Colin Chapman

Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman was an English design engineer, inventor and automotive builder who founded Lotus Cars in 1952, building it from a spare time hobby workshop into one of the most influential marques in motorsport and sports car engineering. Trained in aeronautical principles, he brought a lightweight first philosophy to automotive design, summed up in his own words that adding power makes a car faster on the straights while adding lightness makes it faster everywhere. Under his leadership Team Lotus won seven Formula One Constructors Championships and six Drivers Championships, and Lotus cars also won the Indianapolis 500 in the United States between 1962 and 1978. He pioneered structural and aerodynamic developments that reshaped how single seat racing cars were built, while the production side of Lotus put tens of thousands of light, nimble sports cars into private hands. Chapman was born on 19 May 1928 and died of a heart attack in 1982 at the age of 54, having reshaped both racing engineering and the idea of what a production sports car should weigh.