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Ex-Jim Clark Lotus 49 F1 Car Wins 2025 Amelia Concours de Sport Best of Show
Chris MacAllister insists that he had no idea that his car might win an award at the 30th Amelia Concours d’Elegance, much less the coveted Concours de Sport Best of Show on Saturday afternoon at the oceanfront Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida, just north of Jacksonville.
“Blow me down!” MacAllister said. “I just came here to have fun.”
MacAllister might be surprised, but arguably few showgoers who took a hard look at his immaculate 1967 Lotus 49 Formula 1 car would have bet against his British Racing Green number 5.
Especially considering the car’s provenance: The legendary Jim Clark drove it from the eighth starting spot to victory in the Dutch Grand Prix F1 race in 1967, followed by wins in the British Grand Prix and the U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, and he was leading the Italian Grand Prix in this car when he ran out of fuel on the last lap.
In 1968, the car was driven by Jo Siffert, and then Jackie Oliver, but with no wins and only one podium. It would seem this Lotus 49, chassis number R2, was truly Jimmy Clark’s car.
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Less than a year later, Clark was killed racing in a minor Formula 2 event in Hockenheim, Germany, when his Lotus 48 crashed into the trees that lined the track. He was 32.
That this Lotus is now Chris MacAllister’s car had its unlikely origins decades ago, and he owes it to the public school system. “My fourth-grade elementary school class took a field trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway one day in May for practice, and for me, that lit the fuse,” the self-described Indianapolis heavy equipment dealer told Hagerty. “I went to the race that year, in 1965, and Jimmy Clark won. So he became my hero. And he’s still my hero.”
Chassis number R2 was restored in 2010 by Classic Team Lotus, which is run by Clive Chapman, son of Colin Chapman, who founded Lotus in 1952. As a race car designer, the elder Chapman pioneered a massive number of innovations, from aerodynamics to monocoque chassis construction, and the Lotus 49 was well ahead of the competition.
“It has always been a complete, running car,” MacAllister said. “Over the years it evolved from 49A, to B, to C configurations, so we took it back to how it was in 1967.” The car’s a runner, “and we’ll have it running at Laguna Seca in August.” That will be for the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, which will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of Formula 1. More than two dozen vintage F1 cars are expected to line up for the race.
The slight, unassuming president of MacAllister Machinery—there’s something about him that “screams algebra teacher,” said a 2014 profile in the Washington Times—is well known and respected in the car collecting world, especially on the motorsports side.
This Lotus 49 is, MacAllister said, “my favorite race car of all time,” and he owns a lot of race cars. It’s also the only Lotus in his garage, which contains a variety of cars, beginning with a 1907 Locomobile, up through “modern vehicles—Jeeps and trucks and motorcycles—I like all sorts of stuff.”
After this particular car was retired from Lotus F1 competition, it was sold to a privateer, who sold it to a friend of MacAllister, who then sold it to him. MacAllister has raced his cars successfully in vintage competition at places like Daytona, Le Mans, and Monaco, where, unfortunately, he bent up the nose of his beloved Lotus 11 years ago due to an issue with the right front wheel.
The Lotus 49 was designed for the 1967 Formula 1 season, and Clark’s win at the Dutch Grand Prix was also the 49’s debut race. It was a groundbreaking car for multiple reasons, the central one being that it used the rear-mounted engine as a stressed member of the chassis.
The 49 was also the first F1 car to be powered by the Ford Cosworth DFV engine, which stood for Double Four Valve. That 3.0-liter V-8 had an incredibly long lifespan, powering F1 cars through 1985, 18 years after it was introduced in the Lotus, and it was also used in many different types of racing, including IndyCar and sports cars, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1975 with Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell driving.
And speaking of Derek Bell, the 83-year-old, who raced in Formula 1 for Ferrari and has five overall wins at Le Mans, was on hand at Amelia and present at the victory celebration for the Lotus’ win. “I can’t believe the car that won the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix is sitting here,” he said, standing next to MacAllister’s Lotus. “Quite amazing.”
The Amelia Concours announcer, Justin Bell—Derek’s son, and the 1998 GT2 class winner of Le Mans, driving a Dodge Viper GTS-R—was similarly impressed by MacAllister’s intricate, frail-looking little Lotus, from an era when F1 cars provided such minimal protection for the driver. It stands in contrast to last year’s Concours de Sport winner, a stout-looking 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO.
“The concours judges have a really tough job to do,” he said. “The competition, especially in this class, was unparalleled here,” with race cars on display dating back 117 years. “I think it’s spectacular—this is, after all, known as the motorsport concours—and it’s what the start of motor racing is all about: Very brave men, in cars that pushed the limits of technology, and you could die doing it. And they did. The fact that we have a car like this here and it wins, all these years later, is very fitting.”
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The Lotus 49 in British Racing Green was the picture that came up in my head when I thought “Formula 1 Car” for a very long time. Jimmy Clark was likewise a hero to a lot of young people in the days that this car raced. The photos are great and make it look like a Best-in-Show Award winner for sure!
A damn near perfect example of what a vintage race car should be. Reminiscent of Clarks 65 500 winner that MacAllister mentions. You can really see Chapmans obsession with lightweight at any cost. Some of those parts do look a bit spindly don’t they especially considering track conditions at that time. Enough so that a driver might think twice and which Chapman was often criticized for. When Sir Sterling Moss was driving for Lotus they made a birthday cake for him with his car on it. He very intentionally cut the wheel off with the first slice.
Agree with the judges. Best it is.
Lovely car!
This is the age of racing I wish they would bring back. Man and machine but no aero. Many of todays drivers would not be looking so good in these cars.
I would add the safety features too. No more driving with no belts and basically in a magnesium fuel tank.
The best looking F1 car ever is still the Gurney Eagle with the V12. The photo of It being rolled out at Monaco is still one go the best racing photos ever with the shine coming off the engine.
I need to watch Grand Prix soon, especially the intro scenes. The pinnacle of racing–and bravery. ‘Do you ever get tired of the driving?’
If not this Lotus 49 that Jo Siffert drove, which one did Siffert win the 1968 British F1 race at Brands Hatch?
Absolutely beautiful! I missed seeing Jim Clark drive but read Rob Walker’s race reports in R&T every month. As noted above, no aero, some safety bits added and we have a great challenging race series. I did see the Lotus 49’s racing in 69 and 70 at Mosport and Watkins Glen and remember Jochen Rindts 49 as a special car at the vintage race weekend in Watkins Glen. Some years they have an excellent collection of vintage F1 cars racing and on display. Worth a visit if you haven’t been.
So, is this the same car that won the Indy 500 in 1965? I saw that Lotus at Ed Schmid’s Ford dealership in Ferndale, MI when they took it on tour to display at Ford dealerships touting the fact that an Indy winner was powered by Ford.
No. Road & Track did an article on that a number of years ago. The control arms were staggered length for the oval. Longer on the outside and quite a bit shorter on the inside. It survives in that configuration.
No it is not. The Indy winner is a Lotus 38. It lives in the Henry Ford Museum, but is currently in Duns Scotland for an upcoming celebration.
Beautifully restored but not overly so. Looked like it just rolled off the transporter at its first race. Fantastic, and a well-deserved win!
The privateer who owned it was local and I knew him through the local Lotus car club. It was sold to him as a new 49B with a new chassis number. I shot a hundred or so model-building reference photos of the car back in 1999 plus another couple dozen when it was getting restored in the early 2000s.
Why was my comment moderated away? I commented about my direct experience with this car but the comment went from awaiting moderation to disappearing.
Are you talking about the comment displaying directly above this one I’m replying to? The one that is very not “moderated away?” Looks like you used some words that might have gotten caught in a keyword filter and it needed to be manually approved. It happens. I get stuck in “pending moderation” regularly but whoever reviews them seems to be pretty reasonable overall.
When I posted the complaint, the original post did not appear at all. After I posted the complaint, the original post appeared but the complaint disappeared. There is some weirdness in how their system works.
Could the admins delete this? Obviously it isn’t the case now. Though it does raise the question why my post with content was moderated and apparently this one wasn’t.
Hey, the Staff gotta have SOMETHING to do to fill the gaps between coffee breaks, ya know!
YamaM – No, this is a later Lotus 49. Clarks Lotus 38 500 winner is similar yet oddly enough had an enclosed engine cover over the Ford Indy V-8 while this Ford/ Cosworth DFV is open to see e.g. They have much the same overall look so at a glance. Easy to mistake but different cars.
Such a great looking car. I love that generation where you see that exposed engine, not hiding under covers. It is quite spartan compared to today’s cars.
I still have a childhood scrapbook with newspaper clippings of Jim Clark’s Indy victory. Those guys were brave drivers of those vehicles.
Anyone care to venture a guess at the value? Such provenance!
Of course highly doubtful Mr. McAllister would ever sell!
One of my first loves in auto racing! Amazing!