The hero was too good.
Discussion
Back in the 60s I raced open wheelers in Oz,& quite a few of our technical types ended up over there. One of these, after a couple of years, mid 60s, crewing for Lotus told me the following.
At Monarco, mid 60s, Jim Clarke had one of the pick up links, of his Lotus's rear anti roll bar, break, on about lap 20.
With no rear roll bar, the thing would have had almost no steering, & the driver should retire. But this was Clarke, & in less than a lap he had worked out that this extreme under steer allowed him to break much deeper into the corner.
By getting off the breaks at just the right time, he could induce
a rear end breakaway, which he could then control through the corner with throttle. 2 laps after the link broke, he set the fastest lap of the race.
This ability to exploit the falts, & vices of cars, no doubt won a lot of races for Lotus, but it was also extremely frustrating for Collin Chapman. When given a new car, Clarke would lap at near record speeds, & when asked if he wanted some changes, it was always, "No, its fine thank you". Meanwhile, his team mate would be telling Chapman that the car was lousy, slow, a big step backwards, etc.
Evidently, the boys decided to set a car up to be "undrivable".
It was set up to have understeer, oversteer, & 4 wheel break away, all at once, while stationary, in the pits.
After driving the thing, Clarke pronounced it "fine". After that they accepted that they were in the presence of a freak, or a god, & left it at that. What ever else he was, he was definately
a hero.
At Monarco, mid 60s, Jim Clarke had one of the pick up links, of his Lotus's rear anti roll bar, break, on about lap 20.
With no rear roll bar, the thing would have had almost no steering, & the driver should retire. But this was Clarke, & in less than a lap he had worked out that this extreme under steer allowed him to break much deeper into the corner.
By getting off the breaks at just the right time, he could induce
a rear end breakaway, which he could then control through the corner with throttle. 2 laps after the link broke, he set the fastest lap of the race.
This ability to exploit the falts, & vices of cars, no doubt won a lot of races for Lotus, but it was also extremely frustrating for Collin Chapman. When given a new car, Clarke would lap at near record speeds, & when asked if he wanted some changes, it was always, "No, its fine thank you". Meanwhile, his team mate would be telling Chapman that the car was lousy, slow, a big step backwards, etc.
Evidently, the boys decided to set a car up to be "undrivable".
It was set up to have understeer, oversteer, & 4 wheel break away, all at once, while stationary, in the pits.
After driving the thing, Clarke pronounced it "fine". After that they accepted that they were in the presence of a freak, or a god, & left it at that. What ever else he was, he was definately
a hero.
Fascinating story.
One of the things that is apparent in high performance equipment is that to be fast and agile it needs to be unstable. Jet fighter are designed on that principle, especially since the advent of powerful and relatively light weight computers. I understand that it would be impossible to fly a modern fighter straight and level without the computers (ignoring their control function and assuming that physical controls were available). Turns would be instant wipe out.
The early Tyrrells were designed with that principle in mind and to use Jackie Stewart's control ability. They were, apparently, quickest when set up to be very 'edgy', having quite a short wheelbase for the times. However that was not necessarily an advantage on all tracks so from time to time long wheelbase versions were used with spacers to move engine and/or gearbox withing the overall chassis design. Edgy was one aspect of a race winning capability. Consistency lap after lap was another and was more significant at some circuits.
Stewart, and Francois Cevert as a willing pupil, could find significant speed in race trim on many occasions, though significant lack of speed on others. Put other drivers in the cars and without the guidance of either of its masters and things were less successful. Things had to be made simpler for success to continue - there was no time to re-train the new drivers to the same skills.
Driving around the problems is probably almost impossible these days, certainly in F1 - MS in Spain back in 96 (? Year) stuck in 5th but in the wet is probably the last example I can think of where such work finally netted a result
In some small way I can imagine what it must have been like for Clark at Monaco. Some years ago I was at a corporate karting evening. Won my first heat but in the second I could not seem to drive the kart at all. Kept hitting the conveyor belt cladded sides of the track, especially on right handers. The thing had a mind of its own. Fortunately the penalties that might have been applied were not and I finished a frustrated third. When I got out of the thing I noticed that a weld on the chassis had given way so that on right handers the chassis collapsed onto the track and the rear wheels steered more than the front. Don't suppose it helped much on left hander's either. The kart was then retired for the rest of the evening so I didn't get a chance to try to hone the skills required!
One of the things that is apparent in high performance equipment is that to be fast and agile it needs to be unstable. Jet fighter are designed on that principle, especially since the advent of powerful and relatively light weight computers. I understand that it would be impossible to fly a modern fighter straight and level without the computers (ignoring their control function and assuming that physical controls were available). Turns would be instant wipe out.
The early Tyrrells were designed with that principle in mind and to use Jackie Stewart's control ability. They were, apparently, quickest when set up to be very 'edgy', having quite a short wheelbase for the times. However that was not necessarily an advantage on all tracks so from time to time long wheelbase versions were used with spacers to move engine and/or gearbox withing the overall chassis design. Edgy was one aspect of a race winning capability. Consistency lap after lap was another and was more significant at some circuits.
Stewart, and Francois Cevert as a willing pupil, could find significant speed in race trim on many occasions, though significant lack of speed on others. Put other drivers in the cars and without the guidance of either of its masters and things were less successful. Things had to be made simpler for success to continue - there was no time to re-train the new drivers to the same skills.
Driving around the problems is probably almost impossible these days, certainly in F1 - MS in Spain back in 96 (? Year) stuck in 5th but in the wet is probably the last example I can think of where such work finally netted a result
In some small way I can imagine what it must have been like for Clark at Monaco. Some years ago I was at a corporate karting evening. Won my first heat but in the second I could not seem to drive the kart at all. Kept hitting the conveyor belt cladded sides of the track, especially on right handers. The thing had a mind of its own. Fortunately the penalties that might have been applied were not and I finished a frustrated third. When I got out of the thing I noticed that a weld on the chassis had given way so that on right handers the chassis collapsed onto the track and the rear wheels steered more than the front. Don't suppose it helped much on left hander's either. The kart was then retired for the rest of the evening so I didn't get a chance to try to hone the skills required!
He wasn't quite as nice as some would have you believe. In the later years he was somewhat less than nice to female companions (leaving it to friends to explain that Jimmy had left the building and, err, had no intention of returning). He also had to toughen up to hangers-on and distractions.
I recall stories that testing was pointless - he adapted to the car before he had anything worthwhile to suggest. One story has him doing a few laps of Brands. His teammate hops in and can't get within a second. He then spends the day playing with the car until he finally matches Jimmy's time. Jim climbs back in, and by the second flying lap has found another second!
Another interesting thing is that if you browse the photography archive, you often find pictures of Jimmy pointing to the front of the car. He had done his usual trick of scampering off into the distance, and had spotted a photographer he knew standing on the inside of a corenr looking for that classic four wheel drift shot. The pointing was to direct the photographer further around the apex of the corner. Once in position, Jimmy would set the car up to give him the perfect shot.
One other story I heard that normally doesn't get told. Coming into the final round of the British Formula Junior Championship in 1960 (or possibly 1961), his young teammate Trevor Taylor spotted that he and Jimmy were not only tied on points, but also wins, and even countback to sixth place. When it became clear that Jimmy couldn't attend the final race, Taylor withdrew (of his own choice, not under pressure from Colin Chapman) and asked the RAC to confirm them as joint champions. Now that's respect.
Edited to add: Before he died at Christmas, the legendary Jabby Crombac completed his manuscript, and when it is finally published it will be worth the wait. Apart from not pulling any punches, Jabby was a very close friend of Jimmy (who did his year of tax exile in Jabby's Paris flat) and knew a lot of stories.
>> Edited by Hirich on Saturday 22 April 23:40
I recall stories that testing was pointless - he adapted to the car before he had anything worthwhile to suggest. One story has him doing a few laps of Brands. His teammate hops in and can't get within a second. He then spends the day playing with the car until he finally matches Jimmy's time. Jim climbs back in, and by the second flying lap has found another second!
Another interesting thing is that if you browse the photography archive, you often find pictures of Jimmy pointing to the front of the car. He had done his usual trick of scampering off into the distance, and had spotted a photographer he knew standing on the inside of a corenr looking for that classic four wheel drift shot. The pointing was to direct the photographer further around the apex of the corner. Once in position, Jimmy would set the car up to give him the perfect shot.
One other story I heard that normally doesn't get told. Coming into the final round of the British Formula Junior Championship in 1960 (or possibly 1961), his young teammate Trevor Taylor spotted that he and Jimmy were not only tied on points, but also wins, and even countback to sixth place. When it became clear that Jimmy couldn't attend the final race, Taylor withdrew (of his own choice, not under pressure from Colin Chapman) and asked the RAC to confirm them as joint champions. Now that's respect.
Edited to add: Before he died at Christmas, the legendary Jabby Crombac completed his manuscript, and when it is finally published it will be worth the wait. Apart from not pulling any punches, Jabby was a very close friend of Jimmy (who did his year of tax exile in Jabby's Paris flat) and knew a lot of stories.
>> Edited by Hirich on Saturday 22 April 23:40
Hirich said:
Before he died at Christmas, the legendary Jabby Crombac completed his manuscript, and when it is finally published it will be worth the wait. Apart from not pulling any punches, Jabby was a very close friend of Jimmy (who did his year of tax exile in Jabby's Paris flat) and knew a lot of stories.
That would, indeed, be a book worth waiting for. Jabby's biography of Colin Chapman is one of my all-time favourites.
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