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Chassis:
Jim Clark drove chassis R2 to the victorious debut of the Lotus 49 and the Cosworth DFV engine during the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. Later in the year he scored two further Grands Prix victories in this car. It was subsequently fitted with a 2.5 litre version of the engine for the lucrative Tasman Cup Series. Clark won four of the eight rounds he competed in. In 1968 it was updated to 49B specifications and loaned to privateer entrant Rob Walker, who campaigned it for Jo Siffert and Jackie Oliver. The best result was a third place at the Oulton Gold Cup for the latter.
It was long believed that R2 was scrapped at the end of the 1968 season. It was not until the 1990s, when author Michael Oliver went about charting the individual histories of the cars for his book on the Lotus 49, that chassis R2 was rediscovered. It had actually been used by Lotus for the 49B that had been sold to American privateer Pete Lovely in 1969 as a new car with the chassis number R11. In this guise, it was raced by Lovely with limited success until 1971 in contemporary events. He later sold the car before buying it back for historic racing. At the time of the discovery of the car's origins Lovely was the owner of the car.
Some time later it was sold to another American historic racer, before it was acquired by the current, American owner in 2009. He sent the car to Classic Team Lotus to have it restored to its original configuration. All of the '49B' upgrades were removed from the tub and the Hewland gearbox was replaced by a correct ZF 5DS-12. The extensive work was completed in time for the 2010 Monaco Historic Grand Prix where it was driven by the current owner, while wearing a copy of Jim Clark's helmet. The car is set to be one of the stars of the upcoming Goodwood Festival of Speed where 60 years of Formula 1 will be celebrated.
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| Last known location |
American Private Collection |
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