25 replies to this topic

[Gary Davies]

I was looking through Jim Clark at the Wheel recently as part of reliving that marvellous 1962 German Grand Prix and my eye was caught by a short passage as follows: “Later that month I had an interesting trip to Switzerland to compete in the Ollon-Villars hill climb. This was the first time I had competed in in such an event for years. The Swiss enthusiast Filipinetti lent me a Formula One Lotus for the climb, but it was an old one sadly in need of both steam and brakes. I had some exciting moments and certainly didn't set Switzerland alight with my times. It was probably not surprising that no one heard anything about it.”

Well ... initially I thought how fascinating - although not so unusual in those days - for a top driver to “take a weekend off” to compete in such an interesting event and so I set about discovering a little more.

Jim’s book reveals that he drove the Filipinetti Lotus 21 and he came 3rd in class.

A little more digging shows that the car was chassis 938, built for Jo Siffert “to special order” according to Motor Sport. It first ran as a Team Lotus entry at the Grand Prix de Bruxelles on 1 April 1962 and, to quote D.S.J. :“... was a V8 type chassis frame, with 4-cylinder Coventry-Climax engine and Colotti gearbox, but with 1961 suspension all round. The special car was built for the Swiss driver Siffert, who was due to take delivery after the race!” (Of course, there’s another question in here. How come the odd configuration? Seppi’s choice or a Chunky whitewash job?)

Jo first raced it at Pau on that fateful day 23 April entered by Ecurie Nationale Suisse and it subsequently raced around Europe mostly under Filipinetti’s colours, finally being sold to Clement Barreau who raced it in its final Formula One appearance at Vallelunga on May 19 1963 where it came home 6th. So much for the “old one” Jim drove from Ollon to Villars!

What I’m curious about and have not been able to discover are the details surrounding this one-off.

Most of “the lads” were at the Roskildering on the 23rd of August 1962, including Team Lotus, with Trevor Taylor standing in as team leader.

Motor Sport didn’t cover the Ollon-Villars hill climb, neither did they report on the “Grote Prijs van Danske” or even mention either event in “Motor Sport Events for August” at the front of the magazine.

So who suggested Ollon-Villars to whom? Jimmy ... or Georges Filipinetti?

Has anyone heard Jimmy’s reasons for going? What level of competition was there? Did any other “names” turn up that weekend?

Any takers?

[David McKinney]

Autosport (31/8/62) just had a brief paragraph on Ollon-Villars - with no mention of Clark!
Fastest times included:
Bonnier (F1 Porsche) 4m 27.8s
Scarfiotti (Ferrari Dino 196SP) 4m 34.7s
Karl Foitek (F1 Lotus) 4m 36.4s
Sepp Greger (Porsche RS1700) 4m 36.6s
Siffert (FJ Lotus) 4m 37.7s
The event was a round in the European Mountain Championship, for which points were awarded to eligible cars on the times for two runs. Although not mentioned by Autosport, Greger took maximum points here ahead of Scarfiotti

[Roger Clark]

This was not the only time. In 1965 he drove the Lotus 38, with symmetrical suspension and 5-speed gear box at both St Ursanne-Les Rangiers and Ollon-Villars. These Swiss hill-climbs often attracted an unusual entry; the 1965 events also featured Siffert and Bonnier in their F1 Brabhams and Peter Westbury in the 4WD BRM.

I think it was in 1961 that Brabham drove an old Cooper in one of them.

Regarding Clark's car, the text of Theme Lotus says that Taylor "gave Team's second 24 its debut (at Snetterton) with 4-cylinder FPF installed". However, the appendices say that he drove the 21 938, both here and in Brussels. Photographs in Autosport suggest that this at least had 21 front suspension, as indicated by DSJ. It looks like a 21 to me.

[jarama]

David,

do you know if Karl Foitek is related to Gregor Foitek? Maybe we are speaking of father and son?

Carles.

[David McKinney]

Yes we are

[Doug Nye]

I might have to delete the following 'cos they're from Ed Heuvink's brand new book on the Scuderia Filipinetti - published by Chronosports SA, St Sulpice, Switzerland, but here's JC at Ollon-Villars in the 4-cylinder Lotus. The invoices are interesting - for the later Filipinetti 24 V8, then for the Cooper-Maserati - but note the spelling of the customer's name on each invoice....it demonstrates some of the difference between Lotus and Cooper...









DCN

[fines]

Interesting that Signor Pimeti should have an invoice for F1-04-66, I thought that was Guy Ligier's car!!? And note the inflation, almost double that for an F1 car barely 3 years earlier!!!!

[Paul Parker]

Dear Doug,

Where do you get this stuff from? Envy, envy etc., etc. It is indeed informative that Cooper with its board of directors including an Italian, the heir to Marks & Spencer and a very famous racing driver of Italian descent, had office staff who could not properly spell Scuderia Filipinetti, whilst the 'herberts' from Cheshunt had no such bothers.

As for Fines' observation about inflation, this period of the 1960s coincided with politically created inflationary policies so beloved of Labour governments. To be fair however one would expect the later, much larger Cooper-Maserati to be substantially more expensive than the Lotus, bearing in mind also the importation of the Maserati V12 engine.

[Doug Nye]

Originally posted by Paul Parker
Where do you get this stuff from? ...

Steady on old chap...in this case from Ed Heuvink's new Filipinetti book, as declared...

DCN

[Roger Clark]

This is all a bit difficult for me.

According to both Paul Sheldon and Theme Lotus, the type 24 #950 was raced by the works in the early part of 1962, intially with an FPF. later with a BRM engine. Its last appearance in these coours was at Reims, were Arundell started and Clark took over after his 25 failed. A week later Siffert drove it for Filipinetti in the French Grand Prix. Theme Lotus says it had a Climax V8, but that is presumably wrong. Filipinetti than entered it for Siffert and others for the remainder of 1962 and on into 1963.

So why is that invoice dated 1963?

Also there is the car driven by Clark in the photo Doug posted. It fits DSJ's description, qouted by Vanwall of the car driven by Taylor in Brussels at the start of the season:

was a V8 type chassis frame, with 4-cylinder Coventry-Climax engine and Colotti gearbox, but with 1961 suspension all round.

Yet this car has a 24 engine cover. Pictures of Taylor at Brussels and elsewhere in the car (938) show a 21-style engine cover. When Team Lotus had finished with it it went to Filipinetti and was driven by Siffert and others, always with an FPF. It is always referred to as a 21. So is this the car Clark is driving?

[Seppi_0_917PA]

Originally posted by Vanwall
A little more digging shows that the car was chassis 938, built for Jo Siffert “to special order” according to Motor Sport. It first ran as a Team Lotus entry at the Grand Prix de Bruxelles on 1 April 1962 and, to quote D.S.J. :“... was a V8 type chassis frame, with 4-cylinder Coventry-Climax engine and Colotti gearbox, but with 1961 suspension all round. The special car was built for the Swiss driver Siffert, who was due to take delivery after the race!” (Of course, there’s another question in here. How come the odd configuration? Seppi’s choice or a Chunky whitewash job?)

Jo first raced it at Pau on that fateful day 23 April entered by Ecurie Nationale Suisse

Vanwal, I have typed some passages from Deschenaux's Siffert book regarding this period of time which are amusing and have a little different storyline:

"The Sunday following the first April was a great day: for the first time Siffert was starting in a Formula One race, the Brussels Grand Prix. The Lotus 24 had not yet been delivered by the factory so Colin Chapman had lent him a 1500 engine, dry sump, with two Weber carburettors, which after some detail alteration was installed in the Formula Junior car." (a Lotus 22)

Skipping ahead two weeks...

"The following Sunday the 24th April, Seppi travelled empty to Pau: the Lotus team would bring out the Lotus 24, with a Climax 4-cylinder engine, ordered by the Scuderia Filipinetti. Joseph, Michel, Jean-Pierre, Bisule - they were all anxious to see the new machine which would enable the Swiss driver to make his first real entry into the world of Formula One.

But disillusion soon dashed his hopes: after they had helped unload the two Lotus of Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor, the Group Siffert found at the bottom of the lorry a completely bare Formula One chassis; it had wheels but no engine, no gearbox, no tank, no coach work!

'You can take it or leave it,' said Chapman to Baudoin, the Filipinetti manager - who had been told not to pay for the car if it wasn't complete.

'But yes - we have got a day and a half to put it together,' urged Seppi who was ready to do anything rather than see the car go back to England. So the car was unloaded in sections.

The assembly was not quite easy as the had anticipated. Michel, Jean-Pierre and Bisule now realized that the sump had to be removed because the engine, designed to be mounted flat, should according the specifications be fitted at an angle.

'At this time the finish of the racing cars wasn't all that good,' Peter Warr said later; it was also customary in England to deliver racing cars in broken-down sections for reasons of tax, or in the case of aboard, customs duty.

After working all day and night to assemble the jigsaw puzzle, the mechanics could at last get on with checking and testing, which revealed among other things that the Colotti gearbox which had pressure lubrication was broken. By chance, Alf Francis had one to spare.

All these problems considerably delayed the preparation of the Lotus which wasn't ready for the first practise. So Joseph just had to wait until the second practise before hitting the track at the wheel of a Lotus 24, absolutely untested; running in, roadholding, everything still had to be done, for this new and inexperienced contender in Formula One.

Siffert still managed to qualify. In the race, Taylor went out on the 18th lap followed by Clark six laps later. The two works Lotus were parked behind the pits. Chapman left his pit and came over to help with Siffert's team for the rest of the race. Siffert finished sixth, although the oil pressure was dropping dangerously low. The race was won by Maurice Trintignant upholding the colours of Rob Walker whose other driver, Stirling Moss, had met with a serious accident at Goodwood on the same day - the accident which put him out of motor racing for good."

[Doug Nye]

Originally posted by Roger Clark
This is all a bit difficult for me...etc, etc

Roger - if you mean the above because it's difficult to understand, fine, it is to me too. If you might just mean this because it could be construed as having a pop at one of my past productions, have absolutely NO worries on that score. I haven't got time to address this muddle right now but I have no doubt this invoice reproduced by Heuvink is the genuine article, and that either a chassis serial and carnet were being re-used - or a used car was being re-sold as brand-new - or a used car was being sold 'as used' - or there is some other explanation...but at the mo I haven't a clue what that might be. Oh and by the way, Type 21 and Type 24 engine cowls - or at least cowls catering for either 4-cylinder or V8-cyl engines - would have been very easily interchangeable once tailored to the same chassis.

DCN

[Ruairidh]

Those invoices are fascinating bits of history! I'd love to see the Lotus ones from the late 70's selling 78's to Rebaque etc. or how much David Render paid for the 76 and, I think, 77 he hill-climbed. Nosey aren't I?

[David McKinney]

I always understood David Render had some sort of special relationship with the factory - did he ever actually own the cars he sprinted, or were they on loan?

[Ruairidh]

Originally posted by David McKinney
I always understood David Render had some sort of special relationship with the factory - did he ever actually own the cars he sprinted, or were they on loan?

Good Point - I don't know.

[Mattthecat]

Something that I was not able to find out is the connection (if there is any) between the Ecuries Nationale Suisse and Filipinetti.

Siffert's Lotus was entered in the 1962 Monegassan GP under the ENS banner, and for the rest of the season Filipinetti took the honors.
Are these two teams one bird with two feathers, somehow connected or not at all?

Thx

[Paul Parker]

By pure coincidence I e-mailed Doug yesterday to ask him exactly the same question, as Siffert appears under the ENS banner at Monaco in '62 and Filipinetti at Spa. The Filipinetti book does not provide the answers but suggests that Filipinetti was the team patron at Monaco.

My guess is that they are one and the same but I await the denouement. Another inconsistency is that some references refer to Scuderia Filipinetti and others to Ecurie Filipinetti.

[Seppi_0_917PA]

From Deschenaux's Siffert book:

"...At the same time an Ecurie Nationale Suisse - with the objective of encouraging young talent - had been formed in Geneva by Georges Filipinetti, who, after some pressure from the ACS, soon re-named it the Scuderia Filipinetti."

pg72

[Mattthecat]

Thanks to both of you. Almost forgot about that Ecurie/Scuderia question.
Another puzzle complete

[Team Gunston]

Again reactivating an old thread, but there is still some confusion in my opinion about the number of F1 Lotus chassis Scuderia Filipinetti actually entered in 1962/1963. Let me recapitulate :

- 938 was their first proper F1 chassis. Call it a 21, a 24 or a 21/24 as you want. According to photographic evidence, it was the car Jim Clark drove at Ollon-Villars in 1962 and Herbert Müller drove at Pau in 1963, before it passed in the hands of an unknown Frenchman named Clément Barrau or Barreau who entered it in 1963 and 1964 (at least) in non-championship races and hillclimbs.

- 950 was the "new" chassis delivered at Calais in 1963 (Heuvink p. 69) for Phil Hill's use at the French GP and Ollon-Villars, and then driven by André Wicky (still in Filipinetti colours) in non-championships events and hillclimbs.

Hence my question : which was the chassis number of the second car Filipinetti entered in 1962 and at the begining of 1963, and then sold to Siffert when he was fired ? If it was 950, the Hill/Wicky car was not 950. If Hill and Wicky actually drove 950, Siffert's mount was a different car, a third Filipinetti car. Do you follow me ?

I'm curious of what you all think about that third Lotus.

PS : a last word about Ecurie Nationale Suisse and Filipinetti : although it was entered under the ENS banner at Monaco in 1962, Siffert's car sported the "Ecurie (not Scuderia) Filipinetti" title on its right side (see Heuvink p. 35).

[Team Gunston]

Some sources list the Wicky car as "951". So could be the Lotus Components invoice dated 26th June 1963 wrong, and mentioning chassis number 24/950 in place of 24/951 ?

[Mark A]

Perhaps Graham Gauld can comment, as according to his book Jim Clark - The Legend Lives On, Jim Clark competed at the Ollon-Villars Hillclimb on the 26th August 1962 in a Lotus 21 (and finished 3rd in Class).

[Bernard]

Jim at Ollon ?


http://www.ollon-vil...om/english.html

[CLR]

I am more interested in the St Ursanne les Rangiers hillclimb.
Jim Clark drove 38/4 in the August 1965 event.

I have been trying to find the rest of the Lotus entry for that day without success, is there a relevant web site ?

Kevin Whittle

[Alan Cox]

A lovely interview by Jo Bonnier with Jim Clark and Jo Siffert talking about the 1965 visit to Ursanne les Rangiers, with Jim in very relaxed mood.

http://archives.tsr....r/siffert-clark

[Kingsleyrob]

A lovely interview by Jo Bonnier with Jim Clark and Jo Siffert talking about the 1965 visit to Ursanne les Rangiers, with Jim in very relaxed mood.

http://archives.tsr....r/siffert-clark

Indeed it is Alan - such a pleasure to see and hear our heroes without baseball caps and plastered in adverts. Also good to hear them not speaking English too, in a funny kind of way - seemingly more human than today's individuals.

Jim has a particular look of Ayrton Senna about him a number of times during the interview, I thought.

Rob