14 replies to this topic

[Simon Bundi]

Well, I recently read in a formula one book that there are a lot of legends about Colin Chapman since he has died.
Mario Andretti for exampel said that he is still alive and living somewhere in south america(!)
Does anybody know more about this?

Seems very strange.........


Regards,

Simon

[Wolf]

Simon- BB search engine is down at the moment, but the topic has been discussed some time ago... Once the things are 'as usual' try looking it up.

[stevew]

ALL famous (and infamous) "dead" people are living somewhere in South America.

They're hanging out at Elvis Presley's place...

[Bernd]

Yeah apparently he designed a revolutionary mid-engined sports car called the Phoenix. Pity no one has ever taken a photo of one, let alone seen one.

[prettyface]

Of course he's alive! He went to Brazil and designed all those strange Brazillian Volkswagens of the early 1980's :

http://www.uol.com.b.../brasilia-1.htm
http://www.bongi.co.uk/vwsp.html

What's even more remarkable was that they're all from the 70's. He even travelled back in time! That scoundrel Colin Chapman.

[Prostfan]

He's sitting in Buenos Aires playing cards with Elvis Presley and Kurt Cobain.

Why would a person so dedicated to motorsports as Chapman was vanish and leave his decade-long work behind? I can't imagine anything like this.

[Buford]

The conspiracy theorists say he disappeared and faked his death to avoid going to jail in the DeLorean case. The British government spent a ton of money, DeLorean hired Lotus to do development work. People said it was a money laundering type operation in a major scam.

I am not saying I believe any of this. But that is the reason for the faked death theory.

[Mohican]

Yeah, right. Chunky is still alive somewhere in South America.

And so is Alan Stacey, Ricardo Rodriguez, Jim Clark, Mike Spence, Jochen Rindt, Ronnie Peterson and a number of others - I am sure that they are all having a good time discussing the minute details of Lotus design, quality of construction and reliability.

[Megatron]

Personally, I think Chappy is proabably dead. However, having said that, some people DO fake their own deaths when they are in some kind of trouble (ie, working on a super car that noboddy wants and possibly going to prision).

Now I don't believe that Elvis, JFK, or anyone else is still alive. And I really don't think that Chapman is alive either, but I would never totally rule it out. I remember Fittipaldi once said that he ran into Chap's wife in Brazil, and wondered what on earth she was doing there, as she hated traveling.

Don't label me a "believer", but anything is possible.

[Megatron]

And anyway, if Jochan Rindt were alive, we could safley assume that Chapman would not be. Afterall, Rindt always wanted the 49 at Monza, but Chapman wanted the 72.

[fines]

I have just phoned Chunky in Lima and he says the rumours are not true.

[Schummy]

Chapman is alive in South America and Prost is "dead" in France

[dmj]

Chapman faked his death, went to Brasil and underwent a few operations with some plastic surgeons. Then he returned to Europe, looking much younger, and trying to fulfill his ancient dream of being a competitive GP driver. He also took a new identity: Ayrton da Silva Senna (c'mon, we all know that no one in this world would name his son Ayrton for real!). He was soon back into control at his old F1 team but later dissapointed went to McLaren and Williams, finally sadly passing away in 1994.
Did anyone doubt it?

[Singing in the rain]

Originally posted by Schummy
Chapman is alive in South America and Prost is "dead" in France

Priceless!

[RJL]

Originally posted by Megatron
Personally, I think Chappy is proabably dead. However, having said that, some people DO fake their own deaths when they are in some kind of trouble (ie, working on a super car that noboddy wants and possibly going to prision).

Pardon me if I've misunderstood, but you're not seriously suggesting that the Delorean was a "super car" are you?