Graham Hill's Lotus F1 car to be auctioned in UK

One of the most renowned of Colin Chapman's landmark Formula 1 car designs, the Lotus 49, introduced in 1967, not only launched the racing world's most successful Grand Prix power unit - the Cosworth-Ford DFV V8 - into racing history, it also became one of the longest-lived of Grand Prix car designs - serving Team Lotus into 1970, and being campaigned by such superstar World Champions as Jim Clark, Jochen Rindt and Emerson Fittipaldi, as well as Hill.

Chassis number '49-R8' was part of Gold Leaf Team Lotus's motor racing armoury, and is the last Lotus to be sold from the collection of British-born Formula One Lotus collector and racer, the late John Dawson-Damer.

Australian racing enthusiasts may recognise this car as the one Hill raced in the Tasman Series of 1969, where the Brit scored two second-place results, at Wigram and Teretonga, New Zealand (behind Jochen Rindt and Piers Courage, respectively), and finished fifth overall in the series won that summer by Chris Amon in a Ferrari 246T.

Never before offered at auction, '49-R8' was built in October, 1968, and is one of a handful remaining of just 12 Lotus 49s originally produced. Its Colin Chapman concept, detailed by designer Maurice Phillippe, perfected a stressed-skin monocoque forward fuselage which terminated immediately behind the driver's cockpit, to which the brand-new Cosworth-Ford DFV engine was then bolted as the rear chassis member, carrying the ZF or Hewland gearbox and rear suspension.

The Lotus 49 instantly set new Formula 1 performance standards, and won its debut race, the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix, driven by Jim Clark. In 1968 Graham Hill won his second Formula 1 World Championship title in the developed Type 49 and 49B cars.

Chassis 'R8' was brand new when Hill raced it in the Tasman Championship races in New Zealand and Australia in January-February 1969. In addition to the two second-place finishes in New Zealand, Hill also scored a fourth (Lakeside), sixth (Sandown) and eleventh (Warwick Farm), as well as two retirements in this car, which was fitted with the distinctive high-level strutted downforce wings of the period.

After the Tasman Series, 'R8' was shipped back to Europe in time to be driven by Richard Attwood in the World Championship-qualifying 1969 Monaco Grand Prix, finishing fourth and setting a memorable fastest lap.

At Gold Leaf Team Lotus's Hethel works in Norfolk, England, 'R8' was adapted to latest Type 49B specification and raced again by Hill at the 1969 British Grand Prix, finishing seventh. Sold then to Swedish privateer Joakim "Jo" Bonnier, 'R8' retired from the 1969 German GP due to a fuel leak.

In 1970 the car was sold to Dave Charlton who used it to clinch the first two of his six consecutive South African Formula 1 Championship titles from 1970-75. Lotus 49 'R8' won nine qualifying rounds in Dave Charlton's 1970 campaign, and four more in 1971.

Campaigned to the end of 1972 by South African drivers Piet de Klerk and Mayer Botha, 'R8' was eventually acquired, in damaged condition, by English-born, Australian-based Lotus enthusiast, the Hon. John Dawson-Damer, who built up a collection of eight significant Lotus race cars that he campaigned regularly. He painstakingly restored this important Formula 1 car to race-worthy condition. Dawson-Damer was killed - in another Lotus F1 car - at the 2000 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Six cars from the original Dawson-Damer Lotus Collection were sold by Bonhams in Sydney in 2008, and today, 'R8' is the last remaining car from this collection.

James Knight, Bonhams group motoring director, said: "By every standard, Colin Chapman's Lotus 49 concept is an absolute landmark in Formula 1 design. It simply raised the bar for every rival manufacturer, and its Cosworth-Ford V8 engine went on to win a record 155 World Championship Grands Prix.

"This car, chassis 'R8', was Graham Hill's - it was also raced by that wonderful driver Richard Attwood to set fastest lap at Monaco in 1969, and private owner Dave Charlton drove it to become South African national Champion. Add the excellent provenance of it being offered direct from the famous Dawson-Damer Collection and plainly 'R8' is an iconic car."

For more details on the June 27 Goodwood Festival of Speed sale, go to www.bonhams.com

Image: courtesy of Bonhams UK