Word: lotus
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...green. No. 6. Driver wearing a blue helmet. Who else? "Clark!" somebody shouted, and suddenly the crowd was chanting: "Clark! Clark! Clark!" Sure enough, just 3 min. 29 sec. after it had left the starting grid, Jim Clark's Lotus-Climax swept around the last left-hand bend into full view of the cheering stands. "C'est formidable!" gasped one awed Frenchman. Sighed another: "C'est termine"-It's all over...
...fabled Stirling Moss, who spent eight years winning 14, and Argentina's five-time World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio, who had 16 when he quit racing at the age of 47. Says Moss: "In terms of sheer native ability, Jim probably has more than any champion in history." Lotus Designer Colin Chapman puts it even more emphatically: "Jim Clark is the greatest racing driver the world has ever seen...
Curiously, Clark's most important contest in 1958 was one he lost. On Boxing Day, Dec. 26, he drove the Reivers' Lotus Elite in a ten-lap race at Brands Hatch, found himself involved in "a whale of a dice" with another Elite driven by a 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...
...Grand Prix car for Aston Martin, but Aston Martin never got around to building it. So for most of two years, Clark putted around in Formula Juniors and sports cars, until finally, in the middle of the 1960 season, Aston Martin gave him a break, loaned him to Lotus in time for the Dutch Grand Prix...
Some break. Chapman's new monocoque Lotuses had proved to be a sensation all right. Stirling Moss had crashed in one and nearly been killed; Mike Taylor had crashed in one and 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...