Colin Chapman - Great Lives, 4:30 today

We could all do with something lighter on the Radio today.

At 4:30 Radio 4 Great Lives will be Colin Chapman of Lotus fame. Don't expect lots of engineering/tech discussion but hopefully it will be an interesting programme.

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 15/01/2019 16:19:35

Colin?

Mike

Well spotted Mike - I had a Monty Python brain fart.

It is Colin not Graham who will be featured today

Neil

Repeated on the 18th at 23:00 in case you missed it (as I did).

Or listen now on BBC Sounds.

I'll get that on listen again! Bumped into Colin Chapman after the 1977 Italian Gp at Monza, which they had just won (Mario Andretti -lotus ford). I say bumped into him quite literally in the huge crush to leave the circuit (I was with a British bus trip in the days of the "Circuit Travel" tour Co from Norfolk). Never found out why, but Colin and a couple of other guys were in the crowd, carrying the cup he had just won, a shout went up, and we exchanged brief congatulations before being swept off in the massive italian scrum. We were quite visible in the crowd, as we were carrying a south African guy called Ronny, who had, rather unwisely as it turned out, been watching the race from a tree, fallen out and broken his ankle, We had bribed a group of Italian kids to lend us a plank they had been sitting on, and whilst our tour guide (Dennis Harris? Chief marshal at Silverstone) kept the italian doctor talking (he was intent on sending poor Ronny to hospital) we Liberated Ronny(who was on our bus) from the circuit hospital got him up on the plank, and forged off through the crowd with the plank and Ronny on our shoulders! It was a strange race, Niki Lauda led for most of it, then quite obviously allowed Andretti to pass him, and came in second to clinch his world championship. Lauda had fallen out with ferrari, and to deny them a win on their home soil was his way of showing them who was in the driving seat! The antics of the Italian fans had to be seen to be believed, when the go to a GP, they bring their own scaffolding and build a private grandstand! many climbed up the back of the huge advertising hoardings, kicked holes through the boards, one hole for legs, and one to look through, and sat in their own personal grandstand for the entire race, they seemed oblivious to the fellow fans whose heads the boarding was falling on. Others who could not see climbed over the safety fence and settled themselves down with blankets and picnics behind the armcos! The Italian police were having none of it, climbed over and told them to leave, but the fans were having none of it, and still more are pouring through the now damaged safety fence., the police draw their guns, and the fans laugh at them! Eventually after a quick conflab, the police take their belts off and start laying into them! At this they reluctantly put their arms in the air, pack up, and move back behind the safety fence! I wish I was that young again!

Edited By Phil Whitley on 15/01/2019 19:36:14

Stirring stuff! The Italian cycle race fans are known as "tifosi", apparently because their enthusiastic behaviour resembles the symptoms of typhus.

The word tifosi is the Italian word for Fan.

Well it was OK, but it wasn't 'stirring stuff' :-/

Neil

It's plural and according to Wikipedia:

"Etymology. Tifosi literally means "those infected by typhus", in the sense of someone acting in a febrile manner. Football. The word is mainly used to describe fans ..."

Lovely man Colin, driver safety came in at around 9999 in his top 100.

One of my friends worked for Chapman’s F1 team & tells many tales of his time there. Such as the time the Chief Aerodynamicist had a blazing row with Chapman in Chapman’s office. The row culminated in the Chief Aero Chap walking out and slamming the door behind him. Only to sheepishly reappear moments later when he realised that he had gone into the broom cupboard!