Greatest Racecar? Tiff Needell’s Lotus 49-Ford DFV

Without doubt the greatest racing car is one I’ve not driven. I’ll explain later. It’s my hero’s, Jim Clark’s Lotus 49 with the DFV engine. The green and yellow one, with the number 5 (my lucky number) not the one with the cigarette sponsorship! It was the era before ground effects, and wings, although wings did begin to sprout from the later Gold Leaf models. Jim Clark, though, was my super hero, and that’s why I’ve said I haven’t driven the car, I drove the one at the Beaulieu Museum, which annoyed me, really, as that was a Graham Hill car not Jimmy’s.

The image of the Gold Leaf 49s is when the unfortunate—or fortunate considering the accident—Jackie Oliver is standing over the completely obliterated remains of his car at Rouen. He stands with the same look of a naughty schoolboy who’s done something seriously wrong, obviously awaiting the wrath of Colin Chapman.  The photograph was recently published in a magazine, and I noticed too there was no Armco, just a concrete post and wire fence behind this totally destroyed racing car. The things they got away with in those days!