The author starts his book, The Monza 1000km: 1965-2008, by calling the first chapter, the years between 1965-1971, the ‘Golden Years’ and he is not the only one to do so. While the cars were rather ‘explosive’ in their performance, drivers and team personalities could also be rather explosive in character. This all added up to a splendid spectacle… which is what the spectators paid good money to come and see.
The grids were full of 12-cylinder cars from Italy, 8-cylinder cars from the USA, and 6-and 4-cylinder cars from Germany. Indeed, the resultant competition between the Ferraris, Ford GTs and the Porsches were the very battles that the enthusiasts had come to watch, and the racing was every bit as exciting as the cars and the drivers.