Jim Clark and the Ford P68

Did Jim Clark ever get in the Ford P.68? (e.g. for foto op, test drive or whatever....)

 

If so, where, when, circumstances, wateva - just to know!

With luck Graham Gauld will spot this thread and give the definitive answer, but I don’t believe Clark and the P68 were ever in the same country together. Clark was living abroad for a year for tax reasons. The year was due to finish on 5th April 1968, but during this exile he was only allowed to spend a few days in the UK.

After the last Tasman series race at Longford on 4th March Clark had flown to the US to test the Lotus 56. He had then flown to Spain for the Barcelona F2 race on 31st March, and then went on to Hockenheim the following week.

The Ford P68 commenced its shakedown running at Brands Hatch in late March. I therefore don’t believe it was possible for Clark to have seen it or sat in it.

As Tim says, for tax reasons his time in the UK was limited - 100 days maximum in any tax year - and I believe he used most of those to just be 'James Clark, gentleman farmer' in Duns.

I thought it was a lot less than 100 days. Eric Dymock’s biography says he would have been allowed 90 after three years but only minimal visits before that. He only did the Grand Prix in 1967.

I'm sure JYS would remember the number of days. 30 days a year at some points.

I had a strong assumption that he had not been near the P68 but I've recently seen a photo that causes me to question this, hence the question!

I think I know the photo to which you refer, and in my non-expert opinion (from the small amount of the car that can be seen) it looks more like a Ferrari 330 P3.

I'm guessing that we are looking at same (copyrighted!) photo - it screamed P68 to my eyes but I will now look again! (and where would he be, getting in/out of Ferrari - not a marque that I ever associate with him?? Just wondering...............)

Pretty sure Jim had a go in a Ferrari 330 in France (?) with Jabby one year.

Yes indeed. In September 1967 Clark visited Pierre Bardinon’s private car collection at Mas du Clos, near Aubusson in France. He drove a number of the cars on Bardinon’s private race circuit, including a D-Type Jaguar, Bugatti T51 and Ferrari P3/412P chassis 0848 which Bardinon had recently acquired from the Filipinetti team. Here’s Jabby Crombac’s account of his ride with Clark in the Ferrari, as it appeared in Graham Gauld’s Jim Clark: Portrait of a Great Driver:

First of all he took his girl friend round in the Ferrari. Then it was my turn. It is a funny thing, I have often been driven by Jimmy and have got no impression of speed. I thought while we were going round that it was good of him not to frighten me, and when we stopped I told him it was very nice of him to take me round so gently - I was so sure he had been about five seconds a lap slower than when he took his girlfriend round. Jimmy just laughed and Pierre came up and told us we had broken the lap record.

Thanks chaps - I have looked again at the (copyright) photo and I can see a small scoop just behind the door that indeed looks like the one on a P3 Ferrari so my mystery is now solved!