"Ok, we know. There is a twisted, byzantine history to the whole Lotus story – and when you talk about Lotus Racing and Team Lotus etc, there's even more layers of weirdness to negotiate. The quirky, idiosyncratic company history of Lotus "
The legend of Colin Chapman today is saturated in myth, claim and counter claim. The portrait of a suave cad who founded Lotus with a £25 loan and grew the marque to greatness through a combination of genius, hard work and charisma has been somewhat dented in recent times. But his mark on British motor racing remains indelible. And he reminds us of Alan Whicker with a spanner.
Through Lotus he gave life to numerous design innovations that changed the face of motor racing, piling up wins on the racing circuits, demonstrating that his fertile mind and futuristic ideas had a defined purpose.
I hesitate to be a voice of decent amongst people more knowledgable than I, but he was instrumental in a fraud that cost the taxpayer (i.e. us) out of 18 million dollars, nearly a million of which ended up in his own pocket. Fraud is not a victimless crime, as well he knew. Three years is about normal for this, though I do accept that the bigger villans got away with it. The judge said at Bushell’s trial that had he survived Chapman (who pocketed over 8 million dollars) would have got 10 years
Not_A_Number
We can forgive and forget the Delorian debacle. Colin Chapman was one of the engineering greats. No one deserves to be remembered badly when they were responsible for cars like the Elite, Elan and the timeless Lotus/ Caterham Super 7. We are all a mixture of strength and weakness when it comes down to it.
"In 1972 F1 gained a new World Champion, one that was younger than any had been before. Emerson Fittipaldi, the wonder kid from Brazil, had won the most prestigious title in motorsport before he’d even reached his 26th birthday.
Fittipaldi "
"Young people today would be forgiven for assuming Lotus is all about lightweight, mid-engined wedge-shaped sports cars. After all, when the current line-up consists of the Evora, Elise, and Exige, how could you possibly see Lotus going about work any "
"Active aerodynamics, the automatic gearbox and side-mounted radiators are all features of the 21st Century racing machine and features that you would expect to have been first found in Formula One. In fact they emerged from just one racing team "
"We can’t think of another car that looks even vaguely like the Lotus Europa S1.
It’s kind of bread van-ish. It’s kind of otherworldly. And its look owes everything to a collision between Colin Chapman’s obsession "
"Lotus Elite 1974 (type 75)
This is the only Lotus I currently own. It's a pain to work on. It's not even a runner at the moment and I'm spending a fortune on repairing the fibreglass. In fact, it's sitting there in "
"What message do we leave for the future? A handbook for survival, stories from the past. Who would believe such mythical beasts existed, without evidence?
When petrol pumps become museum pieces, the scent of fuel remains as a distant memory, "
"Out in Hyde, a Cheshire town in the eastern reaches of Greater Manchester, there is a little corner of the county that is forever California. Relics 'n' Rust is a multilayered ‘lifestyle store’ run by Howard Pedder and his son "
"It’s sixty two years now since Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth launched Cosworth Engineering in a greasy corner of London. Since then the engineering firm has provided the connective tissue of some of the world’s finest and most "
"Cars change. It’s a simple statement, and an observable one. At the same time, it could be argued they don’t. The steering, the exhaust note, the grip of the tyres to the road – though these may technically vary "
I hesitate to be a voice of decent amongst people more knowledgable than I, but he was instrumental in a fraud that cost the taxpayer (i.e. us) out of 18 million dollars, nearly a million of which ended up in his own pocket. Fraud is not a victimless crime, as well he knew. Three years is about normal for this, though I do accept that the bigger villans got away with it. The judge said at Bushell’s trial that had he survived Chapman (who pocketed over 8 million dollars) would have got 10 years
We can forgive and forget the Delorian debacle. Colin Chapman was one of the engineering greats. No one deserves to be remembered badly when they were responsible for cars like the Elite, Elan and the timeless Lotus/ Caterham Super 7. We are all a mixture of strength and weakness when it comes down to it.