Cliff Allison

Born: 8th February 1932, Brough, England.

Cliff Allison, the son of a Cumbrian garage owner, began racing with a Cooper-JAP in 1951 and rose through the ranks of Formula 3. He finished fourth in the 1955 British Championship and also began his association with Lotus, which saw him progress in sports cars including the Index of Performance award at Le Mans in 1957, when he shared a Lotus XI-Climax with Keith Hall. Allison and Lotus moved to single seaters the same year with the Lotus 12, the Cumbrian showing he had the pace of such luminaries as Jack Brabham and Roy Salvadori, but reliability woes hindered him.

In 1958 Allison was chosen to spearhead Colin Chapman’s new attack on Formula 1 alongside Graham Hill. In his first race Cliff finished sixth and won the F2 class in the International Trophy at Silverstone, before he came close to a points finish on his Grand Prix debut at Monaco, only for an overheating problem to stop him near the finish line and force him to push the car home for sixth. He took sixth again in the following race at Zandvoort, before overcoming a last lap suspension failure to take a superb fourth in the Belgian Grand Prix. Perhaps his finest performance however came in Germany, when he took a hastily-repaired car from the back of the grid following a practice accident to close to a podium finish, only for a radiator leak to put him out. Things went downhill somewhat for the rest of the year including a big crash in Portugal, but on the recommendation of World Champion Mike Hawthorn he was given a test by Ferrari, and this led to a works drive for 1959.

Allison competed principally in sports cars for the Scuderia, taking second at Sebring (with Jean Behra), fifth at the Nurburgring (with Dan Gurney) and third at Goodwood. He competed at five Grands Prix that year, and caused a stir by setting the fastest qualifying lap at AVUS for the German Grand Prix, although frustratingly he did not start from pole having only been posted as a reserve entry. Fifth at Monza proved his only points scoring finish.

Despite his dream drive, Allison was finding it hard to settle at Maranello, especially as he did not want to move his family to Italy and preferred to commute back and forth to north-west England. Even so, the 1960 season began well with victory in the Buenos Aires 1000km with Phil Hill and a superb second in the Argentine Grand Prix, but then disaster struck in practice at Monaco as Allison crashed heavily, sustaining several broken bones. His season was over.

With no F1 opportunities with Ferrari once he was fit again, Allison joined the UDT Laystall team to race their Lotus 18 for 1961. He took second in the International Trophy at Silverstone and eighth at Monaco, but then had another huge crash in practice at Spa and broke both his legs. This accident convinced him to retire from racing, and he returned to his garage business.