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Grand Prix Legends

Grand Prix Legends (nicknamed GPL) is a computer racing simulator developed by Papyrus Design Group and published in 1998 by Sierra Entertainment. It simulated the 1967 Formula One season and is considered by many people one of the most realistic racing games ever released. more...

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The real F1 of 1967

The 1967 season is widely viewed as a turning point in Formula One, which was probably the reason it was chosen by the developers of GPL. The cars were powerful again after the rules changes of 1966 but had no aerodynamic wings yet. They were still rolling on treaded tyres, which made them very delicate to drive. It was also the last full season before sponsors' liveries replaced the teams' traditional national racing colours in 1968 (with Ferrari keeping the famous Italian Rosso Corsa). Also in 1968, aerodynamic wings appeared, in different configurations at each race, eventually leading to dangerous tall and fragile constructions. It would have been very hard to make a simulation that requires different models for every event.

Despite fatal crashes, safety was not felt to be a particularly important issue in the mid-1960s as it was widely believed that everything that could be done was already done. Apart from Jackie Stewart's shaping experience of being soaked in fuel while being trapped in a BRM wreck at Spa 1966, it was the shocking fiery crash of Lorenzo Bandini at the Monaco chicane in 1967 as well as Jim Clark's death in 1968 that got Formula One as a whole to start thinking on the topic more seriously. As one result of that, the 1969 race at Spa and the 1970 race at Nürburgring did not take place due to the drivers boycotting the sites as safety upgrades were not installed as demanded. A simulation based on these seasons would then lack these great tracks.

The PC simulation of 1967

The game, developed under the direction of David Kaemmer and Randy Cassidy, was published in 1998 by the Papyrus division of Sierra Entertainment. To this day it maintains a reputation as a very realistic race car simulator. Its strong points are fairly accurate car physics (how the car responds and feels on the track), reasonably attractive graphics, impressive engine sound effects, good online racing and solid Internet support from its user community. The weak points are the game's difficulty as the cars are quite difficult to drive well (although many fans consider this to be a virtue, as it is due to the fact that Formula One cars of that era were extremely difficult to drive compared to modern high-downforce cars), and some minor physics flaws, such as primitive aerodynamic modelling (for drag etc.), and a simplified tire model that completely omits tire wear and has been described by its creator as "driving on ice" although to be fair, in 1967, racing tires on F1 cars would not always wear out during a race and might be used for more than one event! Several times in the 1960s the Indianapolis 500 winner completed the race on one set of tires.