Word: lotuses
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...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...
Exactly 135 & Six. With all the Lotus' ailments, it was only natural that Clark should become a pretty good sidewalk mechanic. So good, in fact, that he could turn a practice lap, whisk back into the pit, and announce: "We've got to jiggle the gear ratios-25, 27 maybe. Even with a good tow, I'm not getting the revs." At the same time, he was polishing his driving skills to the point where he could say: "When I go into a corner, I can tell you instantly whether I'm inches...
Nothing, though, could have prepared him for what happened at Monza midway through the 1961 season, when the Ferrari of Germany's flamboyant Wolfgang von Trips swerved suddenly, with Jimmy's Lotus directly behind. For one horrible instant, the two cars touched at 150 m.p.h. The Ferrari hurtled up an embankment, ricocheted off a steel guardrail, sheared through a wire fence, and spun end 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...
...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 praise was flattering...