The world is in the midst of financial turmoil, yet despite much talk of cutting costs Formula 1 teams are busy launching new cars for the forthcoming campaign. Admittedly they had little choice this year, given the introduction of radical new rules put in place before the banking crisis, but if they are serious about saving money, is a new car really necessary every season? Was it ever thus? Well, no actually.

Cast your minds back forty years and, to coin a phrase, the “green shoots” of what we now know as modern Grand Prix racing were beginning to formulate, and of course Colin Chapman and Lotus were in the vanguard. The 1967 season had seen the introduction of the Lotus 49, probably the most iconic Grand Prix car of its era. A recent poll by Octane magazine amongst famous racing drivers saw the 49 nominated by Damon Hill as the Greatest Racing Car of all time. Further, the same magazine has chassis R2 just scraping into the ’25 Most Valuable Cars in the World’ with a figure of £1,000,000 on its head. That car, R2, was the one with which Jim Clark won the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort in 1967 on its race debut.

Naturally the 49 was innovative with Chapman’s vision being largely turned into reality by designer Maurice Phillippe. Most significantly, the engine was bolted directly to the tub. Equally significant was the brand new Cosworth DFV that powered it. Just as now, there were new F1 regulations with the introduction of 3.0-litre engines and Chapman talked Harley Copp of Ford into funding the development of the DFV to the tune of £100,000 – a lot of money in the mid sixties. It turned out to be a wise investment, Cosworth becoming almost standard equipment – Ferrari excepted – for many years. By contrast, attempts to save costs today with the introduction of a common engine have been dismissed by major manufacturer-funded teams. Instead they have agreed to cutout mid-season testing, but are busy now running round building-up simulation programmes…

Whilst the DFV had an unusually long career, it was not unknown for engine designs to last several seasons, and indeed that is now a requirement. However, progress in suspension development and more latterly aerodynamics mean that, with a few exceptions, chassis design rarely remains at the top of the tree for more than a season or two. An exception was the Lotus 49. It made its racing debut at Zandvoort on 4th June 1967, and went on to be the mainstay of Team Lotus’ activities until Emerson Fittipaldi drove R10 for the final time in works colours in the Austrian Grand Prix at Osterreichring on 16th August 1970. After that, 49’s still appeared in privateer hands, but primarily in non-World Championship events.

It was perhaps fitting that R10 should bring the curtains down on the 49’s Formula 1 career, for it had a quite remarkable history, having started out as chassis R5 in 1968 it was re-numbered R10 for the following season after extensive modifications. Further, it raced in 49, 49B and 49C specification with a variety of aerodynamic appendages during its time. As if that were not enough, it introduced sponsorship (Gold Leaf) to Formula 1, carried Graham Hill to his second World Championship title in the same year, 1968. Hill also drove it to victory in the Monaco Grand Prix in both ’68 and ’69. In addition to Hill, amongst the many others who raced R5/R10 were no less than three drivers who would go on to win future titles for Lotus – Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti. It’s little wonder that Classic Team Lotus maintain this car so fabulously and show it to the public at every opportunity.

During that amazing debut season in 1967, Jim Clark and Graham Hill drove Lotus 49’s in nine Grand Prix, one or other of them starting from pole on every single occasion. There were only three more race wins following that debut victory at Zandvoort however, a variety of reliability problems more often forcing them into retirement.

For the 1968 season the three chassis used the previous year were again pressed into service, although R3 was sold to South African John Love early in the season. Four new chassis were built, but of them R4 was destined for a brief career. Having won the South African Grand Prix in Jim Clark’s hands it was destroyed in a garage fire whilst on loan to Rob Walker’s team for the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch. It’s sister car, R5, was destined for a rather longer career though.

First race for our hero was ignominious, Graham Hill retiring from the Race of Champions with a broken driveshaft. The car was subsequently dismantled and rebuilt to 49B specification. This mainly involved rear suspension work and included the top rocker arms being relocated, which effectively increased the wheelbase by three inches, whilst a new crossmember relieved loading on the cylinder heads. The often recalcitrant ZF transmission was somewhat reluctantly replaced by a Hewland ‘box too.

All that was done in time for the Spanish Grand Prix in early May, but with the tragic loss of Jim Clark at Hockenheim just a few weeks previously, Colin Chapman stayed away and so the car was not raced. However, just two weeks later, with the team admirably galvanised by Graham Hill, he drove 49B/R5 to the first of his Monaco victories. Despite sticking with the car for the mid-part of the season, that was to be the only win with the chassis.

In his autobiography, Life at the Limit, Graham Hill describes how going into Monaco they were actually a little bit nervous that the lighter Hewland gearbox, essentially an F2 item, together with new driveshafts from a Morris 1800(!) might not be up to the job. The race itself developed into a bit of a ding-dong between Hill and Richard Attwood’s BRM, which Hill rather enjoyed although he claims he would have pulled out a bigger lead but for taking it easy with the transmission. Nevertheless he won by 2.2-seconds.

After the highs of Monaco, a miserable wet weekend at Spa followed, and after very little running in qualifying Hill was soon out of the race with driveshaft failure. Another wet race at Zandvoort followed, and after finding some improvements in the aerodynamics Hill was in confident mood. However, he twice went off at the end of the long pit straight, the second time knocking a wheel off, putting him out of the race. It transpired that the wet, windy conditions had caused sand to get into the throttle slides, so they were sticking open slightly under braking.

Rouen was next up, and by now the 49 was sporting a big wing on the back – and as Hill says, “Colin never thinks in half-measures so our wings were the largest ever seen in motor racing.” Again it rained for the race, but Ickx (Ferrari) was the only won to start on wet tyres. Hill started from ninth and was going well until again a driveshaft let him down. Two weeks later and it was on to Brands Hatch for the British Grand Prix where Hill and Jackie Oliver made it an all-Gold Leaf Team Lotus front row, but despite that Morris c/v joint having been replaced with something more suitable it was again final drive failure that put him out of the race whilst leading.

Given that succession of failures, you wouldn’t be too optimistic of a good result at the next Grand Prix on the daunting Nurburgring Nordschleife. Yet another wet race – it came close to being called off – but despite a spin-induced stall Hill finished the race in second place.

That was to be Hill’s last Grand Prix that season in R5, and faced with those statistics it’s amazing to think that he ended the year as World Champion, uplifting Team’s spirits following the dreadful loss of Jim Clark. However, it has to be said that R3, which he drove in the early part of the season, together with R6 with which he completed the campaign added the majority of the points to his total tally of 48, comfortably beating Jackie Stewart by 12 points. Lotus, with 62 points, had a similar advantage over McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship.

For the last four races of the year R5 was driven successively by Jackie Oliver (Italian GP), Bill Brack (Canadian GP), Mario Andretti (US GP) and Moises Solana (Mexican GP). The first three retired due to assorted transmission woes, whilst Solana was forced out of his home race when the rear wing collapsed. For the record, R5/R10 ran in a variety of aerodynamic configurations during its career, demonstrating the adaptability of the basic design. Imagine trying such drastic variations with current-day cars!    

Again, new regulations were introduced for the 1969 season concerning roll-over hoops and fire extinguisher systems. This did not warrant a new car, but R5 was modified for the new season and thus became R10. Nowadays of course we are used to hearing about Grand Prix teams pounding round the Barcelona circuit all winter long in search of the nth degree of improvement, but it was much more civilised forty years ago.

Back then the majority of the Grand Prix circus decamped to the Southern Hemisphere in January and February in order to contest the Tasman series of races held in New Zealand and Australia. Graham Hill found himself joined by Austrian Jochen Rindt for the season and they went off to race in the sun with chassis R8 and R9 respectively. However, Rindt shunted R9 beyond local repair in only the second race of the series at Levin, so our friend R10 was hastily air-freighted out. Rindt repaid the team by leading Hill home in a 1-2 at the next race, Christchurch. The successful campaign concluded with another win and second place together with four pole positions, enough for Rindt to finish second in the championship to Chris Amon.

Back in Europe, R10 was facing a quiet season as team back-up, but when both Hill and Rindt suffered big accidents in their regular cars due to collapsing rear wings in the Spanish GP at Montjuich Park, R10 was pressed into service for Hill at the next race, Monaco. In the interests of safety, high wings were rapidly banned and R10 found itself with yet another aerodynamic device, this time a ‘duck-tail’ fashioned out of some aluminium found in the transporter! It worked though, for Hill cruised to his second consecutive celebration with the Monagesque Royal Family in the same car.

He saw the rest of the season out in R10 although there were to be no more victories. Reliability was better than the previous year. Nevertheless he ended the season seventh overall in the points standings, three places behind his faster team-mate, Rindt.

There was still no retirement in site for R10, as the gestation period for the new Type 72 proved rather lengthy, another season of racing beckoned. There were more updates to front suspension and the like, turning the car into a 49C. There was to be yet another appearance at Monaco with Hill too, albeit in different colours. Hill had switched to Rob Walker’s privateer Lotus team, and when John Miles failed to qualify R10 Hill took it over for the race after damaging his Walker car. Despite receiving a hasty respray in Walker’s dark blue colour scheme there was no fairy-tale third win for R10. Hill finishing fifth.

Thereafter, R10 was raced three more times in 1970, Team Lotus giving latest Brazilian sensation Emerson Fittipaldi his Formula 1 debut at Brands Hatch’s British Grand Prix, where he finished eighth. He went on to score his first championship points at Hockenheim a couple of weeks later. Another two weeks after that, in Austria on 16th August was the last-ever appearance of a Team Lotus 49 in a Grand Prix, Fittipaldi bringing R10 home in 15th place.

So ended the competitive career of a remarkable machine. Despite only winning two of the twenty-four World Championship races contested over three seasons, R5/R10 truly made its mark. After all, how many F1 cars can claim to have been raced by no less than four World Champions – Hill, Rindt, Fittipaldi and Andretti – not to mention others such as Jackie Oliver and John Miles?

Fittingly for such a venerable warhorse, R10 has remained at Hethel ever since and after some years in storage was re-commissioned by Classic Team Lotus. Some 27 years after its last appearance in Monaco, R10 returned for the Grand Prix Historique in 1997 – where it won in the hands of Joaquin Folch!

                                                                                                   
John Elwin
January 2009

Link:   www.classicteamlotus.co.uk

Bibliography:

Lotus 49, the story of a legend, by Michael Oliver, Veloce Publishing Plc, 1999
The Lotus 49, by David Hodges, Lionel Leventhal Ltd., 1970
Life at the Limit, by Graham Hill, William Kimber & Co. Ltd., 1969
Marlboro Grand Prix Guide, Charles Stewart & Co.

Photos: courtesy of www.coteriepress.com