Ok it's difficult to dissociate Colin Chapman from Lotus but what do you think of the driver ?

It is often said that he was a good or even excellent sports car driver. He gained a sum of victories in England in the first part of the 50's with his Lotuses.

His F1 efforts are not really worth recording. Colin had his only race in an F1 car in the 1954 International Trophy at Silverstone. The car was an Emeryson fitted with an Aston Martin Engine. He was last on the grid of his heat, over a minute off the pace and 39 seconds slower than the HAR, the second last. Chapman finished his heat, as last classified runner in 12th place and finished 17th and unclassified in the final.

As a F1 driver, he could made better in 1956 when Vanwall made a surprise third entry of Colin for the ACF GP at Rheims. Alas Chapman had to withdraw after a practice incident. During the second session he had found a rear brake lock, the pad welding itself to the disc, and he had hit the rear of Hawthorn's sister car. It was a great shame since he had joined the select band of six drivers over 200 km/h (he had the 5th best lap in practice and a place in the second line of the grid).

In 1956, some F2 races were organised in England following the new 1500 cc F2 regulations and Colin Chapman and his Lotus 11 Climax were the only opponents of the new Cooper T43 Climax driven by Roy Salvadori, Jack Brabham or Tony Brooks.

After he stopped competition to concentrate on the Team Lotus so he never drove his own F1 Lotus (in a race).

Can you add more about his driving career, especially in sportscar as all was said about his short F1 career.

Jim Clark described him as a First Class driver that just happened to enjoy making cars more than racing them.

Then he could've done as Black Jack did... Any idea why he didn't?

Colin had far to many responsibilities running Team Lotus to drive himself even if he had cared too which he didn't. Once he had secured Jimmy to drive he buckled down to provide Clark with the ultimate race cars he could.

Brabham was talented enginereering wise but he was no designer. Ron Tauranac designed the Brabhams in those days hence the T in the BT designation. Jack was excellent at extracting the most from a chassis setup wise etc.

Yes. I think Bernd draws the difference very accurately. (By the way - why is Ron Tauranac never mentioned or given credit anymore when people remember the exploits of Brabham race cars? - certainly at the time he was very visible and recognized as a formidable designer/engineer.)

A more appropriate comparison can be drawn between Chapman and Rudolph Uhlenhaut. Uhlenhaut frequently tested the cars and was said to be just about as fast as any of the works Mercedes drivers.

As for Chapman, there is no question that he was a first rate driver. You need only look at the results of British races in the 50's to see that he was a top driver.

Mike I think it is because Ron is so shy & retiring and never ever sort the limelight quite the opposite of Chapman.

Have you read his Biography 'Brabham, Ralt + Honda' What a life he lead.

BTW, Chapman didn't record that practice lap at Reims, it was Mike Hawthorn driving his car. Somehow the officials failed to notice that!

I'd say they turned a blind eye Michael. I find it very hard to believe they could pull that off at a GP, a kart race maybe but not a GP. But! stranger things have happened.

I've read that Chapman was noted for being hard on his airplane's engine. Perhaps this lack of empathy did apply to cars he was drove but the mechanic noted that Chapman delighted in starting the engine and rolling off without the manufacturer's recommand warmup. Resulting in plenty of extra work for the mechanic, of course!

For Mike Argetsinger,

I agree with your Uhlenhaut analogy. I also think that Chapman could be compared with Adrian Reynard. Adrian raced to sell his cars. Colin Chapman did the same. You'll notice that no one has seen Adrian in either his F-1 designs or Indy (sorry) Champ Cars..

Gil Bouffard

Both Motor Sport and Paul Sheldon say it was Harry Schell

Interesting reading here, I saw Colin race in a couple of Fordsport days, he was pretty good considering he had been running Team Lotus for, and away from driving, for maybe 8/9 years. Frank Williams was no slouch either

Maybe and exception, Christopher Hilton's book on the history of Honda F1 does a great job documenting his contributions to the Brabham F2 and other programs.

I have photos of him in a Lotus Cortina T car at various circuits

In sports cars in the '50s he was as good and better than most !

Judge for yourself this was Chapman in an Escort Mexico in the 'Team Managers' race at Brands in Oct 1971

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SKjLwkzL5rM

Apparently Chapman was so keen to do well he hired a Mexico locally and spent most of the preceding week practicing at the Hethel track.

Absolutely true, Chapman spent hour after hour going round and round that Hethel track. He tried to borrow the Mexico Chief Stylist Oliver Winterbottom had just wangled as a company car, but Ollie wouldn't let him, his desk in the main office was right next to mine, and I overheard some of the conversations, I thought Ollie was pretty brave to take a stand like that, I think he left the car at home and got a lift to work for a few days to keep it out of the way. Chapman was notoriously hard on road cars, and he had a lot of accidents on local roads. I was quite friendly with the head guy in security back then, and he told me that they'd had to dash off several times with Land Rover and trailer to try to retrieve a damaged Elan +2 before the Norfolk Constabulary arrived on the scene. I was only in a car with him a couple of times, and what impressed me most apart from the speed, which I thought rather reckless on public roads, but the speed of his gear changes. I bet there wasn't much synchromesh left after he'd been driving a car for a while.

Love the commentary in the Manager's Race:

"Jack must be using his mirror more than looking out of the windscreen, mustn't he Graham?"
"Highly unlikely, I've never known him to use his mirror at all".

Any chance of posting them Ted, I would love to see them! I saw Colin drive in the Fordsport races, he was pretty effective!

I'm sure Ted would be happy to sell you prints, Sterling

Are you his sales agent David? Sort of, on commission maybe

I wish ;)
I was really just making the point that it's one thing to ask amateur enthusiasts to post pictures, but another to expect someone whose business is selling old racing photographs to do the same thing. I wasn't sure that you realised who he was

I have no idea who Ted is David, never had the pleasure yet, though I am sure I will in the future, given that I attend some mutually interesting events. Even if Ted does commercially supply his product, I am sure photos could be posted with copyright symbols, as does Norman Hayes, with his excellent pictures. Given the chance to view, I might even buy, but there is no Chapman photo on his site, unless (quite likely) I have not looked properly.