Colin Chapman — The Biography book review: a familiar yet fresh view

This one caused much discussion at the RAC motoring book awards judging. It’s built around a previously issued biography, re-presented in a much more glamorous package of two volumes in a slip case. Was this a mere reissue or did it involve enough new material to be seen as a new book?

I vote the latter. First, the original author was authoritative Swiss racing journalist Jabby Crombac, Colin Chapman’s close friend and confidant, and it’s reckoned by many to be the best story of his life. Second, written in 1986, it’s out of print. You can buy a secondhand copy, but Crombac’s name has fallen from currency; more recent Lotus fans may not know of his intimate connection. Third, this also incorporates some of the autobiography of Fred Bushell, for years the finance director at Lotus. Add in other contemporary material knitted together by Lotus historian William Taylor, plus over 1400 images, and it makes a fresh and tempting package.

Because this was originally an authorised biography and the new version is produced with Chapman’s son Clive, it features not just the cars and the racing but factory, team and family album shots – Colin and Hazel Chapman picnic beside the adaptable MkIII race and trials machine in Scotland, or relax on a French beach with Salvadori, Moss, and Flockhart.

Crombac’s easy style – he not only spoke fluent English but could swear like a native – makes for good reading, and the fact that they were friends from 1953 when Crombac bought the works MkVI means this is the view of someone who was at Chapman’s side for most of his career. Published not long after Chapman’s death, before so many doubts were raised about his business deals, it’s fairly uncritical but it does convey the man’s relentless energy (2am phone calls), his persuasive charm and his impatience to get onto the next thing. That included leaving inadequate time for a car journeys; reluctant passenger Crombac says “Each trip seemed like hell on wheels”. Also the flashes of temper: when Jabby accidentally reveals one of those “unfair advantages” he says “Colin was furious with me”. Yet the author doesn’t intrude; it’s Colin’s story, amplified by interviews Crombac conducted at the time and Enzo Ferrari’s foreword calling Chapman “a subtle visionary”.

To Crombac’s words Bushell’s add more texture. Having joined Lotus in the very early days he relates the progression from backstreet workshop to advanced manufacturing concern with increasing problems – and of course the race team. Including the meeting around “the battered desk and beer crate trestle table” when Chapman decided to reverse ‘Lotus Team’ into the much more publicity-grabbing ‘Team Lotus’.

If these items are the frame, the running gear is the story of grand prix success, and tragedy, innovative road cars and business travails, flavoured by Bushell’s financial input, period magazine articles and interviews and illustrated by the excellent selection of images – not just photographs. Magazine covers, correspondence, notebooks and drawings add fascination, particularly to the early years, and help it appeal to the eye as well as the mind.

While the text covers technological leaps in depth – monococques, the radical 49, ground effect, the dubious twin-chassis 88 – there’s surprisingly little about the effect of Jim Clark’s death on Chapman, but Crombac dates his declining racing interest from here. Other things later distracted him: a boat company he purchased, inventing a new moulding process, and a microlight aircraft. “I intend to revolutionise private transport” he told Jabby. Always the next big thing.

Beautifully presented (barring an unfortunate typo in which Jabby is made to say “I was mated with a five-speed transaxle”) this deserves to be seen as a new and worthwhile offering.

Colin Chapman – The Biography
Jabby Crombac, et al
Coterie Press, £125
ISBN 9781902351742