The Brabham Racing Organisation had their usual cars for Brabham and Hulme, nothing more than race preparation having been done since they left Italy. John Surtees had the Honda with which he won in Italy. Both front cantilever wishbones were much stronger after the buckling which happened in practice at Monza. The engine had been back to Japan to see if the injection unit could be sorted out to give better carburation on pick-up out of corners.
Coopers had the two 1967 cars for Rindt and Ickx. The older of the two cars was fitted with a 36-valve Maserati engine, while the other car had the 36-valve engine but now fitted with 36 plugs. On the normal 24-plug engine the plugs are in pairs on the outside of the vee and on the 36-plug engine an extra plug for each cylinder is on the inside of the vee. The extra distributor is on the enlarged metering unit plate at the back of the engine and is driven from the camshaft by the same toothed belt that drives the metering unit. The explanation for the extra plug is that the pistons were only firing on one side. A successful engine designer who was looking at the engine commented that if you need more than one plug per cylinder there is something very wrong with the design. The fuel pumps on both cars have been moved into the airstream on the front of the engine and are driven by the same, belt that drives, the front right distributor.
Team Lotus had their three Lotus-Cosworths for Clark, Hill and the Mexican driver, M Solana. Except for bringing Clark’s car’s suspension mounting points back into line with the other two cars, nothing had been done to the chassis. On the engine side all three had been damaged at Monza and they were all rebuilt. There were the H16 BRMs for Stewart, Spence and Irwin.
