Jim Clark: "The Best of the Best" cover

“Clark – The Best of the Best” by David Tremayne reviewed

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You need to buy this book.

I won’t go into the Jim Clark Clark mythology here; he died long before I appeared and as races in those days were only sporadically filmed, have never seen whole race footage of him in action. In contrast, similar footage of Gilles Villeneuve has been easy to obtain online for years, and thanks to F1 TV we now have the option of doing so legally.

But I’ll take others word for it – if Ayrton Senna says he’s the best of the best, then who am I to disagree?

If you need more persuading, or just want to celebrate Clark’s life and career The Best of the Best is the definitive book on the two-times world champion. As ever with Evro the quality levels are sky-high. Combined with David Tremayne’s prose this make it an essential buy – although I would recommend delivery as this is one heavy book to lug home from the shops.

A hugely detailed and comprehensive overview of Clark’s life, career and legacy, the book covers not just the F1 triumphs and the Indy 500, but also non-championship races, sports cars and other outings. Furthermore, there are real attempts to get to know and explain Jim Clark the man, which is no mean feat given his notorious shyness.

However, any book on Clark is always fascinating, as unlike Jackie Stewart and to an extent Graham Hill, he sadly didn’t live long enough to author his legacy.

Throughout the quality and variety of the illustrations is immense – lots of rare shots, including many images I’d not seen before. Without wishing to seem in poor taste, I found some of the illustrations of Clark’s offs (seldom driver error) to be most riveting as these incidents are rarely discussed in many biographies.

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The sixties was a special time in motor sport; never since has glamour and danger been so thoroughly intertwined, and Jim Clark was the central character. The Best of the Best will take you to the heart of Clark and therefore the pulse of racing in this era.

Just buy this book.

RaceFans rating

Rating five out of five

Jim Clark: The Best of the Best

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“Jim Clark: The Best of the Best”

Author: David Tremayne
Publisher: Evro
Published: 2018
Pages: 520
Price: £80.00
ISBN: 978-1910505168

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Ben Evans
Motorsport commentator Ben is RaceFans' resident bookworm. Look out for his verdict on the latest motor racing publications on Sundays....

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8 comments on ““Clark – The Best of the Best” by David Tremayne reviewed”

  1. “Clark was best”, I always say. As a kid in the 1960s being a racing fan and with Jim Clark racing in the Indy 500 and winning it, I ended up getting fascinated with F1. This looks like the Jim Clark book I have been waiting for all these years.

  2. Have to agree with Ayrton, having watched JC race several times in the Tasman series I was left with that opinion, not only did he streak ahead of the field but he made it look easy, and the rest of the field had several drivers who either were, or would become WDC, including his teammate Graham Hill, and to top it all he raced all kinds of machines from saloon cars to F1 with similar effect.

  3. I was about to go to amazon to order this when I saw the £80 price tag. I have no doubt it will be worth it, but I’ll have to wait for a bit before purchasing this one.

    1. @geemac I thought the same, but then I clicked the link anyway and it’s £52 on UK amazon. still a hefty price but a bit more manageable. still, i think i will wait, like you, much as i adore books about the 60s. my favourite is a collection of rainer schlegelmilch called Portraits of the 1960s – it is basically a flawless work of photography.

    2. U$120 on amazon here. Added it to my wish list for now. LOL My favorite racer, so someday I will click that button.

    3. It is expensive but it is well worth the money. If you are interested in Jim Clark you must have this book. I sometimes wonder whether I look back on Jim Clark through rose tinted glasses but this book convinced me that I don’t. He is the best of the best as I thought and continue to think since the early 60’s. This is also the best of the best books about him.

  4. Lot of people who know what they are talking about say Clark was the best F1 driver ever…even Fangio said so.

  5. I think Clark’s career speaks for itself in so many ways. Just look at his percentages per starts, if you have doubts.

    Clark, Hill, Stewart and others give the lie to the declaration that a driver needs to be ruthless to be a champion. It was unthinkable for Clark and the others to deliberately crash into another driver to further their own results. Despite their tremendous talent and stats, drivers like Senna and Schumacher will always be downgraded because of their actions on the track. Clark won with honor and he was a better driver and a better person for it.

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