The 8th United States Grand Prix and the sixth to be held on the 2.3 mile Upper New York State circuit at Watkins Glen attracted the best technical entry of the year. This year the organisers had broken with the tradition of paying starting money. Instead they had allocated prize money from first to last places, first across the line to receive $20,000 and 20th place to receive $2,800, a total of $102,400 making this the largest purse in Grand Prix racing.
Every serious 3-litre engine was present. Team Lotus had three cars, an H16 BRM, a 2-litre V8 BRM and the 2-litre V8 Climax. The V8 BRM car was for Rodriguez and the other two for Clark and Arundell. The BRM team had been busy rebuilding the H16s shattered at Oulton Park and Monza and had three H16 cars and a spare engine. The extensiveness of the damage in the past has been due to the shattering of the cast iron liners, which has caused the bottom end castings to become mangled. To stop this, more expensive steel liners are being produced which will isolate dropped valves etc, and reduce major damage. The cars were 3-litre chassis Nos 1, 2 and 3. No 1 was the spare car, No 2 was set up for Hill and had the latest engine which is a true 16, No 3 was Stewart’s car and had a “double 8” engine.
This year’s most successful team had the two cars used at Monza and Oulton Park for Jack Brabham and Denny Hulme. On Brabham’s car Bosch ignition was being set up to try to overcome some of the problems they have had this year. Cooper’s had the same two cars they used at Monza, Surtees using the older head layout with wide angle inlet ports while Rindt used an engine with the narrow angled inlets.
