Lotus 25 at Indy

[nicanary]

I was thinking of this the other day and now I need the answers. I have no books that can help.

Before the first assault by Lotus and Ford on the Indy 500, Colin Chapman and Jim Clark took a Lotus 25 to the Brickyard for testing - I'm not sure whether this was for Jim's official rookie test or whether Ford had rented the track for the day for Lotus' benefit.As far as I can remember the car was standard (all 1.5 litres of it) with no trick off-set suspension, but probably with altered gear ratios.

The track officials insisted that Jim take it easy at first and set him a ridiculously low average speed to maintain.I'm sure that the quiet and modest Scot took no umbrage at this, but no doubt Colin had something to say. After he had shown them that he could drive in a straight line, reverse park and do a three-point turn, I think they allowed Jim to let it rip.The resulting speed took them by surprise - I believe it was within a reasonable shout of the usual times for the slower runners.

This really should have been an eye-opener for the track regulars.but I think they still couldn't accept what was about to turn their world upside-down.The roadsters were doomed - a pity ,because they were some of the best-looking racers ever built.

Can someone let me know more details of this day,including the actual speeds involved?

[Vitesse]

IIRC it was a day or two after the 1962 US GP. Here's a picture:



The number suggests it was the chassis raced by Trevor Taylor at Watkins Glen. I found a mention on t'internet that Jimmy lapped at "about 143mph", which was a little slower than the back of the 1962 field, but pretty good for a 1500cc car not set up for an oval.

My set of "Story of Lotus" has been AWOL for years (sold by my ex-wife ) but I think there's some mention if it there. Probably in Andrew Ferguson's "Lotus at Indianapolis" too. But I don't own that either .

[nicanary]

Originally Posted by Vitesse

IIRC it was a day or two after the 1962 US GP. Here's a picture:



The number suggests it was the chassis raced by Trevor Taylor at Watkins Glen. I found a mention on t'internet that Jimmy lapped at "about 143mph", which was a little slower than the back of the 1962 field, but pretty good for a 1500cc car not set up for an oval.

My set of "Story of Lotus" has been AWOL for years (sold by my ex-wife ) but I think there's some mention if it there. Probably in Andrew Ferguson's "Lotus at Indianapolis" too. But I don't own that either .

Many thanks - I was starting to think I'd imagined it all. I thought that the speed was pretty good for the engine size. Smirks all round from the Brits.

[John Elwin]

Jimmy did indeed run at Indianapolis in a Lotus 25 during October 1962 - and yes, he drove chassis 25/R2, as driven to 12th place in the Watkins Glen GP by Trevor Taylor just three days before. Despite Taylor being hampered by a faltering oil gauge possibly caused by oil surge (according to Andrew Ferguson's excellent book) the same engine remained in the car for the Indy run.

Clark resented being treated like a novice by the Indy officials and having to undertake a rookie test but nevertheless ran around 100 laps with the fastest at an average of 143 mph, not far off the pace set by Jack Brabham's 2.7-litre Cooper despite having not much more than half the power.

Observers were impressed with the speed the little car carried through the corners & the Ford bods liked what they saw. The rest is history, as they say!

[nicanary]

Thanks fpr the info folks - saves me having to buy another book just to satisfy my curiosity.

I would love to have been there when the Lotus was wheeled out of its transporter - even though the GP was established at the Glen, a lot of US racing people would have known little about the European cars of the time.

They might have thought it was all some sort of joke.

[nicanary]

I've just thought - if Jimmy resented the rookie test, just think what Graham Hill must have said in his usual jocular fashion. And he went on to win it!

I assume that the test was a throwback to the early days at the Brickyard when amateurs would turn up with home-made specials which were frankly dangerous. A case of sorting the wheat from the chaff.

(If the europeans had had a rookie test for GPs, maybe Michael Andretti would have been eased his subsequent embarassment- sorry ,gone too far there)

By the way, on another website forum which concerned cars which were built but never raced at Indy, a post mentioned the "1959 Maserati Eldorado Special" - surely they didn't intend to try again with that thing.The "Great Man" didn't take too kindlt to the steering-wheel breaking up in his hands on the Monza banking.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by nicanary

I've just thought - if Jimmy resented the rookie test, just think what Graham Hill must have said in his usual jocular fashion. And he went on to win it!

I can't remember if it was Graham or one of the other British drivers, but I remember hearing a story that Tony Hulman was asking one of the drivers (Graham I think) how things were going and the comment back to Mr. Hulman was about the toilets in gasoline alley not having partitions between them! I think Mr. Hulman quickly fixed that issue!

Of course, Graham's win in 1966 was not without controversy. Some still think that Clark won that race. There has been some contention that USAC's T&S was off due to the spins Clark had that day. I don't know, but T&S errors certainly were a USAC tradition. Of course, 1966 was the year with the big crash at the start. Who knows how things would have turned out without that, but that's the way things go sometimes.

As for the rookie tests, it's usually a bit of a joke now but some drivers still have trouble with what is now the Rookie Orientation Program. At least that is what I think they call it still, I have not watched Indianapolis in a couple of years. I remember Scott Mayer bringing the ABC Supply sponsorship to Foyt's team so Mayer could run in the 500 a few years back. I think it was 2005 or 2006. Anyway, Mayer failed the ROP, but Foyt managed to "steal" the sponsorship and I think ABC has been with Foyt for a number of years now. I'm not sure if they are still together because as I mentioned earlier, I have not watched Indycar racing in a couple of years.