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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chapmans' Lotus; a story of many firsts.,
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This review is from: Colin Chapman: Lotus Engineering: Theories, Designs & Applications (Paperback)
Inventors are individuals who have an intuitive ability to recognize inherent flaws in the way things are done, or the tools used to do them. They are able to apply their creative skills to visuallising, describing and sometimes, fabricating a working model incorporating their improvements. While often the drawings or models are adequate for evaluation, they require the skills of a trained technician, an Engineer, to bring them to production standard. Then, to convince the public that they must have this newer, better mousetrap, requires the altogether different skills of a promotor/marketer. Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman, the founder of Lotus Engineering, possessed all these attributes. Indeed, his innovative application of these diverse (in ordinary mortals) skills is undoubtedly the key to his recognition as the most influential figure in the development of the modern motorcar. Colin Chapman was undeniably, a genius. To reveal this fact without recourse to cliche requires someone with knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of "ordinary" Engineers, and an understanding that extremes of temperament, or eccentricity are often tools of a superior intellect, used to motivate, to inspire enthusiasm for advanced concepts. Chapman protege and fellow engineer, Hugh Haskell has performed this task admirably. A perceptive writer, and associate and friend to many of the central figures in the phenomenon that was Colin Chapmans' Lotus, he was able to convey the facts behind the myths in engaging, yet authoritative, discourse. He fondly recalls the Chapman-inspired enthusiasm that was part of being a member of the Lotus team. His insightful narrative conveys, in terms familiar to the layman, the brilliant originality of Chapmans' engineering achievements. He takes us from Chapmans' childhood, through the formative years, and the times when "Lotus" was synonymous with leadership in innovation. He also tells how, when forced by circumstance, Chapman was able to find loopholes to achieve an outcome against the efforts of short-sighted officialdom. Almost unbelievablely, there were occasions when the Chapman innovations were so far ahead of the pack that the rule-makers legislated against him to "level the playing field". Haskell hasn't avoided the issues that Chapmans' unconventional approach to matters financial aroused in the minds of many. Indeed, he includes anecdotes that confirm the young Chapmans' admirable negotiating skills. The book also describes Chapmans ventures into other fields,...from bathroom furniture, through luxury cruising yachts to micro-light aircraft, the fertile mind of Colin Chapman left his mark of originality, and his minimalist design philosophy is apparent in many of his creations, light on material substance they may be, but they're full measure for clever engineering. A winning combination. This is a damned good book, a tribute by one engineer to a colleague who happened to be one of the Twentieth Centurys' greatest automotive engineers. Read it,...be inspired.
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