Jim Clark’s best season – and his F1 & F2 cars

Just like this season’s Formula 1, 60 years ago, in 1965, we saw the swansong of a set of technical regulations, due to be replaced at season’s end. In that case it spelt curtains for the five-year-old 1½-litre F1, to be replaced for 1966 by what was billed as ‘The Returnof Power’ 3-litre category.

Through that season, Team Lotus performed just brilliantly. Then still Cheshunt-based, they ran their F1, F2, touring car and even Indy programmes to the accompaniment of so much memorable music. Through February The Righteous Brothers had bewailed the fact you’d lost that lovin’ feelin’, while The Beatles had a ticket to ride and The Kinks were tired of waiting. But while such ’65 chart-topping music has survived the test of time, so too have a pair of supreme ’65 Lotuses.
Hidden from public view for decades both cars have now emerged – restored and resplendent in this anniversary year. Wheeled out under the Norfolk sun at Classic Team Lotus’s Hethel HQ, both Lotus 33 R11 and Formula 2 Lotus 35 chassis 3 look stunning for Motor Sport’s photo shoot.

They both have superb individual race histories –each having won qualifying-round and Championship titles during Jim Clark’s magnificent season of 1965. Soon after each car was retired from front-line competition it was acquired ‘for posterity’ by a deep-thinking marque enthusiast who has progressively had them restored and since maintained by the specialists at CTL.

On March 13, 1965, the Formula 1 Lotus 33 chassis R11 made its debut in Jim Clark’s hands during practice for the inaugural Race of Champions at Brands Hatch. In that weekend’s race he drove chassis R10 instead, but while leading under tremendous pressure from Dan Gurney’s faster Brabham-Climax he made a hugely uncharacteristic error leaving Bottom Bend, got onto the grass and slammed into a bank protecting the pit-end service road.

With R10 destroyed (despite later replication) Jimmy then made his new R11’s race debut in the Syracuse GP, Sicily, on April 4. After a tremendous dust-up with Jo Siffert in Rob Walker’s Brabham-BRM and John Surtees’ Ferrari 158 – Jimmy won from John – it was one race, one win for Clark R11…

On June 13, he drove the car again in the year’s World Championship-qualifying Belgian GP. After being outqualified by Graham Hill’s BRM P261, it rained on race day and the humble Scot simply staged one his most memorably dominant drives. At two-thirds distance he led new boy Jackie Stewart’s BRM by fully 1min 20sec before pacing himself through the final six laps to win by “slightly less than” 45sec… So, two races in Jimmy’s hands, two wins for R11.

July 10 – British GP, Silverstone: Clark raced the car for the third time. Starting from pole position he fled into the lead from Graham Hill’s BRM. With 16 of the 80 laps to run, Graham was having brake trouble and lay 35sec behind the leading Lotus. But Jimmy noticed fluctuating oil pressure in the long Silverstone curves. The problem grew worse. He memorably began to nurse the engine towards the finish, even killing its ignition through Woodcote Corner in particular. Each lap at the pits he would burst silently into sight, then flick on the switch and his faltering engine would re-engage. Graham closed markedly. Into the last lap it seemed the troubled Lotus could barely press on. But into Woodcote for the last time Jimmy was still 3sec clear, and he coasted to victory. Three races for R11… three wins.
August 1, 1965 – German GP on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Need you ask? Clark started from pole position, led throughout, set fastest lap and won another fine race from Graham Hill’s BRM.

Four races for R11… four wins. Oh, and that German victory clinched for Jimmy his second Formula 1 Drivers’ World Championship title, and for Team Lotus their second Formula 1 Constructors’ crown.

This exceptionally historic F1 car then completed the consecutive Italian, United States and Mexican GPs in the new World Champion’s hands, a delayed 10th at Monza and failing to finish at both Watkins Glen and Mexico City. But, he had qualified R11 on pole at Monza and set fastest race lap there before dropping out of the bunch duelling for the lead – fuel pump failure. At the Glen, R11 in his hands qualified second fastest (behind Hill’s BRM) but suffered an engine failure after a mere 11 laps. And in Mexico Jimmy qualified R11 again on pole before engine failure after only eight laps.

Into 1966, the old 1½-litre Formula to which R11 had been built was dead. New 3-litre engine regulations applied from January 1. On that day – after Hogmanay revelries had dissipated – the non-Championship South African GP was run at East London, to 3-litre regulations. Using a 2-litre version of the Coventry Climax V8 engine, Team Lotus number two driver Mike Spence drove R11 – and won by two clear laps from Jo Siffert’s Brabham-BRM. Certainly, the hitherto flawless record for this chassis had suffered, slightly, but at that time R11 had been raced eight times, winning five.

“July 3, French GP at Reims-Gueux – Jimmy was hit in the face by a bird during practice”

Spool forward to May 22, 1966 – Monaco GP. Jimmy drove R11 again, this time with a 2-litre Climax V8 installed. Result – retirement following a rear suspension collapse. June 12, Belgian GP, qualified 10th, engine failure on opening lap. July 3, French GP at Reims-Gueux – Jimmy was hit in the face by a bird during practice. Unable to race he was replaced in R11 by the Mexican driver Pedro Rodriguez who retired the car after 40 laps with an oil leak.

For the British GP at Brands Hatch, Jimmy’s team-mate Peter Arundell took over R11 into which a 2-litre BRM V8 had been fitted in place of the Climax. Poor Pete’s unhappy comeback from a terrible Formula 2 injury at Reims ’64 then saw him qualify last and retire with gearbox failure after 32 laps. The following weekend in the Dutch GP; Arundell, 28 laps, ignition failure. On the backstretch infield I helped him try to trace the problem. We failed. A flywheel ignition trigger had become detached.

At the Nürburgring, Arundell finished 12th; in the Italian GP eighth; he failed to start at the Oulton Park Gold Cup then Rodriguez retired at Watkins Glen before Pete finished seventh in Mexico. But still there was life left in R11.

Into 1967, Graham Hill had just joined Jimmy in Team Lotus as the Ford Motor Co’s F1 superteam – eagerly anticipating completion of the Cosworth-Ford DFV V8. Pending that, R11 was prepared for him with the best 2-litre BRM V8 engine any Bourne customer could expect. The tub proved too tight for husky Hill, a left-elbow clearance pocket having to be formed into an inner panel for him to ease gear-changing. On April 29 he then finished fourth in the non-Championship BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone, before driving R11 again in the May 7 Monaco GP. From eighth on the starting grid, Graham finished a rousing second between winner Denny Hulme’s Brabham-Repco and third-placed Chris Amon’s Ferrari.

With the debut at Zandvoort of the year’s much-anticipated new Lotus-Cosworth 49s, Team finally offered R11 for sale. It passed to Canadian privateer Mike Fisher who impressed Colin Chapman with his handling of it in the flooded inaugural Canadian GP at Mosport Park, on August 27. Fisher would recall: “After the race Colin Chapman came over and shook my hand. He said, ‘That was outstanding for your first Formula 1 race’… good to hear because Chapman wasn’t a guy who gave out compliments. We also made enough prize money to pay for the car, which was kind of nice”. First time out in the dry, in an SCCA ‘clubby’ at Newport, Oregon, Fisher found R11 nice to drive, taking an easy win.

Years later, London dealer/aviator/racing driver Robert ‘Robs’ Lamplough brought the old car back to London, as effectively a box of parts – but what unimpeachably original parts they were. He invited a wildly enthusiastic near-neighbour round to see it. Robs was having a clash-of-interests struggle with himself. He wanted to have R11 rebuilt, but he’d also been offered a Supermarine Spitfire warbird. The near-neighbour was well-known within racing circles at the time as “an anonymous buyer”. Robs told him “If you offer double what I paid for it you can have it”. The potential buyer thought “Oh my…” – thought about it, assessed the car’s originality and its outstanding Jimmy Clark history. A 30% deposit was paid, and he still owns this fabulous car, today restored by Classic Team Lotus, as seen here.

Even then the same hyper-enthusiast already owned what had been Jim Clark’s 1965 double-Championship-winning Formula 2 Lotus-Cosworth 35 also pictured here. His interest in it had been sparked when he read an old magazine feature mentioning that its entrant in ’65-66, Ron Harris, had kept it in absolutely as-last-raced condition, though minus engine and gearbox. Having won both the UK’s F2 Championship and the year’s parallel Grands Prix de France-series F2 crown in contemporary Formula 2 terms none could do better. The fact that Jimmy took both crowns in the same season as the Formula 1 Drivers’ World title and the Indianapolis 500 win had tremendous resonance at the time… and has grown.

In 1971, Ron Harris entered this very special car for sale by Sotheby’s, but it had failed to find a new home. What could one do with a 1-litre Cosworth SCA? Virtually the only home the six-year-old chassis might find would have been as a re-engined hillclimber… but its monocoque tub was so narrow and tight. An ex-F1 or F2 multi-tubular space frame such as a Brabham offered a great deal more potential.

But after characteristically thorough research – and deep thought – our anonymous buyer felt the first stirring of growing interest. Ron Harris had committed the car to Motor Racing Enterprises of High Street, Bourne End, run at the time by ex-Ron Harris Protos F2 team member Jim Gleave. As the owner recalls today “Jim Gleave and I agreed that such a genuine ex-Clark car shouldn’t really be sold for a song and then risk just being written-off in some minor clubby somewhere”. So, with a surviving Cosworth SCA engine and appropriate Hewland gearbox re-mounted within it, towards the end of 1972, the 35 was run-up briefly and raucously “for about a minute on Bourne End high street” to confirm it all worked, and I bought it”, Motor Racing Enterprises delivering the car straight to his mews home’s five-car garage in Kensington.

Typical of this almost legendarily discreet owner, his acquisition of the car passed unknown to all but close friends. One privileged to examine it was no less than Amherst Villiers, of Vauxhall-Villiers and ‘Blower’ Bentley supercharger fame…

There the slender little Lotus resided for many years. Despite its Jim Clark provenance being so firm, there remained some doubt as to its actual Ron Harris-Team Lotus chassis number. The tub bears a simple 35/2 stamping, but has always lacked a chassis plate. When Classic Team Lotus rediscovered a contemporary Team build sheet it was found that production-batch monocoque 35/2 actually formed the basis of Ron Harris-Team Lotus car 35/F/3. What’s more the build sheets all refer to it as having been “the Jim Clark car”.

The Lotus record cards for the Type 35s note 23 having been built, of which four were delivered to Ron Harris for his quasi-works F2 team. These included complete chassis 35/F/1 based upon frame No35/1, 35/F/2 using frame No35/16 (!), 35/F/3 with its frame No35/2 and finally 35/F/4 completed (glory be) with frame No35/4.

The first two of these team cars were fitted with 1-litre BRM P80 engines, the latter pair with Cosworth-Ford SCAs. Jimmy’s Ron Harris team ‘35/3’ was fitted as new with a Hewland Mark 7 gearbox. Its design is essentially a logical evolution from the original monocoque Formula Junior Type 27 of 1963, through the 1964 Type 32 and on into ’65. It was some 4in longer, with monocoque hull formed from high strength sheet steel together with steel load-bearing box members at each end and with integral aluminium side panelling. At the rear, a pair of non-parallel, twin radius rods were fitted on taller rear uprights. Like the Type 32, the suspension was fully adjustable after all the problems experienced with the Type 27’s limited suspension adjustability.

Colin Chapman decided that it would be a useful exercise to build a car that could take various power units, enabling it to race in several formulae. In fact, seven different engine variations were possible. The standard unit for Formula 2 was the 1000cc Cosworth SCA engine that produced 117bhp; Lotus Components also listed the fuel-injected 1000cc BRM twin-cam unit for F2 applications.

“Having established a lead over Hill, Clark’s 35 ran out of oil and the engine threw a rod”

For the Ron Harris-Team Lotus operation, Mike Spence drove chassis 35/F/1, Peter Revson 35/F/2 and Jim Clark 35/F/3. The Scot spent most of the F2 season locked in mortal combat with Graham Hill initially in a John Coombs Brabham-BRM, later a Lotus 35 bought by ‘Noddy’ in exasperation. The first F2 race of the year should have been the BARC 200 at Silverstone only for the meeting to be abandoned due to torrential rain. In more clement conditions, the two-heat Autocar Trophy at Snetterton saw Jimmy and Graham almost dead-heat first time out, their cars being given the same time but Graham judged a tyre thickness ahead across the line. Heat 2 was just as hotly contested but having established a lead over Graham, Jimmy’s 35 ran out of oil and the engine threw a rod on the very last lap, coasting home third.

It rained again for the Pau GP, first of the French rounds. Jim Clark qualified third, but proved uncatchable on race day to score a dominant win and set fastest lap.
Whit-Monday, the London Trophy F2 race at Crystal Palace – Clark sandwiched on the front row of the grid by Graham Hill (pole) and Jackie Stewart. By modern standards the front-line driver talent in ‘ancient-history’ F2 is mind-boggling. Jimmy won what was then the fastest race ever recorded at the Palace, 2.04mph quicker than Jochen Rindt’s 1964 lap record. Fastest lap was shared between Clark and Stewart.

The Reims and Rouen Trophées de France rounds followed, Jochen Rindt’s Winkelmann Racing Brabham-SCA just winning by two-tenths of a second from Frank Gardner’s MRP Lola-BRM and Jimmy’s SCA-powered 35. At Rouen after a terrific early laps duel with Hill and Rindt, Jimmy built a lead – frightening his pitcrew on the penultimate lap by misfiring past them only to have the engine clear for the last lap – and win by 14sec…

To Sweden in August, at Karlskoga Jimmy led for five laps, shared fastest lap with Jack Brabham’s emergent Brabham-Honda but was then sidelined by ignition failure. August Bank Holiday, Brands Hatch – Jimmy uncatchable, first and fastest lap. Into September, Oulton Park Gold Cup – led early laps before slithering off at Cascades Corner, then ripping back through the field to finish sixth, sharing fastest lap with Denny Hulme of Brabham.

“Team records indicate Clark won the F2 opener in 1966. Incorrect. The race was cancelled”

And so to the last F2 race of that memorable season, the Albi Grand Prix. The race was described as a “terrific F2 tear-up” between Jimmy and Jack Brabham in the soon-to-prove untouchable Brabham-Honda – which Jimmy in Lotus 35 35/F/3 finally won.

The five Lotus victories matched the Brabham total for that season. Having to rely on the Type 35 for the first three races of the 1966 F2 season at Oulton Park (April 2), Goodwood (April 11) and Pau (April 17), Clark retained 35/F/3, and immediately qualified on pole for the BARC 200 at Oulton Park. Team records indicate he won the F2 opener. However, this is incorrect. Race day saw the Park buried beneath snow – race cancelled – with the ‘1’ in Team records indicating pole position, not a race win.

At Goodwood Jimmy qualified fifth but the 35’s fuel pump faltered on the warm-up lap and according to some reports he hastily swapped cars with team-mate Peter Arundell’s. In the race the car handled peculiarly, and Clark was forced to retire in the pits on lap 11 with the right-rear tyre punctured.

And at Pau, after running third in his last appearance in the car, a flat battery sent him into the pits with fuel starvation and he lost two laps having it changed. He finally finished seventh. The Lotus 35 was at last replaced by the further developed Type 44 for Formula 2 – and the balance of that season beckoned.

Meanwhile, the Jim Clark Lotus season of ’65 receded progressively into our memories. And as The Seekers sang at the end of that incredible year, the carnival was over.

Lotus 33

Engine Coventry Climax FWMV 1.5 litres, V8
Chassis Aluminium monocoque
Power 200bhp
Transmission ZF five-speed manual
Suspension (front) Upper fabricated cantilever rocker arms, lower wishbones and inboard mounted Armstrong coil-over-damper units
Suspension (rear) Upper transverse links, twin radius rods, reversed lower wishbones and Armstrong outboard coil-over-damper units
Weight 451kg

Lotus 35

Engine Cosworth SCA 1-litre, straight four
Chassis Aluminium monocoque
Power 125bhp
Transmission Hewland manual gearbox
Suspension (front) Lower wishbones, top rockers actuating in-board coil-over-damper units
Suspension (rear) Reversed lower wishbones, top links, twin radius arms, coil-over-damper units
Weight 594kg