primotipo…

I was lookin’ for shots of chicks and cars as I do a fortnightly post of a babe with a car. When I spotted this image ’twas the lady who initially caught my eye…

But we ‘anoraks’ are so into chassis numbers right?

‘935’ on the engine cover stood out, a Lotus 18 number I thought- a quick google and no less an authority than DC Nye identified the car as a Lotus 21 delivered to Rob Walker, its locale Monza, lets come back to that.

Stirling Moss raced ‘935’ in the Australasian summer ‘Tasman’ races in early 1962.

Here it is below after its victorious run in the very wet, Ardmore, New Zealand Grand Prix. I love the way the gent ‘touches the greatness of Moss’ by giving the Lotus an affectionate pat! ‘Red cap’, a more technical type of bloke is sussing the rear suspension of the 21 compared with the Lotus 18s from the year before.

(Stephen Page)

Lotus 21: The Forgotten Chapman GP Car?…

When you think about it Colin Chapman peaked early as an F1 designer.

His 1956 Vanwall, or rather his chassis design and choice of Frank Costin as it’s body designer/aerodynamicist was a GP winner, not too many fellas have done that with their first car.

Press launch of the Lotus 12 Climax F2 car in 1956, note the extraordinary smallness of the car, the 12 and 16 remarkable bits of front-engined GP kit. Cliff Allison did 167mph in a Coventry Climax 2207cc FPF engined 12 on Masta Straight, Spa in 1958, with much of his small body outside the cockpit! He was fourth but famously could have won the race had it gone another lap as the first 3 cars all failed to complete the cool-down lap (John Ross)

His first Lotus GP design was the 16, Chapman always referred to the 12, which competed in Grands’ Prix from Monaco 1958, as an F2 car, the design was originally used in 1.5 litre racing before being fitted with Coventry Climax 1960cc and 2207cc engines for F1 use.

One of the things which intrigues me given his subsequent record as the designer/design inspiration for so many epochal cars is why Chapman didn’t design a mid-engined car for 1959? Cooper blazed that trail, GP winners from Argentina 1958, Moss of course taking that win in a Rob Walker Cooper T43 Climax.

Allison, tenth in the Lotus 16 Climax, Nurburgring 1958. Brooks won in a Vanwall, Lotus 16 famously the ‘Mini-Vanwall’, both Chapman chassis designs  (Klemantaski)

Whilst the front engined 12 is understandable, it appeared in late 1956 and was quite the smallest front engined ‘F1 car’ ever, the 16 shoulda’ been mid-engined?

The 16 was quick mind you, but fragile in both chassis and it’s ‘queerbox’, Lotus’ own gearbox which was unreliable largely due to one small set of dogs trying to pick up every gear. The 16 also didn’t receive a 2.5litre Climax FPF until later in the piece. But if Chapman set trends, and he did, he was a slowish adopter of the mid-engined trend.

Works Lotus 18 Climax, Zandvoort, Dutch GP 1960. Chapman was quick to refine the mid-engined paradigm! 2.5 litre CC FPF, 5 speed Lotus ‘box, rear suspension notable for lack of a top-link, the fixed length driveshafts performed locational duties as well as motive ones. This is Alan Stacey’s car, DNF gearbox on lap 57 from Q8. Ireland’s car was second from Q3, quick cars 18’s! Brabham won in his Cooper T53 Climax (Dave Friedman)

His first such design, the 18 was an immensely successful car in FJ, F2 and F1 specification.

Despite its ‘chubster, biscuit shaped’ looks it was the fastest 2.5 Litre F1 car of 1960 if not the most robust or reliable. No less than Moss himself had strong views on Chapman’s ‘marginal engineering’ of key components the failure of same caused some massive accidents.

Ireland, works Lotus 18 Climax, Monaco 1960, 9th in the race won by Moss’ similar car. Lotus’ first GP win (Dave Friedman)

Roll on into 1961, the first year of the 1.5 litre F1, the Brits were faced without a suitable engine as their ‘racing mafia’ were convinced the CSI, in the end, would not make the change to the smaller engines. They did, Ferrari the beneficiary with their 156, a car developed in F1/2 in 1960, click here for a story on that wonderful conveyance;

Ferrari’s first mid-engined Car: The 1960 Dino 246P…

Whilst BRM and Coventry Climax worked hard to get their V8’s completed all of the British firms persevered with Mk2 versions of the 1.5 litre Coventry Climax FPF- in 2.5 litre form the championship winning engine of 1959/60.

Chapman and his team had the dimensions of the coming Coventry Climax FWMV V8 when they set to work on the 21, their 1961 contender, but they knew initially the little, underpowered FPF would be used.

So, light weight and aerodynamic efficiency were key design tenets of the new Lotus 21.

These aims were achieved by lying the driver down in the cockpit, Chapman went further in 1962 with his 24/25 designs, but the trend was set by the 21. The car was notably small in size, low in frontal area, the body enveloping the chassis all the way to the casing of its ZF gearbox, specially made for the car. Have a look at a 21 beside a 156 and see just how ‘butch’ in size the Fazz is by comparison.

Chapman used a top rocker and lower wishbone for the cars front suspension, getting the spring/shocks outta the airstream, thus further adding to top speed. At the rear the suspension was outboard- single top link, inverted lower wishbone and coil spring/damper unit with twin radius rods for location.

Lotus 21 Climax FPF cutaway, specifications as per text (James Allington)

Lotus Components built eleven of the 21 chassis’ during the year, which otherwise in specification were leaders of the mid-engined paradigm- multi-tubular spaceframe chassis, Chapman the high priest of chassis design. Rack and pinion steering, discs on all four wheels, magnesium alloy (Lotus ‘wobbly web’) wheels, Ferrari still used heavy Borrani wires till 1963. The CC 1495cc, DOHC, 2 valve, all alloy, Weber carbed 4 cylinder engine gave circa 155bhp, the Lotus weighed 990lb, had an 89 inch wheelbase and a track of 53 inches front and rear.

The prototype was built from scratch in six weeks, just missing the Aintree 200 meeting but was tested at Silverstone two days later, the car made its debut at Monaco in May. The works cars in 1961 were steered by two Scots- Innes Ireland, the seasoned professional and up and coming Jim Clark who graduated from the works Lotus 18 FJ he raced in 1960.

Fitted with the new Coventry Climax V8 the Lotus 21 was a winning car in Moss’ hands if not Ireland’s or Clark’s.  But as it was Chapman didn’t get his hands on an FWMV in 1961 due at least in part to the spat he was having with Climax’ MD Leonard Lee about the quality of the CC FWE engines supplied for his Elite road cars- the engines weren’t the Elites only reliability problems mind you!

In the event the 21 won only one championship GP at Watkins Glen, Innes Ireland broke through for both Team Lotus and his first win that October.

Ireland’s winning Lotus 21 leads Gurney’s second placed Porsche 718 and Graham Hill’s fifth placed BRM P48/57 Climax, US GP Watkins Glen, 8 October 1961 (unattributed)

The cars chances of more wins were missed by Chapman’s decision not to sell Rob Walker his latest car, as he had with the 18 the year before. Moss’ two wins in 1961, remarkable ones, were in the Walker 18 at Monaco and 18/21 hybrid at the Nurburgring. Armed with a new 21 all year he may, praps have taken one or two wins off Ferrari despite the car’s relative ‘lack of puff’.

The 21 took wins in non-championship 1961 events- the Solitude GP for Ireland in July, the Flugplatzrennen at Zeltweg again for Ireland in September, and the Rand, Natal and South African Grands’ Prix in Jim Clark’s ‘African Tour’ in December 1961. As written here Moss did well in Australasia in early 1962.

The Lotus 21 should be remembered as both a GP winner and the progenitor of the design maxims Chapman’s ever creative mind evolved with the 1962 spaceframe  Lotus 24 and it’s revolutionary monocoque sibling, the 25.

Love the atmospherics of this 1961 Italian GP, Monza paddock shot. #10 is Brabham’s Cooper T58 CC V8, contrast it with McLaren’s #12 CC FPF powered T55 behind. #38 and 36 are the Ireland/Clark Lotus 21 CC FPF’s before the ‘jiggery pokery’ with the chassis swap between Innes and Stirling. The pale green painted ‘T’car is UDT-Laystall’s spare, the Cooper T51 is Jack Lewis’ (Hutton Archive)

Moss’ first drive of a Lotus 21 was his steer of  Innes Ireland’s works car at Monza on 10 September.

That weekend was infamous for the tragic race collision between Jim Clark’s Lotus 21 and Taffy von Trips Ferrari 156 which resulted in von Trips death as well as that of 15 innocent spectators.

Moss took Lotus’ first ever GP win at Monaco in May. Whilst Chapman was eternally grateful he wasn’t inclined to give Moss or Walker too much of a ‘free-kick’ by selling them his latest car, the 21, given his primary aim was works car wins. In fact its probably Esso we have to blame as they were Lotus’ fuel supplier, BP were the sponsor of Rob Walker/Moss, both companies had their commercial positions to protect.

Moss and Ireland swapping notes at Monza, Italian GP, September 1961 (GP Photo)

The Monza weekend was also significant for the first race appearance of the new 1.5 litre BRM P56 V8 and the further appearance of the Coventry Climax FWMV V8 first raced by Jack Brabham at the Nurburgring the month before.

Jack qualified his new Cooper T58 on grid 2 in the Eifel Mountains but crashed on lap 1 with a sticking throttle so the engine hadn’t been race-tested.

The P56 V8’s were fitted to modified BRM P48/57 chassis, the CC V8 to Jack’s Cooper and a specially modified Lotus 18/21 built up by the Walker Team. Team Lotus were unable to secure an engine as noted earlier, so appeared in 21’s powered by the 1.5 litre 4 cylinder FPF Mk2 used by the British teams, including BRM that year.

BRM tested their new engines with no intention to race them, Brabham raced his Cooper despite problems in practice.

Moss was sportingly offered Ireland’s factory 21 FPF, chassis ‘933’. Chapman and Ireland reasoned that Moss would have a better chance of success in a 21 rather than the tired Walker 18/21. Moss was the only Lotus driver with a vague (very) chance at the World Championship, Ireland raced the Walker 18/21 FPF engined car. In Denis Jenkinson’s race account he writes about the ‘cloak and dagger’ stuff behind closed garages to make the necessary change of chassis and body work between Moss and Ireland, the secretive stuff was doubtless so as not to upset the trade supporters of both teams.

Which brings us back to ‘ole 935’ and the photo at this articles outset.

The two works Lotus Monza chassis according to Nye’s ‘Theme Lotus’ were ‘933’ and ‘934’. If ‘935’ was at Monza there was no point making the chassis and bodywork changes between the Moss/Ireland cars both Jenkinson and Nye report took place. If ‘935’ were at Monza either as a works spare or delivered to the Walker Team Moss would have raced it and Ireland his regular works 21 rather than the inferior Walker 18/21.

So, whats the explanation of the photo then?

Either it isn’t Monza, although i am inclined to believe Nye who has been there once or twice! The probable story is that the engine cover of the new ‘935’ was ‘borrowed’ and fitted to one of the works Lotus 21’s for the weekend. The first race entry for ‘935’ i can find, looking at non-championship and championship Grands’ Prix results later in 1961 seems be its races in New Zealand in early 1962-the 1962 NZ GP report by sergent.com describes ‘935’ as unraced before that event on 6 January.

Moss and Alf Francis confer during Monza practice, by the look of it neither are ‘happy campers’, the Lotus 18/21 CC FWMV  chassis #’906′ was always a handful (GP Library)

The Moss 18/21 was modified to fit the FWMV V8 with the assistance of Ferguson Research.

The rear of the 18 chassis aft of the drivers seat was ‘chopped off’ and replaced with a frame to suit the width and mounting needs of the new engine. 21 rear suspension was incorporated comprising new 21 uprights which were located at the top by a link to the chassis thus relieving the half shafts of the suspension loads the solid ‘shafts of the 18 performed- the new components had Hardy Spicer splined shafts to accommodate ‘plunge and droop’.

A Colotti Type 32 gearbox was used. The rear framework was a complete assembly which attached to the main frame by large bolts screwed into the ends of the tubes, which had been plugged and tapped. The structure was made from small diameter tubing which had to be detached completely before the engine and gearbox could be removed. The car was finished in a big hurry so the old Lotus engine cover was retained with a bulge to clear the four downdraft Webers.

Whilst no-doubt well engineered it doesn’t all add up to the levels of torsional stiffness no doubt required to put all of the new engines power to the ground effectively.

During the race the tragic accident between Clark and von Trips occurred on the first lap, the German and hapless spectators killed, the race continued whilst the carnage was attended to.

Moss retired on lap 36 with wheel bearing failure, Ireland on lap 5 with chassis problems and Brabham’s FWMV failed on lap 8 due to overheating problems- shortcomings sorted over the winter off-season.

Phil Hill’s Ferrari 156 won the race and  1961 title from Gurney’s Porsche 718 and McLaren’s Cooper T55 FPF.

The Walker Lotus 18/21 CC V8 during 1961 Monza practice (GP Library)

Italian GP ’61 start with a swag of 5 Ferrari’s up front, leading green car at left is probably Hill G’s BRM Climax, Clark is between Hill and a Ferrari, thats Gurney’s Porsche 718 on the right from grid 12, the carnage took place shortly thereafter (Klemantaski)

Moss in the Walker bodied works Lotus 21 CC FPF during the race, dicing with Gurney’s 2nd placed Porsche 718 (GP Library)

New Zealand…

Over that 1962 European winter Coventry Climax worked on the reliability of the FWMV and BRM their P56 V8 and the P578 chassis to carry it. At Cheshunt Colin Chapman was building the spaceframe 24 and its epochal monocoque sibling, the Lotus 25.

Both marques were the key players in an amazing 1962 season which in the main didn’t feature Stirling Moss, whose Glover Trophy career ending accident took place on Easter Monday 23 April 1962 in the Walker Lotus 18/21 Climax V8 ‘906’ described above.

The Walker Team would make do with their 18/21 in GP’s, later in the season they raced two Lotus 24 FWMV’s but by the time they were ready Moss’ career was finito.

Moss looking after the fans, Kiwi kiddies drawn to the great Brit, Ardmore NZGP meeting. Car is 21 ‘935’ (Stephen Page)

For Moss, in the meantime there were the annual summer internationals to contest in Australasia.

Whilst Stirling loved the speed of his Lotus he revelled in the forgiving ‘chuckability’ and robustness of Coopers. Robust is not an apt adjective to describe the Lotus single-seaters of the period. So, hedging his bets for his 1962 Australasian Tour he had Rob Walker ship both ‘935’ as well as a Cooper T55 ‘F1-7-61’  on the long voyage south. Both cars were Coventry Climax FPF powered- engines of both 2.5 and 2.7 litres capacity were used, our International Series was run to Formula Libre in its pre-Tasman Cup formula days.

Moss and second placed Surtees on the Ardmore victory dais (Stephen Page)

Moss raced the Lotus to an NZ GP win at Ardmore on 6 January and at the Wigram Airfield circuit event fitted with 2.5 litre FPF’s. At Levin and Teretonga he was second in the Cooper powered by a 2.7 FPF, Brabham won at Levin and McLaren at Teretonga- so Moss’ campaign had started well.

Borgward Isabella and 21 off to the next round of the NZ Internationals at Levin. Shot shows the inboard front suspension, the top rocker actuating inboard mounted spring/shock. At the rear is a single top link, reversed lower wishbone, outboard spring/shock and twin radius rods. Extreme lowness clear as is the slippery nature of the body and reduction in driver space which advanced as a trend over the following decades!  (Stephen Page)

The NZ Internationals were contested by Moss, Surtees, McLaren and Salvadori, the latter three drivers in Cooper T53 Climaxes, Bandini in a Cooper T53 Maserati, Brabham a Cooper T55 Climax and Ron Flockhart, a Lotus 18 Climax.

Chris Amon made his first international appearances that summer in the ex-BRM/Brabham Maser 250F, other ‘local heroes’ were Pat Hoare Ferrari 246/256 V12, Angus Hyslop, Cooper T53 Climax and Aussies Bib Stillwell, Aston Martin DBR4/250, David McKay, Cooper T51 Climax and Arnold Glass’ in a BRM P48.

Moss ‘brained’ the NZGP field in an awful, wet race- he lapped the field winning from Surtees, McLaren and Salvadori.

Australia…

Beautiful shot of Moss in the Walker Lotus 21 Climax 2.5 ‘935’ on Warwick Farm’s pit straight, he practised the car but raced the more ‘chuckable’ Cooper (Mal Simpson)

The cars were then shipped to Sydney, the first race of the Australian leg was the ‘Warwick Farm 100’ on the testing, technical outer western Sydney circuit on 4 February.

Moss practised both cars but elected to race the Cooper to a race win from McLaren and Stillwell.

Moss in his Lotus 21 passes John Youl sneaking a peek over his shoulder, Cooper T51 Climax during WF practice. Youl DNF in the 2.2 litre car with clutch problems in the race, the Taswegian a very quick steerer (John Ellacott)

WF 100 front row, 4 February 1962- Moss, Brabham, McLaren in Coopers T53, T55, T53 (Mal Simpson)

Moss missed the Lakeside event won by Brabham’s T55 Cooper and Longford’s ‘South Pacific Championship’ race won by Surtees Cooper T53 Climax but raced ‘935’ fitted with a 2.7 litre FPF at the Australian Grand Prix, Sandown’s inaugural meeting on 12 March.

Jack Brabham won the race in his 2.7 engined Cooper from Surtees, McLaren and Chuck Daigh in the very interesting Scarab RE Buick V8, the cars only race- read my Chuck Daigh article for that cars interesting story.

Moss cruises the Sandown paddock in the 2.7 ‘Indy’ FPF engined Lotus ‘935’, March 1962. The man absolutely the best and fastest driver in the world at the time (Kevin Drage)

In between these Australian events, reinforcing the regularity and intensity of his racing schedule, Moss raced in the Daytona 3 Hours, finishing fourth in a Ferrari 250 GT SWB on 11 February.

After Sandown he returned to the US to contest the Sebring 3 Hours and Sebring 24 Hours on 23/24 March finishing third in an Austin Healey Sprite and DNF in a NART Ferrari Dino 248SP respectively.

Moss, AH Sprite, Sebring 3 Hour 1962 (Tom Bigelow)

Moss, maidens, Sebring 1962. That he was in such great physical shape no doubt a factor in his attraction to the babes but it  also stood him in good stead in surviving the horrific Goodwood shunt, surgery and month long coma (Tom Bigelow)

Moss then returned to Europe for the 1 April GP of Brussels and Lombank Trophy at Snetterton on 14 April yielding second and seventh in the Walker Lotus 18/21 FWMV V8 ‘906’ before that fateful day at Goodwood on 23 April.

Moss, Goodwood, Lotus 18/21 ‘906’ not long before the prang, Easter Monday 1962 (Doug Nye)

It took over an hour to cut Stirling free from the mortally wounded Lotus. One of the things I have learned and detest in researching various pieces is the vast number of gruesome images of racing crashes on the internet- you won’t ever see them here, I am all for ‘freedom of the press’ but believe there is a place for censorship of said images (Victor Blackman)

Moss was an enormously popular visitor to Australia from the mid-fifties, sadly his Goodwood 1962 accident was not too far away during his early 1962 tour.

His Antipodean fans never forgot him though.

We turned out in droves to see his ‘comeback’ drive in a Holden Torana L34 V8 at Bathurst in 1976, he shared the car with Jack Brabham. The all-star combination had a shocker of a race when Jack copped a Triumph Dolomite ‘up the arse’ on the startline thanks to his Holden’s clutch failure.

Brabham was stranded as the rest of the field moved post-haste towards Hell Corner, the unsighted Dolly was an innocent victim of Black-Jacks misfortune, the car was patched up but Jack and Stirling failed to finish, a great shame!

Moss, a great man, ’tis wonderful he remains one of our sports great ambassadors.

Brabham/ Moss, Holden Torana L34, Bathurst 1976 (Autopics)

Moss and Brabham at Bathurst in ’76, that’s Scuderia Veloce’s David McKay in between (autopics.com)

Bibliography…

Automobile Year, MotorSport 1961 Italian GP race report by Denis Jenkinson, Doug Nye ‘Theme Lotus’, William Taylor ‘The Lotus Book’, oldracingcars.com, GP Encyclopaedia, silhouet.com, Team Dan

Photo Credits…

GP Library, James Allington, Mal Simpson, Kevin Drage, Stephen Page, John Ellacott, Klemantaski Collection, John Ross Motor Racing Archive, Dave Friedman Collection, autopics.com, Victor Blackman, Doug Nye, Tom Bigelow

Tailpiece: The future. Jim Clark at Sandown, Lotus 21 Climax ‘933’, World Champion in the new, epochal monocoque Lotus 25 within two years and a GP winner within months. Here with the lower sidepanel removed due to Melbourne summer heat…

(Kevin Drage)

Finito…