Still in the early stages of his Formula One career at the time, the South African caused an almighty pile up in the opening lap of the race when he lost control coming out of Woodcote corner.
Spinning into the middle of the track, Scheckter was helpless as numerous cars piled into him, with nine forced to retire as a result of the incident, while the race had to be restarted once the debris had been cleared.
Scheckter went on to enjoy finer moments in a racing car, clinching the drivers' world championship with Ferrari six years later, but vividly recalls his infamous accident 41 years ago.
"My first experience [of Silverstone] is when I caused one of the biggest accidents in Formula One history in 1973," said the 64-year-old when speaking exclusively to Perform.
"It was my second or third Grand Prix...I had a tyre that was too soft so they put a hard tyre on the outside.
"I thought it was all warmed up, then when I came round Woodcote - which is a very fast corner and was flat at that time - the back of the car just stepped out.
"The cars just hit me and then I looked up to see if I could jump out and the cars were still crashing so I put my head down and luckily I wasn't hurt.
"The team hid me away because every manager wanted to kill me.
"I wanted to get in another car and they said you better get away and hide away somewhere.
"I thought there was maybe a spare car to get into but they thought it wasn't a good idea."
The 2014 British Grand Prix takes place on Sunday, with championship leader Nico Rosberg starting from pole position.