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NEWS
Lotus founder honoured
Colin Chapman posthumously inducted into UK Motor Sport Hall of FameThe man who established Lotus and invented the Chapman Strut, the late Colin Chapman CBE, has been recognised for his contribution to motor sport at a ceremony held at Britain's Royal Opera House. On hand for his father's induction into the Motor Sport Magazine Hall of Fame was Clive Chapman.
It's at least the third time Chapman senior has been honoured by a motor sport hall of fame – the first two occasions being the International Motor Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Motor Sports Hall of Fame of America in 1997.
Chapman built his first racing car in 1948, working out of a garage belonging to the father of his girlfriend. Subsequently he formed Lotus, the company that went on to win seven F1 constructor's championships and six driver's championship titles. Drivers in Lotus cars have competed in over 500 Grand Prix races, for 80 wins – the latest going to Kimi Raikikonen at Abu Dhabi last year.
If Chapman's Lotus operation were something like the UK's answer to Ferrari – building road cars to make money, with a 'sideline' in motor sport – his approach to engineering and building race cars shared more in common with America's Jim Hall, co-founder with Hap Sharp of Chapparal Cars. Both men (Chapman and Hall) were acknowledged as innovators in the field of motor sport, but whereas the American focused almost exclusively on aerodynamics, Chapman's aptitude for automotive engineering took him in numerous directions... including aerodynamics.
He was a pioneer in race car construction, employing a monocoque chassis in the Lotus Type 25 as long ago as 1962, integrating the engine as a structural member in the Lotus Type 43 in 1966 and combining a carbonfibre monocoque and twin chassis structure in the Lotus Type 88 in 1981.
Chapman elevated ergonomics to a science in motor sport, reclining the driving position in the Lotus Type 21 in 1961 and moulding the car to suit the driver in the following year's Type 25. Adopting aircraft style bag tanks to hold the fuel for the Type 25 was regarded as a major safety advance for the driver. And as an aerodynamicist he introduced inboard damper units with the Type 21, a multi-element rear wing in the Type 72 of 1970, ground effects in the Type 78 of 1977 and a rear diffuser in the Type 80 of 1979.
Chapman takes his place in the UK hall of fame alongside Niki Lauda, Damon Hill OBE and Graham Hill OBE.
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