From the Fells to Ferrari: The Official Biography of Cliff Allison
By Graham Gauld
From the Fells to Ferrari is the fascinating story of Cliff Allison, a native of the Yorkshire Fells town of Brough, in the north of England, and how he took up race driving in the 1950s and eventually became a Ferrari-factory Grand Prix driver.
Allison’s early days were mostly at the wheel of his own Cooper 500s in Formula 3 and are covered in detail, as is his time as one of the first two Lotus F1 drivers—the other being Graham Hill—the first of these Lotus Grand Prix cars being the Lotus 12. The book conveys very well the totally different world in which Grand Prix racing revolved during the late 1950s; this aspect is especially well highlighted in interviews with Dan Gurney.
Allison’s racing life changed when, at the 1958 Earls Court Motor Show, he had a “chat” with Maranello officials and subsequently got the call to Ferrari for a test drive. Fortunately for Allison, Mike Hawthorn had tipped off Enzo about the qualities of Allison’s race driving. Interestingly, just getting to and from Italy wasn’t easy then. That trip to Modena involved Cliff driving his Austin A35 to Darlington station, a three-hour train to London, a bus to Heathrow, plane to Milan, taxi to Centrale station, and subsequent train to Modena!
Once installed at the Prancing Horse, Allison realized that leaving Lotus for Ferrari had been the right thing to do as “things kept falling off the Lotus. Important things, like steering-wheels….”
Available directly from the publisher for US$45.95 (£22.50) at www.motorbooks.com or www.veloce.co.uk
