Colin Chapman

Colin Chapman
Colin Chapman 1971.jpg
Date of birth 19 May 1928(1928-05-19)
Date of death 16 December 1982(1982-12-16) (aged 54)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality United Kingdom British
Active years 1956
Teams Vanwall
Races 1 (0 starts)
Championships 0
Wins 0
Podiums 0
Career points 0
Pole positions 0
Fastest laps 0
First race 1956 French Grand Prix
Last race 1956 French Grand Prix

Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman CBE (19 May [1] 1928 - 16 December 1982) was an influential British designer, inventor, and builder in the automotive industry, and founder of Lotus Cars.

He studied structural engineering at University College London, joined the University Air Squadron and learned to fly. Chapman left UCL without a degree in 1948, resitting his final Mathematics paper in 1949[2] and obtaining his degree a year late. He briefly joined the Royal Air Force in 1948, being offered a permanent commission but turning this down in favour of a swift return to civilian life. After a couple of false starts Chapman joined the British Aluminium company, using his civil engineering skills to attempt to sell aluminium as a viable structural material for buildings.

In 1952 he founded the sports car company Lotus Cars. Chapman initially ran Lotus in his spare time, assisted by a group of enthusiasts. His knowledge of the latest aeronautical engineering techniques would prove vital towards achieving the major automotive technical advances he is remembered for. Under his direction, Team Lotus won seven Formula One Constructors' titles[3], six Drivers' Championships, and the Indianapolis 500 in the United States, between 1962 and 1978. The production side of Lotus Cars has built tens of thousands of relatively affordable, cutting edge sports cars. Lotus is one of but a handful of British performance car builders still in business after the industrial decline of the 1970s.

Chapman suffered a fatal heart attack in 1982, aged 54.

Contents

Career

In 1948 Chapman started with the Mk1, a modified Austin 7, which he entered privately into local racing events. He named the car "Lotus"; he never confirmed the reason but one (of several) theories is that it was after his then girlfriend (later wife) Hazel, who he nicknamed "Lotus blossom". With prize money won he developed the Lotus Mk2. With continuing success on through the Lotus 6, he began to sell kits of these cars. Over 100 of the Lotus 6 kits were sold through 1956. It was with the Lotus 7 in 1957 that things really took off, and indeed Caterham Cars still manufacture a version of that car today – the Caterham 7; there have been over 90 different Lotus 7 clones, replicas, and derivatives offered to the public by a variety of makers.

In the 1950s, Chapman progressed through the motor racing formulae, designing and building a series of racing cars, sometimes to the point of maintaining limited production as they were so successful and highly sought after, until he arrived in Formula One. Along with John Cooper, he revolutionised the premier motor sport. Their small, lightweight mid-engined vehicles gave away much in terms of power, but superior handling meant their competing cars often beat the all-conquering front engined Ferraris and Maseratis. Eventually, with legendary driver Jim Clark at the wheel of his race cars, Team Lotus appeared as though they could win whenever they pleased. With Clark driving the legendary Lotus 25, Team Lotus won its first F1 World Championship in 1963. It was Clark, driving a Lotus 38 at the Indianapolis 500 in 1965, who drove the first ever mid-engined car to victory at the fabled "Brickyard." Certainly, Jim Clark would have won many more races were it not for his death in 1968 while racing a Formula 2 car at Hockenheimring. The accident was most likely caused by a rear tyre failure, though the exact cause has never been known. Clark and Chapman had become particularly close and Clark's death devastated Chapman, who publicly stated that he had lost his best friend.

Among a number of legendary automotive figures who have been Lotus employees over the years were Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth, founders of Cosworth. Graham Hill worked at Lotus as a mechanic as a means of earning drives.

Chapman, whose father was a successful publican, was also a businessman who introduced major advertising sponsorship into auto racing; beginning the process which changed Formula One from rich gentlemen's pastime, to multi-million pound high technology enterprise. It was Chapman who in 1966 persuaded the Ford Motor Company to sponsor Cosworth's development of what would become the legendary DFV race engine.

Innovations & Legacy

Many of Chapman's ideas can still be seen in Formula One and other top-level motor sport (such as IndyCars) today.

He pioneered the use of struts as a rear suspension device. Even today, struts used in the rear of a vehicle are known as Chapman struts, while virtually identical suspension struts for the front are known as MacPherson struts.

His next major innovation was to adopt the use of monocoque (one-shell) unibodies (i.e. it replaced both the body and frame, which until then had been separate components) for car chassis. This was the first major advance in which he introduced aeroplane technology to cars. The resultant body was both lighter, stronger (i.e. stiffer), and also provided better driver protection in the event of a crash. The first vehicle to feature this was the Lancia Lambda in 1922; Lotus was an early adopter of this technology with the Lotus Elite, in 1958. The modified monocoque body of the car was made out of fibreglass, making it also one of the first production cars made out of composites.

In 1962 he extended this innovation to racing cars, with the revolutionary Lotus 25 mid-engined Formula One car. This fairly quickly replaced what had been for many decades the standard design formula in racing-cars, the front engined, later mid-engined, tube-frame chassis. Although the material has changed from sheet aluminium to carbon fibre, this remains today the standard technique for building top-level racing cars. It was a Chapman monocoque chassis that first introduced the engine and transmission as stressed members of the overall chassis, again, an innovation that continues in universal application in today's Formula cars.

Inspired by Jim Hall, Chapman introduced aerodynamics into the first-rank of Formula One car design. He popularized the concept of positive aerodynamic downforce, through the addition of front and rear wings. Early efforts were mounted 3 feet (0.91 m) or so above the car, in order to operate in 'clean air' (i.e. air that would not otherwise be disturbed by the passage of the car). However the thin supporting struts failed regularly, obliging the FIA to require the wings to be attached directly to the bodywork. He also originated the movement of radiators away from the front of the car, to decrease frontal area and, thus, drag at speed. These concepts also remain features of high performance racing cars today.

Chapman was also an innovator in the business end of racing. He was among the first entrants in Formula One to turn their cars into rolling billboards for non-automotive products, initially with the cigarette brands Gold Leaf and, most famously, John Player.

Chapman, working with Tony Rudd and Peter Wright, pioneered the first Formula One use of "ground effect", where a partial vacuum was created under the car by use of venturis, generating suction (downforce) which held it securely to the road whilst cornering. Modern Formula One cars generate enough downforce (now generated by wings as well as ground effect created by the shape of the under-tray and diffuser, along with the radiator ducting) that they could theoretically be driven on a ceiling once they reach about 100 mph (160 km/h). Initially this technique utilized sliding "skirts" which made contact with the ground to keep the area of low pressure isolated. Chapman's next development was a car that generated all of its downforce through ground effects, eliminating wings and the drag that they introduce at high speed. The culmination of this effort, the Lotus 79, dominated the 1978 championship. However, skirts were eventually banned, because the skirt could be damaged, for example, from driving over a kerb, and downforce would be lost and the car could then become unstable. The FIA made moves to eliminate ground effects in Formula One, by requiring flat bottom cars from 1983 (eliminating venturis) and raising the minimum ride height of the cars from 1981. Of course, the car designers have managed to get back much of that downforce through other means, aided by extensive wind tunnel testing.

One of his last major technical innovations was a dual-chassis Formula One car, the Lotus 88 in 1981. For ground effects of that era to function most efficiently, the aerodynamic surfaces needed to be precisely located and this led to the chassis being very stiffly sprung. However, this was very punishing to the driver, resulting in driver fatigue. To get around this, Chapman introduced a car with two chassis. One chassis (where the driver would sit) was softly sprung. The other chassis (where the skirts and such were located) was stiffly sprung. Unfortunately, although the car passed scrutineering at a couple of races, it was protested by other teams and was never allowed to run. Under these circumstances, the car was never developed, so it will never be known if the idea would have worked.

The whole affair dampened his interest in Formula One, but eventually Chapman moved on. The day that Chapman died, Team Lotus was testing the first Formula One car with active suspension, which eventually made its debut with the Lotus 99T in 1987.

Personal life

Chapman was married to Hazel. He has one son Clive Chapman who currently runs the Classic Team Lotus Company and maintains the old Team Lotus cars.

Death

Chapman died of a heart attack in December 1982.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 WDC Points
1956 Vandervell Products Ltd. Vanwall Vanwall Straight-4 ARG
 MON
 500
 BEL
 FRA
DNS		 GBR
 GER
 ITA
 NC 0

Awards

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Gérard ('Jabby') Crombac, Colin Chapman: The Man and His Cars (Patrick Stephens, Wellingborough, 1986) ISBN 1-85960-844-2 Page 15
  2. ↑ Mike Lawrence, Colin Chapman Wayward Genius (Breedon Books Publishing, 2003) ISBN 1-85983-278-4
  3. ↑ "Lotus breaks its F1 duck"

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