As a London Despatch Rider, during the mid-1980s, I stopped on The Aldwych to get a coffee from a small shop. I pulled up next to another Despatcher and as I got off the bike I noticed he wasn't drinking. "I'm getting a coffee, do you want one?" We were a sociable sort of breed. "Yeh. Cheers", came the reply. Two fellers sat on their motorcycles, drinking hot coffee and shooting the breeze about life, work and shit. "So", say I, "what do you spend your money on, in your spare time?" "Oh, I do a lot of racing; most of it goes on that." Then comes a package pick-up message over the radio dangling from a shoulder and one of us dons a helmet, flicks a starter switch and hauls their butt back into the maelstrom of London traffic and exhaust fumes. Sometime later and I see, on the T.V., a lad called Damon who is an upcoming figure of Formula 1 and I give a smile. Yep. Damon Hill started as a London Despatch Rider and one day, on The Aldwych, him and another shot the breeze over a couple of cups of coffee, laced with London smog.

Love the way Damon seems well chuffed that he had his photo took with Jim Clark! :)

I had the honor to see Jim Clark race at the old Riverside raceway in 1965. He drove an obsolete Lotus 40 to a second place finish against the latest group 7 sports cars. I was 16 years old and after the race, Jimmy, covered with road grime and sweat graciously signed autographs for the fans. I still have it and will cherish the memory as long as I live. Rest in peace Jimmy.

Jim Clark .... The best ever!

I was at Aintree for the filming of this item; this is only a fraction of the footage that was taken. I'd love to see the rest! Damon was so competent driving the Lotus 25 around the Aintree Club Circuit for lap after lap whilst the camera crew changed filming locations around the venue. And of course, the car sounded absolutely wonderful. Damon never raced a car at Aintree, but he did race motorcycles there in his very early career. On the day of filming, he initially drove 3 laps to warm up the car and remind himself where the circuit went. After the three laps I asked him what he thought of the place and he asked me if the Grand National horse jumps had been right next to the track when his father raced there. I confirmed they were indeed there but slightly closer to the track back then. He went out to do more laps and 15 or so later came back in. I asked him about the jumps...... "What jumps?" he replied with a smile! "They disappear when you are having fun!!" You'll notice at 3:13 he looks to the left at one of the jumps just as he's entering Becher's Bend, and he's not hanging about. What a driver, and such a nice chap. I came away at the end of that day having had my life enriched after being in his company. Thanks Damon, thanks Sky TV.... Now Sky, where's the rest of the footage? John Harden, www.liverpoolmotorclub.com

There was no other driver like Jim Clark. He had a charisma, a presence, a poise, an etirely likable personna but a ferocious competitor and hero to countless millions around the the world. He is still missed and loved. April 7, 1968 will always be remembered by us faithful followers as the day the Great Jim Clark passed on into immortality.

Nice to see Damon hill driving the lotus 25 that Jim Clark drove

Damon Hill is one of life's gentlemen. A worthy world champion.

I was 4 when Jim Clark died, and yet, he was my childhood hero. My son is 3, and his favorite car is any Lotus, and he will grow up knowing Jim Clark was a hero, and the greatest F1 driver of his era, if not all time.

What an Iconic sound from that engine.

The first Indy race I ever watched was when Graham Hill won in 1966. I was unaware that Damon Hill was Graham's son. Thanks for posting this very nice video!

As an American looking at Hill when he was racing I couldn't help but think what would have happened had Damon made the move to Indy car after his F1 run. It really would have been fun watching him race at Indy much like his dad did in the sixties and if he had won it they would have joined the Unsers as the only father/son duos to win at the Brickyard.

Humblest driver ever.drives the car of a legend

I attended the 1961 GP at Aintree and it's so delightful to watch Damon Hill take the Lotus 25 around the old track!

I saw this Lotus driven by Graham Hill at the 1962 South African GPrix in East London - my 1st Grand Prix at the age of 15 - Jim Clark by far led but fell out with an electrical problem - fond memory.

wow! damon really looks like his dad when he has the helmet and goggles on. safe to say grand prix has never been so elegant and pure as in the days of hill and clark.

If you are a true motorsports fan, you really have to appreciate its past history.

Fantastic stuff.This is true F1.Coming from a Scotsman the Hill family are just magnificent.Graham and Damon such articulate and dedicated racing drivers...

No one can ever match Jim Clark then or now a true F1 legend 🏁

This reminded me of that movie Gran Prix

lovely video. have met damon a few times and I have to say he's a top bloke. F1 back in the day was very special ( and very dangerous!). hope f1 returns to the essense of what it was (2017 onwards) please!!

Some 50 years ago, the Lotus 25 was the first Formula One car I saw. Every other car just looked so old and out of date.

love the sound of the car disappearing down the track, damon is a super person too!...i have pics and slides that my uncle took on tha last race at aintree, must get them scanned,

Great piece by Damon on the 25 and Jimmy. Also nice to see young Bob Dance, Lotus chief mechanic for the last 50 years. There are quite a few similar vids around, Brundle and Tiff Needell in the 49, DC also in the 25, and my favourite Dario Franchitti in Jimmy's 38. I recommend them.

Blimey! Doesn't he look like his dad in the car?

I'm a Jim Clark/Graham Hill/Colin Chapman/Lotus fan since way back. Loved it when Clark and Hill won Indy. Weird: Damon kind of sounds like Eric Clapton - must be from same section of London. Poor Eric. Never won a GP. But I hear he was a champion guitarist.

Wonderful homage to the era - thank you.

Spooky how much he looks like his dad in that old helmet and goggles.

I was there. Age 7. Dad had contacts in the motoring trade. Memories are a tad vague, bit like Damon’s. Very happy memories.

Aintree was the inspiration behind the creation of a motor-racing circuit inside the Warwick Farm horse-racing facility in that Sydney suburb. "The Farm", as it was known, hosted the Sydney leg of the annual Tasman Cup series, several of which I attended in my younger days - together with other meetings between 1964 and 1970. A top circuit which sadly met its end in the late 1970s.

Is that actually Graham Hill's open face helmut? 4:44 Graham or Damon...eerie...

if there is an onboard camera on that lotus why the hell didn't they show us an entire lap onboard???? Aintree lives on in simworld!

One thing I would have loved to have seen is for Damon to follow in his dad's footsteps and compete at Indy. It would have been special if he had gone there to compete there.

What a sympathetic and spontaneous man Jim Clark was! Dressed in a suit and tie, he did not mind playing as a child of five or six with Damon Hill´s toy tractor! (1:32 to 1:38) A gesture like that is not seen in any Formula 1 driver today. Greetings from Venezuela.

JIM CLARK - By far the greatest driver ever - no doubt. He is and was the Best of the Best. No other driver in history until today was so superior as Clark. This man is the Olymp of driving - the Michelangelo of racing - a dynamic art at the highest level. So smooth, so precise, so fast....simply out of this world. One, who won in Spa by 5 minutes (!) in monsoon rain...One, who takes back a complete lap (!) in Monza and back into the lead... One, who took pole on the original 22,8 km Nürburgring track by 9 (!) seconds and more....One who won Indy by 2 whole (!) laps...For eternity and by lightyears unmatched in the sport. That`s just four examples of his mesmeric unique genius...

Nice video. I love these historic motorsport locations :)

Just so amazing what a wonderful video 😊😊

4:10 "it's a shame they have to close down" - thankfully, they didn't. According to Wikipedia, it still runs races of various kinds. BTW, Aintree is primarily a horse racing (steeple chase) track - I guess that was too obvious to mention to a British audience. They did say "Grand National," but not everybody knows what that means. Search out "rFactor2 - Brabham-Repco BT20 at Aintree" to see a 'virtual' onboard lap. The high speed chicane is completely insane! (hey that rhymes)

Wonderful video!

Ahh, nice. Yes there was a good crowd that day in 1962. I was at the front of it!

Pretty cool that a track from that time is apparently almost perfectly preserved. Which couldn't have happened if they continued to hold FIA races there.

A REAL MOTOR RACING VENUE! Bring back F-1 to the place.. As is...

I love seeing the Formula One cars painted in British Racing Green. McLaren should paint their cars in British Racing Green, because they'd otherwise be too confused with the Mercedes cars in 2014, except that the Mercedes' are normally not seen next to other cars.

Nothing to do with the Lotus 25, but there's another video somewhere of Graham Hill clowning around with his kids at a swimming pool somewhere -- and of course one of the kids is Damon.

Marvelous!!!

"One of the problems I had at the beginning with Lotus 25 was the very reclined driving position, which didn´t leave me much to see, especially in the corners. It was like riding in a bed with wheels" Jim Clark Greetings from Venezuela "Uno de los problemas que tenía al comienzo con el Lotus 25 era la posición de pilotaje tan reclinada, que no me dejaba mucho que ver, especialmente en las curvas. Era como ir en una cama con ruedas" Jim Clark Saludos desde Venezuela

Lotus 25 is a very pretty race car.

It's a real shame that the original full configuration is now consigned to the history books, as a new grandstand was built over the last corner a few years ago.

...and also, I got a chance TWICE to see a Lotus 25 driven out of period at The Goodwood Revival...seven years ago a ding-dong battle between the 25 and a Brabham (i.e., Clark vs, Gurney) and this year, wonder of wonders, the 25 and the flat-12 1500cc Ferrari (i.e. Clark vs. Surtees) . The first time out, the Brabham broke and the 25 won. This year, Joe Colasacco had the Ferrari howling and he beat the 25, much to the pleasure of us American spectators....

Bring it back!

Wish they would invest heavily in aintree and bring back F1, excellent road and rail links to other parts of the country, plenty of hotels locally, smack bang in the middle of the country if you include Scotland, amazing stands, amazing historical venue

"It's been a brilliant day".

Bravo !

When is someone going to do this track for assetto corsa. Jim Clark was the best of all time. It would be nice to have a replica of Jim Clark in AI to race against. Every sim racer in the world would spend hours and hours chasing him around and never winning! It would be wonderful.

The individual grooves on those tires look exactly like the trail of a slug.

He makes it sound like the circuit is unused, they carried on using it for clubman racing and still do. I spent many an afternoon there in the 70's as a little kid watching my old man race his Ducati's around there, although I don't think they used the full GP circuit.

THOSE CARS WERE SO SMALL

Colin Chapman sold off all Team Lotus F1 cars, the 24, to privateers and some non-works outfits, they believed they had secured state of the art race-winning cars, then being Chapman he introduced the Lotus 25 which made all the other cars obsolete when challenged that he had pulled a fast one, he replied the 25 is exactly the same as the 24 but just had the steel tubes missing.

It's a little strange, seeing Graham Hill's helmet at the wheel of JIm Clark's Lotus. Good strange.

At 1:36... None of the 3 (Jimmy, Graham nor Damon) would know that they would share 5 WC titles between them and that only one of them would be there to witness the title of the 1996 season.

Silly me. I could have gone round Aintree in D Type Jaguar for charity with Norman Dewison. Unfortunatly I couldn't afford it. Norman was a gent.

The tracks not what it was but its great for club level bike racing, I always go and watch!

Jesus...Damon has gone incredibly grey!!

The car shown has a couple of updates from 1962/1963 specs: The inner drive shaft joints are solid Hookes type (with a splined sliding shaft), not the original rubber "doughnuts" (used with solid shafts, since they were axially compliant). And the windscreen was the "Spa scoop", intended to deflect air up over the driver's head (Clark had a problem with buffeting; that's why he often drove without a visor). It also looks like the engine cover has bulges on the side (ala the Lotus 33).

There’s an irony here. The great Jim Clark won the British GP but Graham Hill was driving for BRM that year and won the championship.

Talk talk, I want the car.

Fangio and Senna both called Clark the GOAT. Hmmm... PS: Is that a nuclear cooling tower behind grandstand at 2:47?

Just so wrong to see that Graham's helmet and facial profile driving Jimmy's car. It's the wrong number! LOL

Someone, please complete this sentence: "They stopped holding F1 races at Aintree because...." Neither this video or Wikipedia really says why. OK, it was "put up for sale" but why didn't the new owners want to continue it as an F1 race-course if it was "purpose built" for that?

i think aintree isn't really a great track. the cars and drivers who raced there made it great.

I wonder how many of his dad's cars Damon has managed to drive?

Trivial, but a 1962 Lotus 25 shouldn't really have the yellow stripe. The stripe 1st being introduced to the Lotus 25 at British GP Siverstone 1963..

If you could drive one car....just one car of any ever made......THIS is the car you'd drive. The iconic legendary Jim Clark's Lotus. Jim Clark is, to me, with Ayrton Senna the best ever.

There tomorrow for a hill climbing event

It's a very beautiful car. I hate it lol. It's too hard to feel what the car is doing...however the Upgraded Type 49 with the Cosworth engine a few years later is a very different story

Odd how Damon only mentions his father once or twice

So why did the track close?Since u r Graham Hills son wouldn't u like to drive your dad's BRM?I watched him many times on ABC's Wide World of Sports.

Britain's only purpose built racing circuit?

Damon deserves 1994 F 1 Crown against the dirtiest movement of schumacher,bumping him in the last curve,of the last lap. FIA shud disqualify Schumacher for this and other dirty tricks to be ahead of his colleagues. At least 6 Crowns must be taken from Schumacher,and give them to Eddy Irvine, Damon Hill, Ralf Schumacher,Barrichello,Jacques Villeneuve,and others. Justice for All.

Aintree? This river don't go to AINTREE!

No... Britain's only purpose-built GRAND PRIX circuit...

What's George Harrison doing driving a Lotus 25?

Ahhh it would have been nice to see him drive the car rather than go on about the history of the track

What a useless show! Hey Hill! Why don't you tell us some specifics about what's different between what you drove in F1 and this car.. just for an example? How about other spec's about the competition then and now. For example the car that Senna drove had 1200 HP, very little down force and a manual gear box... you know that kind of real info!