18 replies to this topic

[Chico Landi]

I'm reading a biography about Jochen Rindt ("Jochen Rindt - Der James Dean der Formel 1", by Heinz Prüller) and they printed an interesting letter that Jochen sent to Chapman, after his accident in the 1969 Spanish GP. According to this book, the letter was never answered.
-------------------------------------------
9.5.1969
Dear Colin,

I just got back to Geneva and I am going to have a second opinion on the state of my head tomorrow. Personally I feel very weak and ill, I still have to lay down most of the day. After seeing the new doktor and hearing his opinion we can make a final decision on Monaco and Indy.
I got hold of this incredibly picture which pretty much explains the accident, I didn't know it will fly that high. Robin Herd apparently saw the wing go, but could not see the accident, since it happened around the corner.
Now to the whole situation, Colin. I have been racing F1 for 5 years and I have made one mistake (I rammed into Chris Amon in Clermont Ferrand) and I had one accident in Zandvoort due to gearselektion failure otherwise I managed to saty out of trouble. This situation changed rapidly since I joined your team, Levin Eifelrace F2 wishbones and now Barcelona.
Honestly your cars are so quick that we would still be competitive with a few extra pounds used to make the weakest parts stronger, on top of that I think you ought spend some time checking what your different employes are doing, I sure the wishbones on the F2 car would have looked different. Please give my suggestions some thought, I can only drive a car in which I have some confidence, and I fell the point of no confidence is quite near.

Best regards,
Jochen
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Also Jim Clark and Ronnie Peterson lost their lives in Lotus' cars. But Chapman was one of the most succesful constructors in history, often conceiving revolutionary autos.

Question 1: was he a genius or a killer? Do the deaths of his drivers were simply fatalities or it has something to do with a suposed lack of interesting in security of his cars?

Question 2: I read somewhere that Colin might be well and alive, living in brazilian Pantanal. Once Emerson said that he met Hazel Chapman in the Sao Paulo airport (1985, I think). He asked what she was doing there and she replyed "holidays". Emerson found that strange, because he remembered she had a huge fear of flying in aeroplanes, so why on earth would she go to Brazil, alone, and making no previous contact with someone she knew, like Emerson.
Do you believe that he faked his death???

[Megatron]

I know that Rindt wanted Chapman to run the 49 and not the 72 at Monza in 1970 and certainly didn't want it to run wingless.

Rindt thought that the 72 was a weird car.

And of course, he hated the 63...

But anyway, to your point, Colin Chapman pushed the envelope farther than anyone I know of. I remember after Andrettis big crash at Indy in 1969 driving the 64 (?), Mario stated that "the car was built so light and fragile, Colin wanted to make it just like his Grand Prix car". He also didn't think they would have made it past halfway had the car raced.

I think Clark's death was a tire failure but he certainly wasn't thrilled about racing in the race and Peterson's occured at one of the infamous start line accidents in Monza so I don't think we can blame fhim for that.

About him being alive, well I don't want to be a tabloid but I will say that Chapman died very mysteriously and it just happened to occur when he was facing some serious jail time from the "super car" thing that he and whats his name pulled on the government.

But I don't know, do people fake their own death? Surely overtime someone must have, thats something that no one but Chapman and perhaps a few family members can say for sure.

[Vitesse2]

Chico: I have Pruller's earlier book on Rindt, published in 1971. In that he makes no mention of this letter, although he does mention that Jochen wrote to all the principal British motoring magazines to try to get high wings banned. Only Motor Sport didn't print it and it was this letter that prompted Denis Jenkinson to bet his beard that Jochen would never win a race. Perhaps someone could post the text of that letter? It would be round about he same date as above ...

I do know that certain passages were removed from the English edition, for fear (I think) of libel, but IIRC, they only concerned his final accident. I don't wish to cast aspersions on Heinz Pruller, but he and Jochen were very good friends for many years and at times his earlier book is written in a way that shows Jochen in perhaps a more favourable light than he deserves. And don't get me wrong, I was a great fan of Jochen's, but I realise that he was to an extent a flawed genius. And finally, the title of the book you're reading does sound a bit, well, sensationalist ...

Megatron: people certainly do fake their own deaths! There was a famous case in Britain in (IIRC) 1968 when a senior politician called John Stonehouse disappeared. It subsequently emerged that he was facing serious fraud charges. He was found in Australia several years later ...

And then there was the Australian Prime Minister, whose name escapes me, who disappeared while swimming - I think the rumour was he'd boarded a Chinese submarine and ended his days in Beijing.

And no-one ever did find Lord Lucan, who disappeared after his children's nanny was found battered to death ....

ps (4 hours later!)
I've remembered that PM's name now - it was Harold Holt!!

[birdie]

whats his name

John DeLorean

[Chico Landi]

Vitesse,

You're right about Prüller, he really wrote the only driver in history that may be compared to Jochen was Senna!!! And his writing is as horrible as his comments in austrian TV...

But, back to the thread, I read that Mike Spence died in an Indianapolis Lotus just one week after Clark's death. Where and how was that? And who was Mike Spence?

[Buford]

Spence was driving one of the turbines. He was going well but Art Pollard in another one of them was having problems. Spence took Pollards car out for a second opinion and got high in turn one, hit the wall with the right side on the short chute and the car hugged the wall into turn two. It should not have been a fatal accident, but the right front wheel came back and hit Spence in the face.

Pollard was killed in the same place in 1973 in a much worse accident that involved massive flipping down in the infield grass and a big fire.

[Niky]

Chico, if you like mystery stories this one about Chapman-DeLorean and Peterson is no bad:) As you probably know, not only Chapman could be alive... also, Ronnie Peterson. I dont know why people dont see Gilles or Francois, for example, but they see "Chapmans" and "Petersons" all over the place... and all this story is related to the DeLorean crash and fraud.

If you enjoy this kind of stories, please visit http://www.planet-f1...ENG?lawrence=46

Unfortunately, the Ronnie's story I have found was write in swedish...but, to tell you just the part I enjoy, there is a man in the US Virgin Islands who said he is Ronnie and you can see his picture "today"

http://www.aftonblad.../19/ronnie.html

I dont have any idea if Chapman is living in Brazil or if Ronnie is in the Caribbean, but I can tell you one thing: this a very good story for a best seller!!!

[FLB]

Buford, it wasn't Pollard's 56, but Greg Weld's.

[ehagar]

Ummmm.... didn't Chapman die of a heart attack? How do you fake that?

[Roger Clark]

Elvis is working as a mechanic for McLaren

[leegle]

Chico asks who Mike Spence was and this has not been addressed. He had come up through the ranks in the Team Lotus driver positions and followed a string of others into the second F1 seat and raced as the Number 2 driver throughout 1965 and 1966. Then was demoted when Graham Hill became equal Number 1 with Clark in 1967 but obviously was still available when needed for the driving team.

[Roger Clark]

Mike Spence moved to BRM in 1967 and was still with them in 1968. He also drove for Chaparral in europe during 1967, winning the BOAC 500 with Phil Hill

[Keir]

Can we stop with the "Chapman is a killer" nonsense??

Rindt wanted to drive the fastest car in F1, and that was the Lotus 72. Case closed!!

Pruller, for his part, was a hack and always will be a hack. Rindt would have stuck that book where the sun doesn't shine had he lived to read it.

[Wolf]

And wasn't Rindt's accident due to fault in shaft manufacture rather than design? Maybe he didn't build the sturdiest cars on planet, but, as has Keir noted, nobody forced people to drive them...

[Buford]

Buford, it wasn't Pollard's 56, but Greg Weld's.


Thanks - now that you have refreshed my memory, I believe you are absolutely correct!

[Yelnats]

Birdie quoted ......"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."......

Careful Birdie, That's potent philosophy for a motor sports BBS........ It might attract even more loonies.....

[Megatron]

Murdered by the mafia? Died while making love? Doing drugs? Posioned?

Anyway, I don't want to speculate. That is one stituation that is too close to call. I mean Chapman WAS under a lot of stress with the banning of the Lotus 88 and the Deloran thing and all and could have certainly had a heart attack.

And then he did die at almost the right time for everyone involved.

About Ronnie, I have no doubt that Ronnie is dead. Why would he fake his own death. The guy in the photo looks like an older Peterson, but Ronnie's profile was not out of the ordinary and I suppose I could find 5 or 10 guys in my town that "sorta" look like him.

[Niky]

Megatron, I agree with you.... I think Ronnie is death... However, this man said he (Ronnie) was involved in many problems at the moment of the accident so "they" decided to use that opportunity to fake his dead. When he said "They" the reporter of an austrian magazine, quoted later for la Gazzetta dello Sport, assumed they were some kind of special police or investigation group.

The thing sorprise me more is that you should be an idiot, if you are not Ronnie and you say you are, because in 2001 it is something very, very simple to discover with a DNA test, for example. By the way, the nose is different, so he could talk about plastic surgery:lol: and... he speaks swedish, not very common in US Virgen Islands,

Maybe he and Colin used the same plastic surgeon:lol:

[Jaxs]

Megatron, you are so close to the real events, the group of friends assisted in 'correcting' the circumstances will validate the death of Mr Chapmen. It was considered better to have a no scandal and depart peacefully and with respect for family members.

Colin Chapman RIP

The man was a genius, a magnificent tool bending kit to start with and a lust for life to the full. The history orf Lotus has to be considered to fully understand the contribution to motor racing and Formula 1 in particular.

The De Lorean debacle is detailed in a book of the same name that was written shortly after the demise of the De Lorean margue.

Regards

Jaxs