Word: jim
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...persistent, mustachioed fellow who bore a striking resemblance to Actor David Niven. His competitor, it later turned out, was Colin Chapman -a young, prematurely grey engineer who had graduated from London University in 1948, set up shop in 1952 as Lotus Cars, Ltd. For eight of the ten laps, Jim managed to stay in front. Then an Austin-Healey Sprite grazed his Lotus on a corner. Jim had all he could do to avoid plowing head-on into an embankment, and in the confusion Chapman nipped past to win. "Oh dear, nasty," sighs Clark. "Anyhow, that...
...Full 10%. It was the start of a lasting friendship. "The formula for a champion race driver," says Chapman, "is 10% natural ability, 90% experience and dedication." His own dice with Clark at Brands Hatch had convinced him that Jim "had the 10% in full." Already hard at work on a revolutionary Grand-Prix-car design-a "monocoque" body shell that needed no tubular skeleton, was actually little more than a steerable gas tank on wheels-Chapman decided that Clark was just the man to drive it. If he could...
...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...
...over end, back onto the track. Clark leaped out of his crumpled Lotus and pushed Trips's car off the road. There was nothing he could do for Trips-or for 17 spectators who had been leaning on the fence. "When a thing like that happens," says Jim, "you vow that you will never drive in a race again. But then your mind begins to function, and everyday things begin to crowd their way back. Three days later, you are packing your bags for another race. I am lucky to have been blessed with a short memory...
...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 praise was flattering, but Jim would have preferred to win the championship that went instead to Britain's Graham Hill. He would have had it, too, if "one bloody little runt of a screw" had not fallen off the distributor shaft and let loose his oil while he was leading in the South African...