Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman loved airplanes and cars. He was born on 19 May 1928 in Richmond, Surrey, England, where his father owned the Orange Tree pub before the family moved to North London, where Chapman Senior then ran the Station Hotel. Colin graduated in mechanical engineering from the University of London, joined the university squadron at the end of the war and learned to fly. However, he later turned down a job in the Royal Air Force because he did not want to be a soldier. However, he needed money, so he switched jobs before landing at British Aluminium, where he worked while still building his first cars.
He was greatly supported by his girlfriend Hazel Williams, who supported him as well as her father Vic, who rented him three garages in the garden. Colin began buying and repairing cars before building his first car with a new plywood body based on an Austin Seven to take part in the so-called Trials, light modified off-road competitions that are still a British speciality. Back then, Colin wanted to race rather than build, so he even completed the 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans (two of his three Lotuses finished, only he retired with engine failure) and entered the French Grand Prix at Reims in the same year on a Vanwall, but in the end did not start .
Blooming lotus flower
Chapman never confirmed why he called his cars Lotus, but one legend claims that he affectionately called his Hazel the Lotus blossom. The logo of Lotus cars has long been complemented by the stylized letters ACBC, the complete initials of Chapman’s name. At first, production was limited to pieces, Lotus I was followed by others, mostly for club races on circuits and trials. The cars were marked with Roman numerals I to X, then Eleven came out, and from type 12 (Formula 2 from 1957, rebuilt into the first Formula 1 a year later) all types are marked with Arabic numerals.
Photo: Tomáš Hyan
Lotus Seven, Colin Chapman’s iconic car, produced continuously since 1957 when production was taken over by Caterham after 1973
From this period, the most famous is the Lotus VII, later called the Seven, a spartan roadster built by Lotus in four series of 2,682 units until 1973, before the license was sold to Caterham Cars, which still produces Sevens today. The first serial model was the conceptually similar Lotus VI, which was produced in 110 units in 1953–1955. In 1953, Hazel loaned her Colin, to whom she later became a wife and mother of three (a son, Clive, and two daughters), the then staggering sum of £25 to set up Lotus Engineering in Hornsley, London. Colin appointed her second director, they married in October 1954, she was by his side all his life and survived him until 2021.
Legend Formula 1
The extremely productive engineer gradually expanded production, moved to Cheshunt (Herts) and in 1966 opened a new large factory in Hethel (Norfolk), built on the site of a former military airfield, where he created a test track. At that time, he was already one of the most important constructors of Formula 1 single-seaters, during the construction of which he applied many innovative solutions. He was at the transition of the engine from the front to the rear of the car, the emergence of self-supporting structures, pressure wings, all-wheel drive, turbine drive, wing-cars with a pressure effect and the first user of the legendary Ford-Cosworth DFV engine (his drivers won the first and record 150 with it. victory).
The first of 79 triumphs in Formula 1 was won by the unforgettable Stirling Moss in Monaco 1960 on the Lotus of the RRC Walker private team, the first triumph of the factory team was won by Scot Innes Ireland in the 1961 US Grand Prix, only a year later he started his streak of twenty-five Formula 1 victories, another Flying Scot Jim Clark, who won the world championship titles for Lotus in 1963 and 1965. Despite the successes, tragedies also came, Jim Clark, Jochen Rindt, Mike Spence, Ronnie Peterson and other stars of car racing died behind the wheel of Lotuses. Chapman’s drive to reduce weight ad absurdum meant that some parts of the cars were undersized, as expressed by Graham Hill when he said, “When I see a bike pass me, I know I’m driving a Lotus…”
Fame and Fall in Formula 1
The next four Formula 1 championships for Lotus were won by Graham Hill (1968), Jochen Rindt (1970), Emerson Fittipaldi (1972) and Mario Andretti (1978). The F1 constructors’ cup belonged to Lotus not only in these seasons, but also in 1963, 1965 and 1973 (seven times in total). The 1982 Austrian Grand Prix was Elio de Angelis’s last win of the Chapman era, the 150th triumph for a Ford-Cosworth DFV engine. Like a bolt from the blue came the news on 16th December 1982 that Colin Chapman had died at home in Norwich of a heart attack aged just fifty-four!
Photo: Tomáš Hyan
No one wanted to believe it and, as in the case of rock and roll legend Elvis Presley, there was speculation that Chapman was living in hiding in South America, especially after news of his involvement in the development of the De Lorean sports car, the project of which ended in the embezzlement of ten million pounds from the British tax authorities taxpayers in Northern Ireland, for which Fred Bushell, one of the directors of Lotus Cars, was convicted ten years later. The British government provided £85 million to start production at the new factory in Belfast, five million of which reportedly went back to Bushell and Chapman through a Panamanian company. Colin was instrumental in improving the design of this car.
Team Lotus in Formula 1 won seven more times after Colin’s death (most recently by Ayrton Senna in Detroit 1987), but withdrew from the world championship after the 1994 season (two attempts at rebirth were unsuccessful). The production of Lotus sports cars, where Colin Chapman was most famous with the Seven, Elite, Elan, Europa and Esprit types, continues after many perpetuities with new owners to this day. Clive Chapman, son of Colin and Hazel, now heads Classic Team Lotus for Formula 1 vintage car racing.
