# Mexico City, 22 October 1967: Jim Clark and the Lotus 49 Close Their First Season

59 years ago today Jim Clark won the 1967 Mexican Grand Prix from pole in the Lotus 49, a fitting end to the debut year of the car that changed Formula 1.

Source: https://lotustrails.com/blog/2026-10-22-lotus-49-mexico-1967/

On 22 October 1967 the Formula 1 season ended at the Magdalena Mixhuca circuit in Mexico City. Jim Clark put his Lotus 49 on pole, set the fastest lap and won the 65-lap race by well over a minute from Jack Brabham. It was his fourth win of the year, and the last race of the 49's first season.

## A new kind of car

The 49 was designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe around a new engine. Chapman had persuaded Ford to pay for Keith Duckworth's Cosworth DFV, a 3-litre V8, and the 49 was the first car to use it. Rather than sit the engine in a frame, Lotus bolted it to the back of the monocoque and hung the gearbox and rear suspension from it. The engine was part of the structure.

That idea, and the DFV itself, shaped Grand Prix cars for years. More in our guide to [famous Lotus cars](/guides/famous-lotus-cars/).

## A winning start, then trouble

The 49 made its debut at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort in June 1967, where the photograph above was taken, and Clark won first time out. He won again at Silverstone. But the new engine was not yet reliable, and failures through the middle of the season cost Clark points he could not recover. At Monza he ran out of fuel on the last lap while leading, and finished third.

He won at Watkins Glen in early October, despite a rear suspension failure in the closing laps, and so arrived in Mexico with the car finally on form but the title out of reach.

## The race in Mexico

Clark led from the front and lapped everyone except Brabham. According to the race record he did it with almost no use of his clutch for most of the distance. His team-mate Graham Hill, back at Lotus that year, retired on lap 18 with a broken drive shaft.

The championship went to Denny Hulme. He finished third in Mexico, which was enough to beat his Brabham team-mate Jack Brabham by 51 points to 46. Clark was third on 41. It was his second Mexican Grand Prix win, after 1963.

## What came next

Clark did not get his chance to take the 49 to a title. He was killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim in April 1968. Hill won the 1968 championship in the 49, and Lotus took the constructors' title. In all, the 49 won twelve Grands Prix before the Lotus 72 replaced it. Our guide to [famous Lotus drivers](/guides/famous-lotus-drivers/) covers both men in more detail.

Lotus has been at Hethel in Norfolk since 1966, and the [Hethel and Norfolk loop](/trails/hethel-norfolk-loop/) starts near the factory, where Saturday's sold-out charity day will put historic Team Lotus Formula 1 cars back on track.

Sources: [1967 Mexican Grand Prix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Mexican_Grand_Prix), [Lotus 49](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_49), [1967 Formula One season](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Formula_One_season) (Wikipedia).