Throughout his career, he produced ideas which redefined the sport. Best wishes to the family. I met Clive (Sarah's brother I presume) when making the Best of British video - and he was a thoroughly nice bloke and couldn't have been more helpful. Damn shame. They are in our thoughts. Colin notices Peter Darley holding Jim’s cardigan and says “I’ll have that!” With Leo all smiles in the background, Clive, Sarah and Jane Chapman join their father in waving to the huge crowd Appropriately, a lovely convertible Lotus Elan drives a path through the crowd Many of his early cars were put together pretty much free, a regiment of engineering enthusiasts queuing up to work through the night in return for little more than the opportunity to run-in a car around the North Circular.Then there was the ability to improvise. Most of these involved inspired reductions to a car's weight, or improvements to its road-holding and one suspension device still in use retains the name of a "Chapman strut".Yet a new biography, by the motor racing historian Mike Lawrence, presents a rather different portrait of this clean-cut genius. In place of Chapman, the inspirational engineer, we have Chapman as a liar, cheat and drug abuser who was spared a prison sentence only by the fatal heart attack he suffered, in December 1982, aged 56.In his day, Chapman earned comparisons with Enzo Ferrari as the charismatic force behind a glamorous motor racing marque.

V8 Esprit gone. I wonder how Colin would have reacted had he still been alive.

He was probably the last team boss ever to work on his own cars in a grand prix pitlane.The legend which grew up around him is that of a quintessential British genius, relying on luck, improvisation and innovation to conquer more sophisticated opposition.Chapman began with nothing, so built his early cars with volunteer labour, which he somehow attracted to his rudimentary workshop in the yard of the Railway Hotel in Hornsey, north London. Was it Sarah who had the big smash in an X1/9 bought for her by ACBC? Colin Chapman is mostly remembered as the man who brought unprecedented flair to British motor racing through Lotus, the company he founded in a workshop attached to his father's pub. You can post now and register later. I hope they find a bit of comfort knowing that she is with her Dad.Very sad news. Sarah, daughter to Colin and Hazel, passed away after a fight against Cancer, I believe.

Er war der Gründer der Rennsportmarke Lotus. Initially I hadn't any idea who she was but of course when she mentioned 'Dad' I twigged. The cynics point out that Chapman was behind the wheel, not on the bonnet, but the episode epitomised the daredevil spirit of his early years.Finally, and most contentiously, there was Chapman's ability to innovate. "He had the most amazing, restless mind and he turned it to all sorts of problems. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. "He presents evidence that Chapman habitually plagiarised ideas from Lotus' competitors, or took the glory for the work of Lotus staff.

2014 Evora SR1987 Turbo Esprit HC (G Car), 1995 S4S, 1991 Hethel Excel Celebration, 2008 Alfa Romeo Spider'G' Turbo Esprit HC, Lancia Delta 3, Fiat X1/9 1300 Serie Speciale Please convey our deepest sympathy to the family. She came up to me and Julie at the Lotus Club International dinner/dance thing late last year, seemed full of life and happy to talk about all sorts from flying with her dad to art school and life in the fast lane with the F1 years. Hopefully she'll be at rest and reunited with her Dad. Chapman, he suggests, had the business ethics of a 1950s spiv, used dangerous drugs to maintain a crushing schedule and ruthlessly stole other men's ideas. Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk - that will teach us to keep mouth shut! My father is attending her funeral on behalf of all my family. What the government did not know, but what Chapman certainly did, was that the project was a scam. He's way up there in the company of Brunel. My father is attending her funeral on behalf of all my family.Distributor for 'Every Male' grooming products.

Women marry men with the hope they will change. My sympathy and condolences to the Chapman family. "Because you can be sure they would have been filed in such a way they would prove of much greater benefit to Colin than the Inland Revenue." Dezember 1982 in Norfolk) war ein englischer Rennwagen-Konstrukteur. I imagine him dedicating himself to learning all he could about the disease so he cold find a cure. I was also pretty stunned at the extent to which he used barbiturates and amphetamines to keep himself going. For example, for a long period Colin had a painful condition with his ears and he's known to have filed patents, which I hope to retrieve, for devices which controlled the acceleration and deceleration of things like lifts and railway locomotives, where he always had discomfort. one sincere thought, hats down, sorry to hear that.