1968 Lotus 49B: The Last Privateer Ever to Win a Grand Prix Beat Ferrari in a Car He Bought

In March 1968, a spark from a drill set Rob Walker's racing workshop in Dorking alight. It took his wrecked Lotus, a brand new Cosworth engine and thirty four years of signed photographs and mementos. Four months later, his team won the British Grand Prix. This is the story of a whisky heir who promised his wife he'd stop racing, so he started entering cars instead, and a Swiss lad from Fribourg who sold old clothes off a bicycle trailer to pay for his first race car. Walker's mechanics built a brand new Lotus 49B in three weeks and finished it the night before practice. Then Jo Siffert qualified it fourth, watched both works Lotuses break, and held off Chris Amon's Ferrari for the rest of the afternoon at Brands Hatch. It's widely remembered as the last Grand Prix won by a true privateer. I also get into the one race that challenges that claim, and why nobody can do it now. Who's the greatest privateer you ever saw race? Let me know in the comments. I go through all of them. #Formula1 #F1History #ClassicCars