Switzerland, famous for its alpine mountains was the backdrop for this once famous hill climb.
Back in the day, the 4.97 mile De Cotes Orsanne Les Raingers to Ollons Villard event was held on these scenic twisting roads. I thought you would like to know that the Lotus 38 was more than an oval winner and used only for selected USAC races.
Team Lotus was in a pickle, Clark who had participated twice before and Chapman wanted desperately to be ready in between Brands Hatch however, a planned purpose built car was never to be built, the type 33 was ruled out and the MK 2 Climax was too tired and thought to be under powered to tackle the altitude. So, they rolled out the 38...mind you they made the race but had a tough go...Clark spun off course during trials and spent much of the afternoon among the sheep and pastures making his way back. He did however set a time of 4:34 compared to Scarfotti's Ferrari winning time of 4:09 with the F1 206 monoposto. The heavy 4.2 Ford motor was not suited to deliver low end torque needed for the 7 turn incline.
Many famous drivers were to participate during it's tenure including Fangio, Stirling Moss & Louis Chrion.
In 1967 no less than 21 former and current F1 pilots took to the hills with over 200 entrants to delight 40 thousand spectators.
Special thanks to my Facebook Jim Clark memorabilia friends for the pictures. ld
