The all-conquering axis that gave Lotus its F1 golden era
In the second part of our history of Lotus, DAMIEN SMITH explains how the Lotus marque’s values crystallised in the 1960s as founder Colin Chapman met his perfect foil: the peerless Jim Clark. But Chapman’s technological tours de force were fragile as well as fast…
Fifty-three years he’s been gone. Yet Jim Clark in a British Racing Green Lotus with a vivid yellow stripe still represents the very best of Formula 1. Beware the instinct to beatify our racing heroes; Clark was no saint and he made mistakes (although not many).
But beside Tazio Nuvolari, Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss, this mild-mannered Scottish sheep farmer remains as close to the embodiment of a perfect racing driver as we’re ever likely to see. Yes, the racing record was near-spotless, but more than that, no one ever had a bad word to say about Jimmy – the quiet maestro who defines a golden decade.
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