English design engineer (1928?1982)
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman
CBE
(19 May 1928 ? 16 December 1982) was an English design engineer, inventor, and builder in the automotive industry, and founder of the
sports car
company
Lotus Cars
.
[1]
Chapman founded Lotus in 1952 and 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 for which he is remembered. Chapman's design philosophy focused on cars with light weight and fine
handling
instead of bulking up on
horsepower
and
spring rates
, which he famously summarised as "Adding power makes you faster on the straights. Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
[2]
Team Lotus
won seven Formula One
Constructors' titles
,
[3]
six
Drivers' Championships
, and the
Indianapolis 500
in the United States, between 1962 and 1978 under his direction. 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 English performance car builders still in business after the
industrial decline
of the 1970s.
Chapman suffered a fatal heart attack in 1982, aged 54.
Early life
[
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]
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman was born on 19 May 1928, and brought up at 44 Beech Drive, on the border of
Muswell Hill
in
London
N2. His father ran The Railway Hotel on
Tottenham Lane
next to
Hornsey Railway Station
. Chapman attended the
Stationers' Company's School
in Mayfield Road.
[4]
Education
[
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]
Chapman studied
structural engineering
at
University College London
, joining the
University of London Air Squadron
and learning to fly. He left UCL without a degree in 1948, resitting his final Mathematics paper in 1949
[5]
and obtaining his degree a year late.
Chapman 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.
Career
[
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]
In 1948, Chapman designed 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, whom he nicknamed "
Lotus blossom
". With the prize money, he developed the
Lotus Mk2
. Around this time, Chapman began to show his ability to think of ways to become more competitive while remaining within the rules. One early car had a 6 port head with 4 exhaust and two inlet ports. Chapman realised that better flow characteristics (and therefore more power) could be achieved with an 8 port head, but lacking the resources to have one made, he reversed the port functions and de-siamesed the old inlet ports. With appropriate
manifolds
and a new
camshaft
, his engine outclassed the opposition until the rules were changed to outlaw the specific changes he had made. With continuing success on through the
Lotus 6
, he began to sell
kits
of these cars. Over 100 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
. Besides his engineering work, he also piloted a
Vanwall
F1-car in 1956 but crashed into his teammate
Mike Hawthorn
during practice for the
French Grand Prix
at
Reims
, ending his career as a race driver and focusing him on the technical side. 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 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
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 "Brickyard". Clark and Chapman became particularly close and Clark's death in 1968 devastated Chapman, who publicly stated that he had lost his best friend.
[6]
Among a number of automotive figures who have been Lotus employees over the years were
Cosworth
founders
Mike Costin
and
Keith Duckworth
, and
Graham Hill
who worked at Lotus as a mechanic as a means of earning drives. In 1966, it was Chapman who persuaded the
Ford Motor Company
to sponsor Cosworth's development of what would become the
DFV race engine
.
Innovations and legacy
[
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]
Many of Chapman's ideas can still be seen in Formula One and other top-level motor sport, such as
IndyCars
, into the 21st century. He pioneered the use of
struts
as a rear
suspension
device. 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
that were invented ten years earlier in 1949.
Chapman's next major innovation was popularising
monocoque
chassis
construction within automobile racing, with the revolutionary 1962
Lotus 25
Formula One car. The technique resulted in a body that was both lighter and stronger, and also provided better driver protection in the event of a crash. Although a previously little-used concept in the world of motorsport, the first vehicle to feature such a chassis was the road-going 1922
Lancia Lambda
. Lotus had been an early adopter of this technology with the 1958
Lotus Elite
. The modified monocoque body of the car was made of
fibreglass
, making it also one of the first production cars made of
composite materials
.
When American Formula One driver
Dan Gurney
first saw the Lotus 25 at the Dutch Grand Prix at
Zandvoort
, he was so struck by the advanced design that he invited Chapman to the 1962 Indianapolis 500, where Gurney made his Indy debut at the wheel of a space-frame rear engined car designed by
John Crosthwaite
(who had previously worked for Chapman) and built by American hot-rodder Mickey Thompson.
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
Following the race, Chapman prepared a proposal to Ford Motor Company for an
aluminium alloy
monocoque Indianapolis car using a 4.2-litre aluminium V-8 Ford passenger car engine. Ford accepted the proposal. The Lotus 29 debuted at Indianapolis in 1963, with Jim Clark finishing second. This design concept fairly quickly replaced what had been for many decades the standard design formula in racing-cars, the 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.
Inspired by
Jim Hall
, Chapman was among those who helped introduce
aerodynamics
into Formula One car design. Lotus used the concept of positive aerodynamic downforce, through the addition of wings, at a
Tasman Formula
race in early 1968, although
Ferrari
and
Brabham
were the first to use them in a Formula One race at the
1968 Belgian Grand Prix
. Early versions, in 1968 and 1969, were mounted 3 feet (0.91 m) or so above the car, to operate in 'clean air' (air that would not otherwise be disturbed by the passage of the car). The underdesigned wings and struts failed regularly, however, compelling the
FIA
to require the wing mounting hardware to be attached directly to the sprung chassis. Chapman also originated the movement of radiators away from the front of the car to the sides, to decrease frontal area (lowering aerodynamic drag) and centralising weight distribution. These concepts remain features of virtually all high performance racing cars today.
Chapman, working with Tony Rudd and Peter Wright, pioneered the first Formula One use of "
ground effect
", where a low pressure was created under the car by use of the
Venturi effect
, generating suction (downforce) which held it securely to the road whilst cornering. Early designs utilized sliding "skirts" which made contact with the ground to keep the area of low pressure isolated.
Chapman next planned a car that generated all of its downforce through ground effect, eliminating the need for wings and the resulting drag that reduces a car's speed. The culmination of his efforts, the
Lotus 79
, dominated the
1978
championship. However, skirts were eventually banned because they were susceptible to damage, for example from driving over a kerb, whereafter downforce would be lost and the car could then become unstable. The FIA made moves to eliminate ground effect in Formula One by raising the minimum ride height of the cars from
1981
and requiring flat bottom cars from
1983
. Car designers have managed to claw 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 effect 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. Although the car passed scrutineering at a couple of races, other teams protested, and it was never allowed to race. The car was never developed further.
Chapman, whose father was a successful
publican
, was also a businessman and innovator in the business end of racing. He introduced major advertising
sponsorship
into auto racing; beginning the process which transformed Formula One from a pastime of rich gentlemen to a multi-million
pound
high technology enterprise. 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 Special
.
DeLorean scandal
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From 1978 until his death, Chapman was involved with the American tycoon
John DeLorean
, in his development of a
stainless steel
sports car to be built in a factory in
Northern Ireland
, which was majority-funded by the UK government. The original concept design was for a mid-engine sports car; however, difficulty in securing the original
Wankel engine
rights and design complications led to the rear-engine mount design.
[12]
[
failed verification
]
[13]
This project would eventually evolve into the
DMC DeLorean
.
On 19 October 1982, John DeLorean was charged with trafficking
cocaine
by the US Government, following a videotaped
sting operation
at a hotel in
Los Angeles
, in which he was recorded by undercover
FBI
agents agreeing to bankroll a 100 kilograms (220 lb) cocaine smuggling operation.
DeLorean Motor Cars
subsequently collapsed, during which administrators discovered that £10,000,000 of British taxpayers' money (approximately equivalent to £30 million in 2019)
[12]
[13]
had gone missing.
[14]
Lotus Group's 1981 accounts were overdue before Chapman's death, but, when released after his death, disclosed that Lotus had been paid for engineering work by DeLorean via a
Switzerland
-based
Panamanian
company run by a DeLorean distributor, despite Chapman's previous protestations that neither he nor the company had been paid via Panama. Chapman died before the full deceit unravelled, but, at the subsequent trial of Lotus Group accountant Fred Bushell, who had funnelled £5 million to himself in the fraud,
[15]
the trial judge opined that, had Chapman himself been in the dock, he would have received a sentence "of at least 10 years".
[14]
The car's engineering concept was later sold by the UK Government appointed
[15]
administrators to
Toyota
, who used it to develop the
AW11 MR2
.
[14]
The liquidators also recovered around £20 million from Swiss bank accounts controlled by Chapman and John DeLorean.
Death
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]
The night before he died, Chapman watched a performance by his long-time friend and Lotus customer
Chris Barber
, the noted
jazz
trombonist
, and his band. On 16 December 1982, Team Lotus tested the first Formula One car with
active suspension
, which eventually made its debut with the
Lotus 99T
in
1987
.
[16]
Chapman suffered a fatal
heart attack
on the same day at his home in
Norwich
, and died at the age of 54.
Personal life
[
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]
Chapman was married to Hazel Chapman (1927?2021).
[17]
He had two daughters and one son.
Complete Formula One World Championship results
[
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(
key
)
Awards
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]
References
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Further reading
[
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]
External links
[
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Personnel
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Founder
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Notable personnel
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Drivers
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Notable drivers
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World Champions
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Racing cars
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Related cars
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Concept cars
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Future cars
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Key figures
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Group Lotus
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