO”, the same as Ferrari’s most famous creation.
Barnard is one of the most important car designers to ever work in Formula 1, and perhaps even motorsport in general. He pioneered the now ubiquitous carbon fiber composite chassis first seen in 1981 in the McLaren MP4/1, and he introduced the now universally used semi-automatic gearbox with Ferrari in 1989.
This film, albeit short, offers an interesting glimpse into the personalities of the two men, at a pivotal time in Formula 1 history.
The interviews are conducted by Murray Walker – a man who needs no introduction. He was the voice of Formula 1 for generations, providing live commentary for UK and international audiences from 1976 till 2001.
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.