Lotus commemorates Jim Clark with car

Posted on

| Written by

Lotus has produced a special version of its Elise dedicated to Jim Clark. Clark, widely regarded as one of the greatest Formula, won two championships for Lotus in 1963 and 1965.

The Clark Type 25 Elise SC comes in the distinctive British Racing Green and yellow livery of the Type 25 Lotus Clark won his first championship with in 1963. (Picture below)

A contribution to the Jim Clark memorial fund will be made from the sale of the cars, limited to 25 examples in the UK.

This year marks 40 years since Clark’s death at the Hockenheimring during a Formula Two race. The car will be launched at The Scottish Classic SpeedFair at Knockhill on June 8th as part of a weekend long tribute to Clark.

In 72 F1 races, Clark won 25 times and set 33 pole positions.

Read more about Jim Clark: Jim Clark biography

Press release in full:

Lotus Launches Clark Type 25 Elise SC
Type 25 celebrates the life of Jim Clark

Jim Clark is considered by many as the finest and most naturally gifted racing driver of all time. He won the F1 World Championship twice for Team Lotus in 1963 and in 1965.

In total, he won 25 Grand Prix races and was the first Briton to win the Indianapolis 500. Clark won a third of all the F1 races he entered, as well as racing in other formulae such as F2, F3 and Touring Cars. Typically he would race in as many as three different categories per race meeting! How many of the current crop of F1 drivers would do that?

In tribute to Jim Clark’s achievements, Lotus, in association with Classic Team Lotus, is producing the Clark Type 25 Elise SC, with a donation for each of these special cars sold going to the Jim Clark memorial fund. This Elise, limited to just 25 cars in the UK (25 being the Type number of his 1963 Lotus F1 car and his number of F1 wins) has been authorised by the Clark family and coincides with the 40th anniversary of Jim Clark’s death at Hockenheim in 1968.

The Clark Type 25 Elise SC will be launched at The Scottish Classic SpeedFair at Knockhill on the 8th of June 2008 and will form part of a weekend long tribute to Jim Clark. The Club Lotus Jim Clark Remembrance Weekend will take place over the 7th and 8th of June and promises to be a fantastic celebration of the life of Jim Clark.

Mike Kimberley, CEO of Group Lotus Plc comments, "It is fitting that the latest version of our award winning Elise, the Clark Type 25 Elise SC, should celebrate the life of Jim Clark. It is also an honour to be able to unveil the car at Knockhill this weekend. Each owner of the Clark Type 25 Elise SC will be joining an unrivalled heritage that recognises motorsport’s greatest partnership, that of Lotus and Jim Clark."

The Clark Type 25 Elise SC draws upon many styling cues from the Type 25 Formula 1 car that Jim Clark raced to win the World Championship in 1963. The car, with a removable hard top as standard, is finished in British Racing Green with a yellow stripe along the centre and features high performance Lotus Sport wheels, finished in an historic black and silver design.

The interior is inspired by the Team Lotus Formula 1 cars of the era, with black leather sports seats, trimmed with red leather and all finished off with a fantastic retro wooden gear knob. The Elise SC is the most powerful production Elise ever produced and offers stunning performance. Power comes from a 1.8 litre non-intercooled, supercharged engine and uses intelligent cam switching technology, enabling the engine to switch to the high performance cam anywhere between 4000 and 6200 rpm. This clever feature gives the engine two characters, allowing the car to be driven economically or giving maximum performance for spirited driving.

The Elise’s light weight gives low CO2 emissions, great handling and affords phenomenal braking. Another benefit of the low weight is incredible acceleration, with the sprint to 60 mph taking just 4.3 seconds and with 100 km/h despatched in 4.6 seconds. The Elise SC accelerates on to a top speed of 148 mph, which is 238 km/h.

All Lotus cars offer exceptional handling and the Elise is no exception. The chassis has a seriously light, stiff structure. Combining this technology with the fantastic Lotus ride and handling gives an inspiring driving experience and the mid-engined layout of the Lotus Elise offers fantastic balance and agility.

The Elise SC offers a few technological advances that Jim Clark may have found helpful in his Type 25. Coming as standard on the Elise is traction control, ABS and sequential shift lights, however all the driver aids are included to improve the driving experience and do not intervene unless really called upon.

The Clark Type 25 Elise SC is currently only available in the UK and Republic of Ireland and is on sale now. Price: £35,995 MSRP, and includes £5,750 worth of options for just £3,445. On the Road costs are £950 MSRP

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

5 comments on “Lotus commemorates Jim Clark with car”

  1. £35,995 MSRP ??? I’m suprised it’s that cheap I had figuired this would have been at minimum 6 figures, I wonder if this is one of those excellent “investment” cars, certainly has the potential.

  2. Good to see Lotus remembering its greatest driver. I was re-reading the recent Motor Sport issue dedicated to Clark and was stunned by the comment by Jackie Stewart that he thought that Clark was still improving as a driver at the time of his death.

    I am incredibly annoyed at Knockhill for putting this event on in a GP weekend. Derek Butcher has done an incredible job since he bought the circuit but they keep putting motor racing events on against GPs. I just don’t get it.

  3. Dan Brunell
    7th June 2008, 1:50

    Love it! I really wish they were back in Formula One.

  4. My first memories of racing or race cars is the yellow and British racing green colors…had a big plastic open-wheel race car that you sat on and pushed with your feet that had those colors.(they tell me I was pretty quick too)

    Props to Lotus for honoring one of the greatest…it’s a beautiful car.

  5. Kenneth Yale
    24th June 2008, 18:44

    I am quite certain like us all a Jim Clark Memorial Car, would have been approved by’The Boss’ Colin Chapman. So there in all it’s BRG & yellow stripe is the Elise which I am sure he would have approved.I was intoduced to Jim on his first race ‘over the border’ at Oulton Park. We met up in various pits several times & even when he was World Champion he always had time for a chat over an ‘orange juice”, true. I was around when Ascari,Fangio,Hawthorn,Collins,Brookes,Moss,gave us exhibitions of top class driving without today’s pushing & shoving.

Comments are closed.