John Frankenhiemer's "Grand Prix" was another of my earliest cinema going experiences,so that effects the "rating",and the split screen titles are clear in my memory. The general consensus that racing films are naff ,is borne out by this .In fact it set the standard,as in: The racing,and especially crash scenes are fantasic..on car cameras,multiple perspectives and all...but in between we have to put up with a laboured ,predictable "love story/fightback,/comeback/tragedy,plot. The same went/goes for "LeMans" a few years later. Where the crash scenes got even better,but the backstory remained as pedestrian,like they had to get out and push.One major factor dates "Grand Prix" ,in that ,horrific injury,and deaths used to be common during a Formula One racing season.Making a fiction out of it just seemed pointless.