Word: gearboxes
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...Clark had won 18 Grand Prix races and the Indianapolis 500, but one great event had always defied him. It was the German Grand Prix, a murderous gearbox-busting nightmare of 14.2 miles and 174 curves around the Nürburgring, 30 miles southwest of Bonn. In four consecutive years, Clark tried and failed there. This year he wanted to take the German Grand Prix more than ever. He had already won five Grand Prix races this season, and a victory at Nurburgring would make him the first driver in history to win the world championship so early...
...nearly been killed; Allen Stacey had crashed in one and been killed. "I wouldn't drive a car like that," growled the U.S.'s Phil Hill. "You never know what piece is going to break off next." In the Dutch Grand Prix, Clark's gearbox broke; in the British Grand Prix, it was his suspension. In 1961, Jim finally was able to sign full time with Lotus, but even that didn't change his luck. "I can keep up with the other drivers," he said. "I just can't keep up with their cars...
...same story all over again. Jimmy was leading the Dutch Grand Prix when he lost three of his five gears. At Monaco he was running second when his engine blew up. Before the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, mechanics worked all night to install a new engine and gearbox in Clark's Lotus. Then next day Jimmy worked his way into the lead on the first lap-and ran away with the race for his first Grand Prix victory. Before the year was out, he had won two more, heard himself hailed as "the new Stirling Moss." All that...
...Grapes. After that, it suddenly got easier to count Clark's losses than his victories. In 1963, he lost Monaco altogether (frozen gearbox while leading by 10 sec.), had to settle for a second in the German Grand Prix (seven cylinders instead of eight) and a third in the U.S. (dead battery on the starting grid). But he won in The Netherlands with the wrong tires and in France with a rough engine, steered to victory in Belgium with one hand, using the other to hold his slipping shift lever safely in fifth. All told, Jim won seven Grand...
...there after Gurney left," he chuckled, posing for photographers with Miss Universe. "But I would have won anyway." Gurney was not so sure: "This issue between us is not at all settled." Other sports-car drivers groused that Foyt won only because he had the fastest car. "That gearbox alone cost a few thousand dollars," said one, "and those Weber carburetors are the best there is." Said another: "I'd like to see him in a lesser car before I made up my mind how good he is." But Foyt, of course, got in the last word. Pocketing...