A superb and rare photo of the 1963 Lotus victory parade in the English city of Norwich, held after legendary Lotus factory rider Jim Clark won his first Formula One Championship with Lotus in 1963. Clark won his first drivers' World Championship with the magnificent Lotus 25 visible on the photograph in 1963, winning seven out of the ten races. This also gave Lotus their first Constructors' World Championship!

The very new Lotus 25 featured a futuristic and incredibly well performing monocoque chassis that changed F1 engineering. No wonder Lotus organized a victory parade, as this great image proudly shows!

Jim Clark was the dominant driver of his era, winning two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965. Clark achieved 33 pole positions and won 25 races from his 72 Grands Prix starts in championship races. He also competed in the Indianapolis 500 five times, and won it once, in 1965. He is remembered for his ability to drive and win in all types of cars and series, including a Lotus-Cortina, with which he won the 1964 British Touring Car Championship, IndyCar, NASCAR, driving a Ford Galaxie for the Holman Moody team, Rallying, where he took part in the 1966 RAC Rally of Great Britain in a Lotus Cortina, and nearly won the event before crashing, and sports cars. He competed in the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1959, 1960 and 1961, finishing second in class in 1959 driving a Lotus Elite, and finishing third overall in 1960, driving an Aston Martin DBR1.

The Lotus 25 was a racing car designed by Colin Chapman for the 1962 Formula One season. It was a revolutionary design, the first fully stressed monocoque chassis to appear in F1. An early brainchild of Chapman's fertile mind, the original sketches for the car were made on napkins while Chapman discussed his idea while dining out with Lotus chassis designer Mike Costin. The monocoque made the car more rigid and structurally stronger than typical F1 cars of the period. The 25 was three times stiffer than the interim 21, while the chassis weighed only half as much. As a result, the car was extremely low and narrow (frontal area only 8.0 ft², 0.74m² compared to the normal 9.5 ft², 0.88 m² It was also envisaged to have a column gear lever, to keep cockpit width to a minimum, although this was only experimental and discarded. To assist this, the driver reclined sharply behind the wheel (an idea seen in the 18, and pioneered over a decade previously by Gustav Baumm at NSU, leading to the nickname 'The Bathtub', while front suspension pieces were moved inboard (as in the 1948 Maserati). The 25 was powered by a 1498cc Coventry Climax FWMV V8, although Reg Parnell Racing in 1964 fitted BRM P56s of similar specification to their second-hand 25s. Such was 25's effect on motor racing, even today's modern F1 cars follow its basic principles. Some privateers who had been buying Lotus chassis were disgruntled by the fact Chapman refused to provide them 25s. These teams, including Rob Walker Racing, were given Lotus 24s, while the works team had exclusive use of the 25 for Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor. When it first appeared at the Dutch Grand Prix, the futuristic 25 was inspected by John Cooper, who asked Chapman where he had put the chassis in the car. The car gave Clark his first Grand Prix victory, at Spa, that year. He followed by taking another win in Britain, and again in the USA, which put him in contention for the title, but at the final race, South Africa while leading, a much publicized engine seizure cost him the title to Graham Hill. Clark gained his revenge the following year, taking his first world championship in the 25, by winning 7 races, Belgium, France, Holland, Britain, Italy, South Africa, and Mexico. Lotus also won its first constructors' championship. In addition, 25s were entered at Indianapolis, where they trialed Lucas electronic ignition for Ford. The 25 was used during the 1964 season, winning a further three races in Clark's hands. At the final race in Mexico, just as in 1962, the Climax engine developed an oil leak and with literally a lap to run Clark coasted to a halt in sight of world championship victory, this time conceding to John Surtees. Clark went on to take the car's final win at the 1965 French Grand Prix before it was replaced by the Lotus 33. The Lotus 25 won 14 races, took 17 pole positions, and set 13 fastest laps. In 2008/9 Lotus launched a special edition of the Elise supercharged model in the original Lotus 25 racing colours. This had track standard sports suspension and traction control. A total of 25 of these Lotus Jim Clark Type 25 cars were produced for the RHD market.

The Lotus car firm was formed as Lotus Engineering Ltd. by engineer Colin Chapman, a graduate of University College, London, in 1952. The first factory was in old stables behind the Railway Hotel in Hornsey. Team Lotus, which was split off from Lotus Engineering in 1954, was active and competitive in Formula One racing from 1958 to 1994. The Lotus Group of Companies was formed in 1959. This was made up of Lotus Cars Limited and Lotus Components Limited which focussed on road car and customer competition car production respectively. Lotus Components Limited became Lotus Racing Limited in 1971 but the newly renamed entity ceased operation in the same year. The company moved to a purpose built factory at Cheshunt in 1959 and since 1966 the company has occupied a modern factory and road test facility at Hethel, near Wymondham. This site is the former RAF Hethel base and the test track uses sections of the old runway. Lotus built tens of thousands of successful racing and road cars and won the Formula One World Championship seven times. The company also acts as an engineering consultancy, providing engineering development—particularly of suspension—for other car manufacturers.

The company encouraged its customers to race its cars, and itself entered Formula One as a team in 1958. A Lotus Formula One car driven by Stirling Moss won the marque's first Grand Prix in 1960 at Monaco in a Lotus 18 entered by privateer Rob Walker. Major success came in 1963 with the Lotus 25, which—with Jim Clark driving—won Lotus its first F1 World Constructors Championship. Clark's untimely death — he crashed a Formula Two Lotus 48 in April 1968 after his rear tyre failed in a turn in Hockenheim — was a severe blow to the team and to Formula One. He was the dominant driver in the dominant car and remains an inseparable part of Lotus' early years. That year's championship was won by Clark's teammate, Graham Hill. Lotus is credited with making the mid-engined layout popular for Indycars, developing the first monocoque Formula 1 chassis, and the integration of the engine and transaxle as chassis components. Lotus was also among the pioneers in Formula 1 in adding wings and shaping the undersurface of the car to create downforce, as well as the first to move radiators to the sides in the car to aid in aerodynamic performance, and inventing active suspension. Even after Chapman's death, until the late 1980s, Lotus continued to be a major player in Formula 1. Ayrton Senna drove for the team from 1985 to 1987, winning twice in each year and achieving 17 pole positions. However, by the company's last Formula 1 race in 1994, the cars were no longer competitive. Lotus won a total of 79 Grand Prix races. During his lifetime Chapman saw Lotus beat Ferrari as the first team to achieve 50 Grand Prix victories, despite Ferrari having won their first nine years sooner. Lotus won the Formula One world championship title for drivers and manufacturers no less then 6 times. In 1963 (Jim Clark); 1965 (Jim Clark); 1968 (Graham Hill); 1970 (Jochen Rindt); 1972 (Emerson Fittipaldi); 1973 (manufacturers title alone) and in 1978 (Mario Andretti).

Englishman Jim Clark (or Jimmy Clark) was born as James Clark jr. in 1936. He was the dominant driver of his era, winning two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965. At the time of his death, Clark achieved 33 pole positions and won 25 races from his 72 Grands Prix starts in championship races. He also competed in the Indianapolis 500 five times, and won it once, in 1965. He is remembered for his ability to drive and win in all types of cars and series, including a Lotus-Cortina, with which he won the 1964 British Touring Car Championship, IndyCar, NASCAR, driving a Ford Galaxie for the Holman Moody team, Rallying, where he took part in the 1966 RAC Rally of Great Britain in a Lotus Cortina, and nearly won the event before crashing, and sports cars. He competed in the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1959, 1960 and 1961, finishing second in class in 1959 driving a Lotus Elite, and finishing third overall in 1960, driving an Aston Martin DBR1.

He was also able to master difficult Lotus sportscar prototypes such as the Lotus 30 and 40. Clark had an uncanny ability to adapt to whichever car he was driving. Whilst other drivers would struggle to find a good car setup, Clark would usually set competitive lap times with whatever setup was provided and ask for the car to be left as it was.

Although his parents were opposed to the idea, Clark started his racing in local road rally and hill climb events driving his own Sunbeam-Talbot, and proved a fearsome competitor right from the off. On 16 June 1956, in his very first event, he was behind the wheel of a DKW sonderklasse at Crimond, Scotland. By 1958, Clark was driving for the local Border Reivers team, racing Jaguar D-types and Porsches in national events, and winning 18 races. Then on Boxing Day 1958, Clark met the man who would launch him to superstardom. Driving a Lotus Elite, he finished second to Colin Chapman. Chapman was sufficiently impressed to give Clark a ride in one of his Formula Junior cars. His first Drivers' World Championship came driving the Lotus 25 in 1963, winning seven out of the ten races and Lotus its first Constructors' World Championship. That year he also competed in the Indianapolis 500 for the first time, and only the oil on the track from winner Parnelli Jones's car prevented him from winning, as he finished in second position and won Rookie of the Year honours. In 1964 Clark came within just a few laps of retaining his World Championship crown, but just as in 1962, an oil leak from the engine robbed him of the title, this time conceding to John Surtees. Tyre failure damaging the Lotus' suspension put paid to that year's attempt at the Indianapolis 500. He made amends and won the Championship again in 1965 and also the Indianapolis 500 in the Lotus 38. He had to miss the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix in order to compete at Indianapolis, but made history by driving the first mid-engined car to win at the fabled "Brickyard," as well as becoming the only driver to date to win both that race and the F1 title in the same year. At the same time, Clark was competing in the Australasia based Tasman series, run for older F1 cars, and was series champion in 1965, 1967 and 1968 driving for Lotus. He won fourteen races in all, a record for the series. The FIA decreed from 1966, new 3-litre engine regulations would come into force. Lotus were less competitive. Starting with a 2-litre Coventry-Climax engine in the Lotus 33, Clark did not score points until the British Grand Prix and a third place at the following Dutch Grand Prix. From the Italian Grand Prix onwards Lotus used the highly complex BRM H16 engine in the Lotus 43 car, with which Clark won the United States Grand Prix. He also picked up another second place at the Indianapolis 500, this time behind Graham Hill. During 1967 Lotus and Clark used three completely different cars and engines. The Lotus 43 performed poorly at the opening South African Grand Prix, so Clark used an old Lotus 33 at the following Monaco Grand Prix, retiring with suspension failure. Lotus then began its fruitful association with Ford-Cosworth. Their first car, the Lotus 49 featuring the most successful F1 engine in history, the Ford-Cosworth DFV, won its first race at the Dutch Grand Prix, driven by Clark. He won with it again at the British, United States and Mexican Grands Prix; and, in January 1968, at the South African Grand Prix. Jim Clark's drive in the 1967 Italian Grand Prix is regarded one of the greatest ever in F1. After starting from pole, he was leading in his Lotus 49 (chassis R2), when a tyre punctured. He lost an entire lap while having the wheel changed in the pits. After rejoining sixteenth, Clark then showed his genius by driving at his own limit, something which was not required when leading. He ripped back through the field, progressively lowered the lap record, eventually equalling his pole time of 1m 28.5s, to regain the lost lap and the lead. He was narrowly ahead of Brabham and Surtees starting the last lap, but his car had not been filled with enough fuel for such a performance — it faltered, and finally coasted across the finish line in third place. In his Indianapolis 500 win, Clark carried on driving despite a collision which would have forced some drivers out of the race. He led for 190 of the 200 laps, with an unprecedented average speed of over 150 miles per hour (240 km/h), to become the first foreigner in almost half a century to win the famous race. Jim Clark also raced at Crimond in the North East of Scotland on 16th June 1956 in his very first car race he was behind the wheel of a DKW "sonderklasse". Unfortunately, on April 7, 1968, Jim Clark's life tragically ended in a crash during a Formula Two race at the Hockenheimring in Germany. The 1968 F1 Drivers' Championship was subsequently won by his Lotus team-mate Graham Hill, who pulled the heartbroken team together and held off Jackie Stewart for the crown, which he later dedicated to Clark.

This is a very nice and very rare photo that reflects a wonderful era of Lotus ‘ automotive history in a wonderful way.  This is your rare chance to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 11” (ca. 20 x 27 cm).  It makes it perfectly suitable for framing.