It is sadly poignant to have to report the unexpected death of Cliff Allison at the age of 73. Allison was a personal friend and an admitted VRJ fan, something he reiterated recently at the Lotus Show at Donington Park only two weeks before his death.
Allison started racing in an F3 Cooper-JAP in Britain in 1952 and by 1955 had won the championship. This was also the year he started racing Lotus cars for Colin Chapman, eventually winning the Index of Performance at Le Mans in 1957. His move to Lotus was the result of his connection with Esso fuels, which was also involved with Chapman at Lotus. Esso asked for Lotus to give Allison a test drive and, as a result, he became a regular team member. In fact, as most drivers at that time were buying their cars from Lotus, Cliff was in reality the first Lotus team driver. Part of this was the result of his good working relationship with Chapman, as well as Chapman’s respect for Allison as an engineer and driver.
Allison started driving Lotus F2 cars in 1956. His first race in this category was in the British Grand Prix meeting, where many of the cars were sports racing cars to F2 regulation specs. Allison was on the front row with team boss Chapman and the new Cooper “Bobtail” of Roy Salvadori. Salvadori won from Chapman with Ivor Bueb 3rd and Allison 4th, ahead of Les Leston, Jack Brabham and Graham Hill. Three weeks later, again in the Lotus 11, Allison was 6th at Goodwood.
In 1957, Allison was to make his F1 debut in the Lotus 12 at Goodwood but the gearbox broke in the F2 race at the same meeting. He did several more F2 races in the Lotus 12 that season but his only result was 3rd at Goodwood in late September, as the 12 was terribly unreliable. 1958 started well as Allison was 4th in his first F1 race, the Glover Trophy at Goodwood, and subsequently finished 3rd in the Lavant Cup F2 race on the same day. He then beat Stuart Lewis-Evan’s Cooper to win the F2 class in the International Trophy at Silverstone and was 6th overall against the F1 cars, an impressive performance for the Lotus 12. In fact, this was the first single-seater win for Lotus. He managed to beat Graham Hill, who was also in a Lotus 12 in the F1 section, and was generally quicker than Hill. He qualified quicker than Hill at the Monaco Grand Prix, where Allison finished 7th, and at Zandvoort he was 6th, a spectacular result considering the competition from Vanwall, BRM, Ferrari and Cooper.
After an introduction to Ferrari from Mike Hawthorn, it didn’t take Maranello long to recruit Allison for 1959. His Ferrari single-seater debut was at Monaco in the small F2 section where von Trips removed the three F2 qualifiers in one go on the second lap. In Holland, he worked his way up to 10th in his Ferrari F1 debut, was 11th in the Reims F2 race, retired in the German Grand Prix, was a very good 5th in the Italian Grand Prix and retired in the first USGP at Sebring. In sports cars, Allison made his brilliant World Championship Ferrari debut by sharing the 2nd-place Ferrari Testa Rossa with Jean Behra to score a Ferrari 1-2 at Sebring. He and Gurney failed to finish the Targa Florio in a Testa Rossa but this pair then took the same car to 5th at the Nürburgring. He shared 3rd place in another Testa Rossa with Phil Hill, Gendebien and Tony Brooks at Goodwood in September, resulting in Allison finishing in 7th place in that year’s overall driver rankings for sports cars.
Allison was in Argentina early in 1960, winning the Buenos Aires 1000 Kilometers with Phil Hill, and followed that three weeks later with a magnificent 2nd in the Argentine Grand Prix behind McLaren’s Cooper. Though the rear-engine cars were now in their ascension, the season looked good for Ferrari’s three regular drivers: Hill, von Trips and Allison. Allison next finished 3rd at the Nürburgring 1,000 Kilometers with Mairesse and Phil Hill, but then at Monaco, Cliff was thrown out of his car in a practice crash. He later told the now-famous story of his waking up in the hospital speaking French to the nurses, which he thought was odd as he didn’t speak French! His injuries kept him out of racing for the balance of the season. Ferrari kept him on for testing work, but would not agree to his returning to F1 for 1961, so he left and got himself a drive in the Yeoman Credit team, finishing 2nd behind Brabham at Snetterton. He had lost none of his flair though the car was not very quick, but he got it onto the grid at Monaco and finished 8th. He was 8th again at the London trophy at Crystal Palace and was fully fit when he crashed the Lotus 18/21 at Spa in the early laps of practice, and the resulting leg injuries put an end to his career.
Cliff remained a real fan of racing through the years, often appearing as a spectator at circuits. Though he didn’t race in historic events, he did a number of demonstrations, and was always ready to test something interesting. He had tried Mal Nicholson’s Dino 246 recreation and was working with him on creating a version of the 1960 car, such was his interest in engineering as well as his sheer enjoyment of driving. He never was short of a story, and it is sad that the tale of his life, in his own words, will not now appear. Cliff Allison was truly one of that band of wholly nice people and will be greatly missed. VRJ sends condolences to his wife, Mabel, and sister, Pat Smith.
Submitted by Ed McDonough
