Colin Chapman-Inside the Innovator

[alaric]

Just ordered my copy.

My wife managed to source an interesting book for my last birthday: 'Colin Chapman Lotus Engineering, Theories, Designs and Applications', by Hugh Haskell. It goes into the technical explanations of the designs, and compares Chapman's solutions with the efforts of his competitors on the race circuit. I found the discussion of how he worked really interesting.

Crikey, I've just looked it up on Amazon, and the cheapest used one that they can find is ?141.

Wow.

It is a good read though...

Sean.

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

Just ordered my copy.

My wife managed to source an interesting book for my last birthday: 'Colin Chapman Lotus Engineering, Theories, Designs and Applications', by Hugh Haskell. It goes into the technical explanations of the designs, and compares Chapman's solutions with the efforts of his competitors on the race circuit. I found the discussion of how he worked really interesting.

Crikey, I've just looked it up on Amazon, and the cheapest used one that they can find is ?141.

Wow.

It is a good read though...

Sean.

I think that if I sold all of my Lotus Books I would have the funds to buy a Shapecraft 26R
Maybe even one with a Zetec Engine
John

[elansprint71]

[
I think that if I sold all of my Lotus Books I would have the funds to buy a Shapecraft 26R
Maybe even one with a Zetec Engine
John

Or maybe one of the elusive factory four wheel drive +2s?

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

[
I think that if I sold all of my Lotus Books I would have the funds to buy a Shapecraft 26R
Maybe even one with a Zetec Engine
John

Or maybe one of the elusive factory four wheel drive +2s?

Hmmm; & I thought that Car was a very closely guarded secret.
I bet you don't know of its whereabouts though

[atthelimit]

I got my copy at the Lotus Festival, a scribbled on one of course.

It's not a 5 minute read thats for sure. I have been reading a few pages at night just as I get to bed but to be honest thats not the way, not being as technically minded as some I really have to concentrate to try and understand some of the stuff being talked about.

Although not about road Lotus cars you can see much of the thinking of the time was transferred into the Elite and Elan etc.

My only gripe is that some of the photos are poor quality which for a book of this price should not be the case.

Better to buy from Amazon than pay full price I suggest.

[elanner]

This is currently going for $36 on Amazon.

I decided to buy it a few weeks ago and catch up on my Lotus reading - all my Lotus books are, um, old. I'm not normally into this kind of book, fearing too much repeated material and superficiality.

I finished it last night and was very sad to reach the end. It was excellent. As earlier posters have said, it's a must-read for any Lotus owner. The resurfaced memories and sheer exquisiteness of some of his racers (11, 25, 49, 72....) makes you ache to see them again. No other marque has been able to do that for me. Not even close.

Nick