December 16, 1982 – Colin Chapman, Lotus founder, dies
Chapman at the wheel of one of his own Lotus Eleven sports cars, during practice for the 1956 British Grand Prix Formula Two race. By J Crosthwaite - J Crosthwaite, CC BY-SA 3.0
Colin Chapman, English engineer, automotive designer and founder of Lotus Cars, passed away on this day in 1982 at age 54. Born in Surrey in 1928, Chapman studied structural engineering at University College London. He would later attend University of London Air Squadron before briefly joining the Royal Air Force. His time in the air and around planes would prove to be a valuable experience for him, as his future car designs borrowed heavily from aeronautical engineering. After leaving the RAF in 1948, he went to work building his first race car.
Chapman's Mk1, a modified Austin 7, debuted later that year, n...
