8 TT 1998-

WHY IT’S HERE The TT’s always been pretty. In Mk3 guise, it’s pretty serious

THE DAY WE BEAT VETTEL It may be the bottom rung of the Audi Sport ladder but the TT Cup is slick and seriously quick, with some big names on the entry list – and us

Words James Taylor | Photography Steffen Jahn

In a cabin stripped of almost everything, the stock TTS engine sounds much more butch

July 2017 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 69 AUDI RS5 DTM > Engine 4000cc 32v V8, 500bhp and 370lb ft (est) > 6-speed semi-auto, rear-wheel drive > Weight 1125kg including driver > Materials carbonfibre monocoque with CFRP crash structure, composite bodywork > Suspension independent pushrod double-wishbones front and rear > Brakes carbonfibre > Tyres Hankook slicks

AUDI TT CUP > Engine 1984cc 16v turbo 4-cyl, 306bhp (337bhp with push-to-pass activated), 295lb ft CAR’s James Just as well his > Transmission 6-speed DCT, front- Taylor, looking a lot parents decided wheel drive like Audi Sport’s against Boutros > Weight 1125kg James Taylor Boutros after all > Materials production shell in steel and aluminium, composite bodywork > Suspension MacPherson strut front, four-link rear > Brakes steel, with racing ABS > Tyres Hankook slicks

E’RE off to a bad start. ‘Three of you I went to The cost for each driver is €120,000 for the season, plus Hockenheim and were late for this briefing. The first rule all I got was some a €10,000 deposit for damage. Despite the steep asking of being a professional racing driver is squiggle on my price, Audi had no fewer than 165 applicants for this sea- to be punctual. And some of you, your T-shirt from a son, whittled down to 16 drivers from all over the world, skinny Englishman W teamwear does not fit perfectly. Before each aged between 16 and 24. Think of it as a sort of the next round, you must visit a tailor.’ X Factor for racing drivers. ‘It was like applying for a job,’ explains Welcome to the first day of a new British driver Philip Ellis. ‘You had to show Audi why you would term at Audi’s racing driver finishing be the right person for the TT Cup.’ He’s one of two returning school, where attention to detail is everything. It’s the opening competitors from the previous season; the other is Poland’s round of the 2017 Audi Sport TT Cup at Hockenheim, and in a Gosia Rdest, one of three female drivers on the grid. compact briefing room inside Audi’s hospitality mothership, ‘We were taken on a six-day fitness training course, where championship manager Philipp Mondelaers is addressing Audi’s team doctor gave us nutrition lessons, and even took the class: four rows of youthful drivers in identical Audi Sport blood tests,’ Jack Manchester, another Brit, tells me. ‘Then a clothing, and an apprehensive one in civvies. That would be me. pre-season practice day here at Hockenheim, to get familiar Now in its third season, the Audi Sport TT Cup is Audi’s with the cars and practise the start procedure, which gave us all proving ground for young driving talent: an ultra-competitive a chance to get to know each other.’ They’ve all bonded well, it championship played out in identical cars over 14 races at seven seems; there’s plenty of good-natured joshing and comparing of circuits in three countries, on the same bill as the hugely popular mine is Benoît Tréluyer, three-time Le Mans winner in Audi’s His pit neighbour notes. Young they might be (six of the drivers were born in 2000) has won Le Mans DTM German touring car championship. all-conquering World Endurance Championship programme – three times, but but they’re used to racing at a high level. Ellis bypassed karts There are no individual teams; the cars are all prepared and brought to a close last year as the wider VW Group tightened its everyone is treated and went straight to cars, climbing run by Audi from its own pop-up pitlane within the DTM purse strings. equally, even to Formula 3 before switching to one-weekend-only paddock. Think of it as the ultimate in arrive-and-drive racing. ‘The TT Cup exists not to make money, but to find the next guest drivers Six of these drivers tin-tops, while Drew Ridge was Testing is strictly limited, and other than tyre pressures and generation of drivers,’ says Chris Reinke, head of Audi Sport cus- Australian karting champion and anti-roll bar swaps, no set-up changes are allowed – it’s all about tomer racing. ‘We are growing our next generation of customers were born in 2000, raced in Formula BMW the driver. within the brand.’ At the end of the season Audi will award a before moving to Munich to make At each round Audi invites two guest drivers to take six-figure prize fund to the championship winner, intended to be but they’re used to a serious go of becoming a career part, usually one journalist (which is how I’ve wound up here, spent progressing into the upper echelons of its customer racing racing at a high level driver. Milan Dontje was second intermittently pinching myself to make sure I really am) and one programme. in the Dutch GT championship pro. So, in a surreal tableau, the name above the next garage to But that doesn’t mean entry into the TT Cup is cheap. and has raced LMP3 sports4

70 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | August 2017 August 2017 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 71 Ferrari’s turbo-free icons

New design Data analyst Rolf: of Audi Sport ‘Imagine the brake umbrella needs a is a kitten. Hit it! bit more work Hit! Hit! Hit!’

Wing at back, carbon splitter at the front, but TT shape is otherwise showroom spec

cars; 17-year-old Scot Finlay Hutchison is combining his TT Cup season with a GT campaign in a McLaren 570 GT4; and 18-year- old German Fabian Vettel is relatively new to cars, but his older brother has done quite a bit of racing. (You might have heard of him; his name’s Sebastian.) I’ve been fortunate to race and win in Ginettas and Radicals in my adventures for CAR at home, but this is a whole different, international, ball game. For one weekend, I’m racing with the big boys, even though not all of them are big, or boys. By rights, I should finish last. But it would be nice not to. Clapping eyes on ‘my’ TT Cup car for the first time is quite a thrill. It might have started life as a regular TTS plucked from the production line, but this looks more mouth-wateringly purposeful than any TT I’ve seen before. The cambered wheels are pushed so far from the body they’re like outriggers. A jutting carbon splitter and giant rear wing karate-chop the air, and the road car’s kitsch fuel filler cap now covers a socket for the in- A weekend in the life of a TT Cup driver qualifying and I’m still trying to get my head around the car and built air jacks. Under the bonnet the production 2.0-litre TFSI the circuit, and as predicted I’ve qualified at the back, but by an four-cylinder engine remains virtually unchanged, with around ‘They even check your socks’ – life at Audi’s academy encouragingly small margin. Benoît Tréluyer wanders over to 306bhp heading to the front wheels only – no quattro drive here. compare notes in parc fermé (and I plant another pinch on my Gears are taken care of by the road car’s six-speed twin-clutch rather than enhances it, and it takes skill to work the system to Vents, gearstick FRIDAY – 5.00pm Qualifying – 4.25pm Race 1. increasingly bruised arm). ‘I got to the Stadium in the practice gaiter and door – 8.30am Morning briefing briefing, followed by a S-tronic gearbox, and there’s an electronically controlled limit- your advantage, knowing when to ease off. Compared to other handles survive in strict team clothing: TV shoot for the regular – 6.30pm Debrief and Q&A, session and thought it was a different corner – whoah! – sideways ed-slip diff with three modes, toggled from one of many buttons racing cars, it feels odd, the TT shimmying on its toes as the the transition to Adidas shoes, black Uvex drivers. going through footage across the gravel,’ he laughs. You’d like Benoît. I ask him if he’s on the steering wheel. ‘Start off on the most aggressive setting,’ system does its thing. race spec. But trousers, red polo shirt, from the race in detail. driven the TT Cup car before. ‘No, no, the only time I’ve driven there’s no Planet soft-shell jacket. – 6.30pm Dinner. Plenty the car’s mechanic Christian Aut advises, ‘then turn it down as As I feel my way around, I try to remember Marco’s advice Rock for James of carbs and veg, – 7.00pm Press interviews. a front-wheel-drive car was a Renault R5, in a field, when I was the tyres wear, or if it’s raining.’ from the briefing; how you must wait until the tyres have come today, horns or no – 8.45am Track walk with impeccably prepared. 12. I’ve never been to Hockenheim before. [He still qualified Marco Werner, literally – 8.00pm to late More data The road car’s leather-gaitered gear lever looks incongruous fully up to pressure before hitting the substantial ‘banana’ kerbs giving us the inside line SATURDAY analysis, seeking vital seventh.] The main reason I came here was to see the World in the otherwise stripped-bare interior. Touch the dashboard at full pelt, turn in early to the final section to ride the inside kerb on Hockenheim. – 7.30am Breakfast. tenths. Rallycross,’ he jokes, conspiratorially. moulding and it flexes forlornly without a centre console to with the inner wheels unloaded… My only previous experience Ah, yes. Not only are we on the same bill as the DTM, but the – 9.45am Race gear – 10.40am Qualifying. SUNDAY support it. The four-pot turbo engine sounds smooth and burbly of Hockenheim was on an ancient PlayStation game, and it’s an scrutineering. They check – 10.35am Public WRX too. They’re the rowdy neighbours at the other end of the in the TTS road car, but rumbles like a truck in the Cup racer. intensely atmospheric place in real life, fringed by thick forest everything, including – 12.00pm Interviews on autograph sessions for paddock, their hose-down awnings a neat counterpoint to the At first the whole car feels a bit truck-like, too, oddly inert and and the towering grandstand structures that lend the Stadium your socks. stage. Drivers to wear the regular drivers. DTM’s corporate gloss. Together with the rest of the TT Cup white team shirts and clumsy. Front-wheel-drive racing cars are curious creatures; complex its name. – 10.15am First of many black trousers. – 11.40am Final briefing. drivers and helpers, we’re based in the Audi Race Lounge for the the front slicks heat up quickly but the rears stay icy cold at ‘When I raced here before the driver briefings, and weekend, a transportable structure of metal and glass, with a first, making early laps something of an adventure. The Cup’s circuit was redesigned, it was a intro to the Audi team: – 2.30pm Hugely detailed – 1.00pm Race 2. balcony overlooking the first corner and a bottomless supply of With warm tyres the stewards, mechanics, race briefing with Marco driver-coach Marco Werner (another three-time Le Mans win- very special feeling coming into press officers, doctors... Werner: how to line-up on – 2.45pm Final debrief. food and drink served by elegant waiting staff. That €120k entry ner) suggests keeping the traction control switched off for the the Stadium from the old forest TT comes alive. It’s the grid, where to watch Drivers are singled out as fee is starting to add up. And there’s a separate unit for the Audi – 1.45pm Free practice. out for cold tyres, how incidents from the race early laps, so that if the rear tyres let go it’s possible to pull the section,’ says Werner. ‘Alone in to handle a safety car are reviewed. Overall? DTM team and its guests. ‘Last year it was bigger,’ a team-mem- car straight with a bootful of throttle. Once the tyres are warm, the trees, slipstreaming at full incredible how hard – 3.00pm Data analysis, restart... ‘We’re happy – it’s the ber tells me. ‘There was another floor.’ though, the TT comes alive. It’s incredible just how hard you can speed, and then suddenly there’s and time to submit set-up best start we’ve had Time for race one of TT Cup 2017. HANS device pinning my you can brake requests to mechanics – 3.40pm Climb into cars, to TT Cup season punch the brake pedal, especially as the Cup cars feature ABS. light, noise, crowds…’ before qualifying. go to assembly area, yet.’ shoulders into the seat, noise-blocking radio earpieces making As Werner points out, ABS actually limits braking performance Fast-forward to the end of get nervous. me feel as if my head’s underwater, mechanic Christian latches4

72 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | August 2017 August 2017 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 73 TT: the greatest hits Our pick of the curvy roadgoing coupes

TT QUATTRO SPORT (Mk1) No rear seats, air-con or spare wheel but with 237bhp, stiffer suspension and fixed buckets. Unique wheels and black roof make it impossible to miss.

TT 1.8 T (Mk2) Entry-level 1.8T is the hidden sweet spot of the Mk2 range. Weighing just 1240kg, it steers sweetly on its skinny tyres and is still good for 140mph.

TT RS (Mk2) The first TT RS debuted the 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine, harking back to Audi’s rally heritage with its evocative soundtrack. It’s fast too – 174mph if you please. the window net into place (designed to keep errant arms inside in a crash) and jettisons the car from its air jacks with a hiss and TT RS (Mk3) a thump. Heading to the grid through a throng of cameramen Sharper to drive and to look at in all and curious DTM fans, my heart rate ought to be off the charts guises, the third-gen RS (400bhp and 0-62mph in 3.7sec) is the pick but I’m oddly calm. I’m just a journalist, after all, so if I finish last of the Mk3 TT range, though the it doesn’t matter – and if I don’t I’ll have exceeded expectations. cheaper S is a weapon too. As the lights wink into place on the Formula 1 start gantry, I engage launch control: left foot on the brake plus right foot flat on the throttle, subtract left foot when the When you’re up a Sunday afternoon at Hockenheim, these ones do. The tyres against a field this lights go out. This is it. The opening laps are a blur of good, finishing begin to degrade to the point that chunks of rubber are pelting caught cold-tyre slides, latching onto the cars ahead not-last is a win… my windscreen and some cars even lose their wheelarch liners. and picking up some positions as a few of them run Fingertip-smoothness is the order of the day to nurse the tyres wide. I’m fully expecting the pack to gradually stretch to the end, and the whole field throws some spectacular shapes. into the distance, but halfway through the race I’m still While Ellis and Rdest again fight it out at the front, I enjoy a with them. I’m not last. I can do this. It’s one of the best great battle with Jack Manchester, swapping positions nearly feelings I’ve ever had. every lap. I’d ended the first race with some push-to-passes left, Then there’s a safety car to recover a stricken TT and you can’t carry them over to the next race. Keen not to make after a tangle at the infamous hairpin. It squeezes the the same mistake again, this time I gobble through them all in field together like a concertina and I make a decent fist the early laps like a kid with a bag of Haribo and I’m defenceless of the restart (Marco Werner gave the class a lesson on every time I see Jack’s windscreen turn blue in the mirrors. that very subject earlier in the day), but I change down Eventually he runs out too and I make a move stick, crossing the one gear too many on the paddles into turn 2, then the line in P14 behind German Mike Beckhusen. I’m not last, again! system shifts up two at once as it catches up with my Whispers within the paddock are that this season will be the panicked pull on the other paddle – just as we enter the TT Cup’s last. Don’t be surprised to see the championship return never-ending flat-out Parabolika curve. I’m a sitting with another model in the future, however. The Doctor Who duck for the blue TT behind, which streams past with … even if it leaves of one-make racing, today’s TT Cup is the regenerated form of its ‘push-to-pass’ engaged. That’s a 30bhp shot of pow- you close to the VW Scirocco R Cup, itself an evolution of the original VW spontaneous er that lasts for 15 seconds, triggered by a button on the combustion Lupo Cup, and its appeal is strong. Each TT Cup driver I speak steering wheel. Each driver gets 17 P2Ps to use during to says they chose the series partly because of the careers built a race, with LED digits in the side window letting the by previous graduates, and partly its direct link to Audi’s factory crowds know how many they’ve got left. It’s as valuable a strate- wounds. I assume the fans will realise I’m not a pro when I fail Too much of this Audi’s race engineers. Data analyst Rolf kindly goes through my racing programmes. and you lose your gic tool for defending as it is for overtaking, and when it’s active to work out how to undo the window net to climb out, but the deposit, Lord telemetry too, and openly laughs at my gentle brake pressure. In After being in the eye of the incredibly slick Audi Sport storm a bright blue light glows in the windscreen to let the driver ahead Audi race suit I’m wearing (complete with my name and a union Buckethead style places I should be putting in as much as 30 bar extra – hitting for a weekend, I can see why. know they’ve a fight on their hands. flag; the TT Cup’s attention to detail is quite something) looks so the pedal as if I hate it. There’s still plenty more lap time to be This is the lowest rung on Audi’s In the dying laps the situation’s reversed and I pull out of professional some of them proffer marker pens for autographs. I unlocked in race two. TTs do not oversteer. racing ladder, but even here the the blue car’s slipstream to dive past into the hairpin, only for don’t know the German for ‘I’m actually just a journalist’, and it But the weather has other ideas. As a persistent drizzle falls, attention to detail that won Le them to repass on the run to the next corner. I’d later find out seems more polite to sign and smile. the DTM cars begin to slither around and the TT Cup organisers But for half an hour Mans 13 times is entirely evident. it’s Fabian Vettel, who’s picked up a black flag for an earlier skir- As for the full-time drivers, Philip Ellis has taken the win decide we must start race two on wet-weather tyres; no-one is Whoever wins the 2017 TT mish. He peels into the pitlane, allowing me to gradually close ahead of Gosia Rdest, with Tréluyer in fifth. They’re on a strict allowed to take a gamble on slicks. It’s a hot day, though, and by at Hockenheim, Cup will be a driver with a hell on ninth-placed Finlay Hutchison until the flag falls. Top 10! timetable of debriefs and interviews; after qualifying they were the time we reach the grid the track is almost dry. This could be these ones do of a skill set. And immaculate We trickle back into the paddock and a heaving crowd gathers on stage in pressed white shirts to be introduced to world’s me- interesting. timekeeping to boot. around the ticking TTs, several of which now carry light war dia, now they’re in red Audi Sport polo tops for data analysis with Traditionally, Audi TTs do not oversteer. For half an hour on @JamesTaylorCAR

74 GET THREE ISSUES FOR £3 WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE TO CAR! GREATMAGAZINES.CO.UK | August 2017 August 2017 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 75 Inside Mazda Classic Inside Classic

INSIDE CLASSIC TEAM LOTUS THE TEMPLE OF LIGHT Team Lotus wrote the story of modern F1 with its innovative race cars. Classic Team Lotus ensures those same cars are in the thick of the action still Words James Taylor | Photography Mark Riccioni

80 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | July 2017 July 2017 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 81 Inside Classic Team Lotus

Its stores remain well stocked but CTL can also make spares from original drawings

Jim Clark won seven out of 10 races on his way to taking the 1963 Formula 1 title in this

IF YOU PAY a visit to ’ HQ on Potash Lane, Hethel, you could quite easily drive past the low, white- walled building on an industrial estate a stone’s throw from the factory entrance without a second atmospheric but slightly-too-cosy home to a brand new glance. But within it is a dedicated team of experts tirelessly three-storey building, with a lift to move the cars from floor preparing elegant grand prix cars to compete – and win – in to floor. Currently under construction, the new HQ’s hefty races the world over, under the direction of a Mr C Chapman. frame stands immediately opposite the low-lying unit the Sound familiar? team’s outgrown. Classic Team Lotus is a business, and a busy one. Despite ‘Our current building was originally the F1 team’s “redun- its Iproximity to Group Lotus it’s not a part of the company but dant stores”, a place that didn’t see much daylight,’ explains a separate entity, just as the original team was. team manager Chris Dinnage. ‘At the end of each season, a In fact, it exists in a sort of parallel racing universe, for CTL’s team minibus would drop off any obsolete spare parts and the business is restoring and preserving the machines that made doors would close again, until Clive adopted it as the Classic the original Team Lotus one of the most successful marques Team Lotus base.’ in the history of the sport. As well as keeping cars from the Dinnage was a senior Team Lotus mechanic throughout ’50s to the ’90s in perfect working order (or returning them the ’80s turbo era (‘We’d weld the wastegates for qualifying; to it), it’s also a busy racing team, running private customers’ 1200bhp+ from 1.5 litres. Burned our arms changing the tur- cars in international historic races, and, on rare occasions, bos after every session. An incredible time’) up to the team’s some from its own private collection. twilight years in the early ’90s, and was number one mechan- Director Clive Chapman greets photographer Mark ic to drivers including , and Riccioni and me in the CTL office, its desks flanked by . ‘I was still working on the contemporary F1 recently won trophies and beautiful scale models. A pair on team when Clive started talking about getting some of the old the shelf behind him sum up the restless pace of innovation cars running again. I thought he just meant a project in the that epitomised his father, Lotus founder Colin: the Austin evenings and weekends; it transpired he meant something a 7 special that became the original Lotus Mk1, and the gas bit more than that.’ turbine-powered IndyCar created exactly 20 years later (and Today Chapman and Dinnage oversee around 15 perma- put through a full restoration by CTL last year). nent staff, and half a dozen helping hands at race meetings. Simultaneously accommodating and business-like, Chap- Among them is composites pioneer Nick Yallop, refurbishing man sketches the history of Classic Team Lotus. ‘We began his original carbonfibre handiwork, and accountant Steve ‘Until he was on A 24 years ago, running one car in historic F1 for Sean Walker, Allen, who originally joined Team Lotus in the same role in son of long-time Lotus associate Ian. Which then became two 1975: ‘Nigel Mansell was my table tennis partner at lunch- Question of Sport, cars. Now we look after 30 customer cars, and work on our times. He used to work in the machine shop and make the Mansell used to own collection of 25 cars in between those commitments. Last coffees. After he was on A Question of Sport he didn’t make year we ran cars in more than 25 events, in the USA, Canada, them so often.’ make the coffees…’ New Zealand, Japan, Scandinavia…’ They’re joined by talented staff members so young they No wonder the team is about to move from its current weren’t even born when some of the cars they now work 4

82 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | July 2017 July 2017 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 83 Inside Classic Team Lotus on were winning races. ‘We’ve trained a lot of the lads up from scratch,’ Dinnage It’s just a steering says. ‘Clive and I have given them five wheel. But in the hands of Jim or six cars to look after, and now their Clark, it produced knowledge is incredible. They know miraculous results more than us. I get a real buzz from that.’ Chapman guides us into the main assembly shops, densely populated by GP cars minus their wheels, raised on trolley-stands, each being lovingly tended to by an expert in green Team Lotus overalls. A pair of Type 72s sit cheek by aerodynamic jowl with an ex-Mansell ground-effect Type 81, stripped bare for the component con- dition testing required every two years by regulations in His- toric F1. The shiny aluminium monocoque on display was the last designed by Team Lotus before it first went carbonfibre; and on the day we visit, that innovative carbonfibre car hap- pens to be next door, the ‘dual-’ Type 88 which could have revolutionised F1 – had it ever been allowed to race. It still wears a tattered Passed By Scrutineer sticker from the 1981 British Grand Prix, before its ingenious independently sprung chassis-within-a-chassis design was outlawed. Clive pushes one of the sidepods and it moves while the cockpit stays oddly still. What might have been, eh? Its surroundings are full to the brim, but very clean and very tidy. ‘We’re limited on space, so we have to be effi- cient,’ Clive says, as we sashay between ‘We were advising a prone mechanic doing surgery on a gearbox and an ex- Type 49 – believed to be the only car to have on set-up, which won the Monaco Grand Prix twice. ‘We got all of the surviving Type 49s was fun’ together for a show earlier this year. Of the nine cars that Team Lotus con- structed, seven are still running,’ Clive says. Red Bull F1 design genius Adrian Newey owns one of them, another ex- Hill 1969 car, and brought it to Hethel for a shakedown at Group Lotus’s test track over the road. ‘We were advising him on set-up, which was fun.’ In the larger workshop, modern music from a local radio station sounds incongruous; a time- breaking monocoque chassis exposed. This car was the Book Bob Dance, warped signal from Radio Caroline in the ’60s would be more of Genesis for F1 chassis design as we know it today, and its uniquely, has appropriate in a room that’s home to toolkits decorated with inventive stressed aluminium sections today look utterly worked with , Ayrton Senna period racing stickers and the evocative smell of expensive elegant in their minimalism. and James Taylor racing fluids. Is looking after the car still the same process it was in the And there, in the centre of the room, is Jim Clark’s 1963 eye of the ’60s storm? championship-winning Lotus 25. Is it possible to be star- ‘Job lists now are even more detailed than they were in Clive Chapman at his desk in Hethel, struck by a car? The hairs on the back of my neck reckon so, all period, and we have more experience than we’ve ever had,’ 35 years after his the more so because the polite, softly spoken figure tending Dance says. ‘At the Silverstone Classic, for example, we know father’s death to it is Bob Dance, its original chief mechanic. A quiet hero of the car will get dirt in the radiators and the lines, and we can the sport, he spent two stints as chief mechanic at Team Lotus plan ahead for that. across four decades. When he joined in 1960 its lead driver ‘You have more time in between events now. There isn’t the was Innes Ireland; his final season with the team was in 1994 pressure of developing the car between races – now it’s about with and . He’s understated and improving reliability. The people that race these cars are modest, but no doubt with some steel beneath the surface; in serious enthusiasts. And it’s serious racing. It’s a very respon- between tours of duty at Team Lotus he worked for Max Mos- sible job to make sure the cars are screwed together properly. ley at March and Bernie Ecclestone at (he’s clearly If someone leaves something loose you can get into serious not a man fazed by demanding bosses) and subsequently on difficulty,’ he deadpans. Audi and ’s all-conquering Le Mans programmes, Now owned by Australian John Bowers, the car is surely before being tempted back to the Lotus fold in 2004. The day priceless, but race it does, in the hands of Andy Middlehurst we meet is his 82nd birthday. – ‘a very competitive driver, who is also mechanically sympa- The track notes Senna used to help He’s removed much of the 25’s outer components and its thetic and gives good feedback’ according to Dance. Coming him to his first GP engine (off for a refresh at one of the few from the only man to have been mechanic to both Clark and win, at Estoril in ’85 specialists with the requisite know-how), leaving its ground- Senna that’s praise indeed. 4

84 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | July 2017 July 2017 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 85 Inside Classic Team Lotus

Can you compare drivers’ abilities across the decades? Fastener racks Bob’s reluctant to commit. ‘Because Team Lotus has always from Team been a front-running team we’ve attracted front-running Lotus’s base at Ketteringham Hall, drivers.’ But of those drivers, who left the strongest impres- doing what they sion on him? ‘Well, Jim Clark made a big impression on do best everyone, in every team,’ he says, without hesitation. ‘He was an absolute natural, a master of the straight-arm, relaxed driving style.’ What about Senna? Bob nods emphatically: ‘He was very committed, 110% effort. He wanted to be on pole, he wanted to win the races, and did. Quite a good test driver; a very astute person.’ I want to tell Bob that Jim Clark has been my hero Hill’s (left) since childhood, even though he raced decades before I was next to a T125, born, and to ask him what he was like as a person, but I the 21st century can’t quite put the words together, and we move on to a tiny trackday special front-engined spaceframe car resting at the back of the shop. It’s another significant one: the , ’s first single-seater. In this case, the very first one full stop, for scale models, branded merchandise and use in computer That car, the 97T, is now in CTL’s own collection, almost built as a static show car. Now, 60 years on, Dance is turning games, for example. every car of which has at some point been tested by team Sole surviving 88. Three were it into a runner, replacing the original wooden mock-up gear- In a quiet room adjacent to the machine shop Clive opens manager Chris Dinnage. ‘I’ve driven more F1 Lotuses than built; the others box with a real sequential. up a chest of drawers full of original sketches and engineering anyone in the world. That’s my claim to fame. Ayrton’s car were switched to ‘Starting it is… specialised,’ Bob smiles. ‘The fuel pump layouts. I’d probably feel less awed if it contained the Magna from Portugal is my favourite; it is awesome to drive, although normal chassis at the back is driven off the diff, and you hand-prime it by Carta. ‘This is one of Dad’s drawings for the Type 27. He had some of the most fun are the little cars – they jacking the wheels up and turning a drawing board at home, and after din- really move around.’ them.’ A black and white photo on the ner he’d start drafting. He’d have used There must be less pressure in historic racing than there wall alongside shows a proud-looking ‘Our fastest drivers this as a start of discussions with the would have been when racing the cars in period, I venture. Chapman senior sitting in the car at its draftsman in the drawing office.’ ‘No, the pressure isn’t any less,’ Dinnage replies. ‘It’s equally launch – it’s still on the same tyres. are as quick as And here are the drawings for Clark’s important that they finish the race, and our fastest drivers are Scrutineers were Sourcing parts isn’t an issue. ‘For one Type 38 Indy 500 winner, almost as quick as some F1 drivers were in the day. happy, the other some F1 drivers teams weren’t; restoration we needed a particular ZF single-handedly designed by ‘We only have customers who really want to do it properly. protests got the gearbox, which doesn’t exist any more,’ were in the day’ – whose box of French curves sits on There are teams out there who might do it cheaper than us, 88 banned Clive says. ‘Bob went to the storage and top of the chest. An unassuming filing but we provide a very personal service. We don’t compromise came back with two, and a box of spares. cabinet contains race notes and set-up on safety or reliability.’ All stuff that’s completely unobtaina- sheets, the ghosts of countless laps Being part of an outfit with more than just its roots in ble.’ from decades of grand prix weekends. the original Team Lotus must surely be a major component For rare parts that even Bob can’t track down, the Clive pulls out a folder marked Portugal 1985 – Senna’s first of CTL’s customer appeal, too. No marque has contributed machine shop can make replacements from scratch. ‘We’re win – and the notes the 25-year-old Brazilian made with his more to the fabric of motor racing than Lotus, and there’s increasingly doing fabrication in-house,’ Chapman says. ‘We race engineer Steve Hallam, annotating a map of the Estoril something innately gratifying in knowing that the tapestry can make parts to the correct specifications, and we have circuit with a log of the car’s behaviour in each corner. ‘Car is still in good hands – many of which are the same hands that the original drawings and records.’ The licensing rights to is light on entry,’ the neat handwriting reads next to Turn 11. stitched it in the first place. the cars’ designs are one of CTL’s revenue streams, after all, ‘Rear breaks away on bumps.’ @JamesTaylor_5

86 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | July 2017 July 2017 | GET THREE ISSUES FOR £3 WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE TO CAR! GREATMAGAZINES.CO.UK 87 be alright over that speed bump?’ I’m yet to meet one it can’t Mr Popular and manage. ‘Hahahahahaaa…’ – more than a few passengers have intermittently burst into fits of giggles; which, come to think of it, is more or less what I did the first time I drove a supercar. his big yellow R8 One of my favourite bits of car-based writing is Jean Linda- Planet-wrecking examples of wanton excess? mood’s ‘A Ferrari among Friends’, from Automobile magazine Nah, the supercar is a force for good – just ask in 1988, in which she takes 49 friends, neighbours and relatives James and his giggling band of ‘victims’ for a spin in a Testarossa. ‘It seemed a little odd that no-one had much to say inside the car,’ she wrote. ‘Basically, they laughed a lot and then said “Thank you”.’ BEAR WITH ME, for I am about to expound Nearly 30 years on, the R8 seems to have a similar effect. My MONTH 7 a theory. I reckon supercars are fundamen- mum’s next-door neighbour couldn’t finish a sentence without AUDI R8 tally a force for good in the world; that they it turning into peals of laughter, some usually urbane friends V10 PLUS cancel out their carbon footprint by making whooped like a one-person Jerry Springer audi- people grin, giggle, even sometimes get a bit ence, and a few went unusually quiet. A journalist emotional as they travel. They’re designed friend who writes about real things other than with the utmost love and care, they rarely die a premature death cars wrestled with a conscience in turmoil: ‘Dam- in a scrapyard, and their purpose in life is to be shared with mit, I didn’t want to like it but I can’t help it.’ And people, not to be locked away in air-conditioned garages. another barely passed comment on the car. You As a temporary supercar owner, I feel it’s somehow my duty to can’t please everyone. share the R8’s superpowers with anybody who’s interested. No My mum has the last word. ‘It’s two cars in one, struck-up conversation at a petrol station has been ignored (top really, isn’t it? Because when you want it to be a three stock answers: ‘602bhp’, ‘£132,000’ and ‘not that bad, actu- fantastic it is, but when you just want it ally, about 20mpg’), no proffered smartphone to take a souvenir to be comfortable it can be that too.’ Which sums snap of someone with the car, or request to let their kids sit in it up quite nicely, really. She ought to do my job. the driver’s seat, has been denied. ‘You will drive carefully, won’t you?’ And I’ve tried to give rides to as many of my friends, neigh- JAMES TAYLOR bours and colleagues as possible. The worst possible crime in @JamesTaylor_5 this job must surely be to become blasé, to fall immune to the magic. Seeing people’s juvenile excitement as they experience it for the first time is one way to make sure you don’t. LOGBOOK AUDI R8 V10 PLUS ‘Um… how do you get in?’ The door handles are covertly > Engine 5204cc 40v V10, 602bhp @ 8250rpm, recessed below the shoulder line. ‘It’s low, isn’t it!’ It is. ‘Whooo- 413lb ft @ 6500rpm > Gearbox 7-speed dual- ahaha!’ – uniform reaction to the V10’s over-theatrical flare clutch auto, all-wheel drive > Stats 3.2sec 0-62mph, 205mph, 287g/km CO2 > Price £132,715 of revs on start-up. ‘It’s actually really comfortable isn’t it?’ It > As tested £149,645 > Miles this month 1534 really is, in terms of ride quality at least – try a long motorway > Total miles 6701 > Our mpg 21.0 > Oficial mpg 21.9 journey in those seats and you might feel otherwise. ‘Will it > Fuel this month £430.74 > Extra costs £0 ALEX TAPLEY ALEX

136 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | June 2017