Grand Prix (1966 Film)
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40 free Grand Prix (1966 Film) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Grand Prix put audiences in the driver's seat at a time when in-car cameras were almost unheard of in motor racing. John Frankenheimer took his cast and crew through a real Formula One season in 1966, filming at the circuits while the actual championship was being fought, and the result still looks startling on a big screen. This quiz covers the story and the people in it: American driver Pete Aron, the veteran Jean-Pierre Sarti, their rivals and the women around them. It also goes behind the scenes, to the international cast, the working racing drivers who advised the production and turned up on screen, the tricks used to stage the crashes, the music, the title design and the awards. The questions run from easy openers for anyone who has seen the film once to deep cuts for people who know their 1960s motor racing. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will pick up something new even when you guess.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Hollywood star rejected a role in Grand Prix and later made his own racing film, Le Mans?
Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen had planned a competing picture called Day of the Champion, but its troubles pushed his racing film back to 1971.
Q 02What did the Grand Prix film crew build to hurl real cars through the air for its crash scenes?
A hydrogen cannon
A hydrogen cannon worked like a pea shooter, director John Frankenheimer said. It flung real cars at up to 135 miles an hour, and no models were used.
Q 03Which Italian team first resisted Grand Prix, then let its director shoot inside the factory?
Ferrari
Ferrari feared the film would sensationalize its work, until John Frankenheimer sent its management about thirty minutes of early footage.
Q 04Which star of Akira Kurosawa's samurai films made his Hollywood debut as a team owner in Grand Prix?
Toshiro Mifune
Toshiro Mifune made 16 films with Kurosawa, among them Rashomon and Seven Samurai, before he turned to roles abroad.
Q 05Most racing cars in the 1966 film Grand Prix were mock-ups built from cars of which junior class?
Formula Three
Formula Three cars were dressed up to pass for the real thing. James Garner's had a taller roll bar and no seat, because he was too tall to fit.
Q 06In the film Grand Prix, American driver Pete Aron signs with which fictional Japanese racing team?
Yamura
Yamura Motors is a newcomer to the sport, and Aron joins it hoping to shake off his reputation as a reckless, second-tier driver.
Q 07Which future Arrested Development star plays Pat, a British driver's unhappy wife, in Grand Prix?
Jessica Walter
Jessica Walter had made her film debut only two years earlier, in Lilith, and decades later became the scheming Lucille Bluth.
Q 08The title sequence of the film Grand Prix builds up to the season's opening race in which location?
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is also where a camera car lapped during the real race weekend, driven by a former World Champion.
Q 09Grand Prix (1966) won Oscars for sound, sound effects and which other craft?
Film Editing
Film Editing completed a clean sweep. Grand Prix won all three Oscars it was nominated for, one of six films with multiple wins that night.
Q 10What career milestone did Grand Prix (1966) mark for director John Frankenheimer?
First color film
First color film for him, and a personal one too. John Frankenheimer had been an amateur race car driver himself and took on the project with real enthusiasm.
Q 11Which On the Waterfront Oscar winner plays Louise, lover of a married champion, in Grand Prix?
Eva Marie Saint
Eva Marie Saint joined a week into filming, after the actress first cast as the female lead was replaced.
Q 12Which French star, discovered by Édith Piaf, plays veteran champion Jean-Pierre Sarti in Grand Prix?
Yves Montand
Yves Montand was born Ivo Livi in Tuscany. On the Grand Prix shoot he struggled with even basic driving skills.
Q 13Which English actor, later the voice of Disney's Robin Hood, plays Scott Stoddard in Grand Prix?
Brian Bedford
Brian Bedford could not drive at all, so he sat in the car only for close-ups. The production's driving instructor called his case hopeless.
Q 21The white cars of the Japanese team in Grand Prix were styled after which real carmaker's racers?
Honda
Honda had made history a year before the film, when its RA272 became the first Japanese car to win a Formula One race.
Q 22Which Le Mans-winning sports car was modified into a camera car to film Grand Prix racing at speed?
Ford GT40
Ford GT40 speed let the cameras keep pace with the racers, in some of the earliest driver's-eye filming the sport had seen.
Q 23Which five-time World Champion of the 1950s makes a cameo appearance in the 1966 film Grand Prix?
Juan Manuel Fangio
Juan Manuel Fangio's five titles stood as the record for 46 years. Jim Clark, Jochen Rindt and Jack Brabham make cameos too.
Q 14Which actor, Bond villain Largo in Thunderball, plays team manager Agostino Manetta in Grand Prix?
Adolfo Celi
Adolfo Celi had made Thunderball only a year earlier. He later spoofed that villain in the comedy OK Connery.
Q 15Which French pop singer was cast in Grand Prix after its director spotted her leaving a London club?
Françoise Hardy
Françoise Hardy had no interest in an acting career, but she took the part of Lisa because it was well paid.
Q 16Which Sicilian-born newcomer had his breakout role as hotshot driver Nino Barlini in Grand Prix?
Antonio Sabàto
Antonio Sabàto had made his film debut that same year. He later acted opposite his son, Antonio Jr., on The Bold and the Beautiful.
Q 17The Japanese team owner's dialogue in Grand Prix was dubbed by which prolific American voice actor?
Paul Frees
Paul Frees, the voice of Boris Badenov and of the Ghost Host in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, is credited as the character's voice.
Q 18Which Swedish star of Ingmar Bergman films was replaced as female lead of Grand Prix after one week?
Harriet Andersson
Harriet Andersson left after the first week of filming, and an American Oscar winner took over the role of Louise.
Q 19Which French actress, later in Belle de Jour, plays Jean-Pierre Sarti's wife Monique in Grand Prix?
Geneviève Page
Geneviève Page had already starred opposite Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren in the epic El Cid.
Q 20Louise Frederickson, who falls for a married driver in the 1966 film Grand Prix, works as what?
Magazine writer
Magazine writer Louise is an American who starts out with little interest in motorsports.
Q 24Which Scottish driver, face hidden by a balaclava, drove as Scott Stoddard in the film Grand Prix?
Jackie Stewart
Jackie Stewart did the driving because the actor could not, and the character's helmet copied his so that the footage would match.
Q 25Which 1961 World Champion drove camera cars during real 1966 races to shoot footage for Grand Prix?
Phil Hill
Phil Hill carried the cameras through sessions at two real Grands Prix that season, and also advised the production on racing.
Q 26Which new team painted its car white with a green stripe to play the Japanese cars in Grand Prix?
McLaren
McLaren was short of money in its first Formula One season, so it made a deal with the filmmakers and raced in the movie team's colours.
Q 27Which American racer, a technical consultant on Grand Prix, trained James Garner to drive its cars?
Bob Bondurant
Bob Bondurant took the cast out in a two-seat racing car at speed. Every actor came back frightened except Garner, who returned laughing.
Q 28Jean-Pierre Sarti's helmet in Grand Prix copied the design worn by which 1964 World Champion?
John Surtees
John Surtees won that title with the same Italian team Sarti drives for, then walked out on it midway through the 1966 season.
Q 29Which Italian driver suggested a harbour crash spot for Grand Prix, then crashed fatally there a year later?
Lorenzo Bandini
Lorenzo Bandini helped the production through the 1966 season, and rookie Nino Barlini wears his helmet design in the film.
Q 30Which American racer, an adviser on the film Grand Prix, appears uncredited as driver John Hogarth?
Richie Ginther
Richie Ginther suited the part of a driver for the Japanese team. A year earlier he had given a real Japanese carmaker its first Formula One win.