Favourite Chapman story

[The Pits]

Just to get the ball rolling:

I've always loved the tale about Lotus engineers having to reinforce the underside of his S-Class Merc.

There was evidence underneath that he was in the habit of 'getting air' in it on a regular basis!

Methinks he had lead feet.

Good man!

[f1rob]

Here,s a few

The same merc having the bonnet repaired as the old man used it to "nudge" open the automatic garage door at kett hall as it didnt open quick enough for him

The security guards at Lotus cars use to open the exit gate as soon as the old mans plane landed they knew they wouldnt be quick enough for him

The above mentioned garage had a tiled floor that had to be immaculate and the chauffer and the pilot were based in the garage.The chauffer got a bking off the old man cos there were leaves on the floor,he blamed some of the guys from the race team who had been going out the front of kett hall playing with remote control cars (We had a special deal with Tamiya at the time )Old man came to the hall one lunch time,found four guys playing with models infront of his garage-sacked on the spot

Three mechanics were left to build a car while the others were at a test,old man comes back and car wasnt completed and the three mechanics toolboxes were waiting for them in the carpart when they came in the next day

Not everything could be perfect for the old man people use to copy his saying " I like that,I like that,WHAT the bloody hells that !)

You can walk round Kett hall and still see signs of the old man some of the walls there are 2,3 ft thick but none of them have window sill,s the old man HATED clutter/mess (sure Ron Dennis modeled himself on him a bit) so all the window sill is cut at 45deg so nothing can be put there

Not sure if the old man ever knew how many people worked at kett hall as if he ever went round there was always a "wave " of people who would come round infront of him and try to pop back in behind him and avoid seeing him as you never knew what mood he would be in and how things would go !

[WayneB]

One of my favourite Colin Chapman stories is that in 1971 he was invited to compete in an Ford Escort Mexico Challenge race at Brands Hatch for F1 Team Owners, so being fiercely compettitive decided to practise on the test track at Hethel in Oliver Winterbottoms company Mexico , to familiarise himself with the car and to figure out how to get the best out of it.

Winterbottom (who was then Head of Lotus Styling) got wind of the govenors plan, and because he didnt like the idea of Chapman thrashing the living heck out of his car decided to hide it for a few days, and hitched rides to work.

However a suitable replacement was "lent" to Chapman, via the local Ford dealer and you can see the results on this video:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&am...

[The Pits]

Great stuff, thanks for the contributions. Loved the video too, should have been Lotus Cortinas, more reliable I would hope!

[anonymous-user]

It's not the best story by a long chalk, and not really an anecdote at all, but my current fave bit of Chapmania is the very Chapmanesque notion of calling the late Elan Plus 2 the130 (either 130/4 or 130/5, depending on gearbox), because it had, ahem, 126 BHP. I have just acquired one such machine, and am amused by the cheesy spivvery of the branding. Mr Chapman, economic with the actualité as always!

[insurance_jon]

mines this http://www.rotuscars.com/about/

[Kaiser_Wull]

WayneB said:

One of my favourite Colin Chapman stories is that in 1971 he was invited to compete in an Ford Escort Mexico Challenge race at Brands Hatch for F1 Team Owners, so being fiercely compettitive decided to practise on the test track at Hethel in Oliver Winterbottoms company Mexico , to familiarise himself with the car and to figure out how to get the best out of it.

Winterbottom (who was then Head of Lotus Styling) got wind of the govenors plan, and because he didnt like the idea of Chapman thrashing the living heck out of his car decided to hide it for a few days, and hitched rides to work.

However a suitable replacement was "lent" to Chapman, via the local Ford dealer and you can see the results on this video:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&am...

Terrific stuff: great cars, great drivers and Graham Hill's witty commentary. Somehow you just couldn't see the team managers doing that today.

[anonymous-user]

Here for the delectation of jalopy and F1 fans, is the World's Greatest Living Yorkshireman (self-proclaimed), Mr Justice Peter Smith, on the history of Lotus and much else besides, complete with gratuitous reference to DIana Rigg, and lots of Chapmania:-

http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/c...

[kazino]

Fabolous bit of driving, balls of steel to make those maneuvers

Kaiser_Wull said:

Terrific stuff: great cars, great drivers and Graham Hill's witty commentary. Somehow you just couldn't see the team managers doing that today.

[VinceFox]

hey, remember that night she went out late and became the second of the five canonical victims of jack the ripper?

seems like such a long time ago now.

[anonymous-user]

Fabbly fillum! Cheaty Chapman may have had his car secretly hotted up by a Lotus tech before the race, but he was certainly a brave and forceful driver.