This comes from dimly remembered overheard conversations and comments from Lotus colleagues many years ago, but Colin Chapman seemed not to like large engines, preferring high-revving smaller ones, I think he'd have felt that a 7 litre Chevy was somehow "cheating", and not racing in the truest sense as he knew it, a brute force solution. Incidentally, although some might have referred to him as "Chunky" in the wider world, no-one at Lotus used that term, and certainly never in his hearing. He didn't like the name, and the only person who used it often, probably not to his face, was "uncle" Tony Rudd. who was probably fairly safe in his job. Almost without exception our employer was "The Old Man", or sometimes "ACBC", if we were speaking to him it was always "Mr Chapman". Some of the idiotic and sadly uninformed mud-slinging in this thread has obscured the fact that Chapman was hugely respected within Lotus, and to only a slightly lesser extent in the wider racing business, even by people who didn't like him very much.
Dear Kayemod,
we dont see things the same manner and also we dont hear things the same way.
I told you I saw Peterson's Lotus sit / squat on the rear axes almost touching the ground, and you tells me it was a broken brake. But you not specify further.
But it's strange...... a rear brake failure, no more forces on the rear disks, and the car sits on the back.............
About the way mechanics address to him, I heard them saying Colin, but obviously you know more about that.
I am wondering about this dislike of Mr Chapman about big engines. A small hig-revving engine is also something delicate that need a lot of " maintenance"
A 7 liters working at slow revving mean a lot of power and reliability. For example Formula Renault 3.5 an engine last for a season.
But in the history of motorsport, the main choice among the federations is small engine - high revving. Almost everytime.
Another common trait between Mr Chapman and the history of motor racing.
Dear Nemo 1965,
the nickname " Chunky " was for his waistline that goes up and down.
MonzaDriver
