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Colin Chapman Wayward Genius
Mike Lawrence shows how Chapman operated in a fast-moving, highly pressurized world of international racing and car making that generated huge rewards and temptations. The crunch came when he became involved with the ill-fated Delorean car company.
- GenresBiography
Hardcover
First published February 1, 2003
27 people want to read
About the author
Mike Lawrence
21 books1 followerLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 19, 2020
Unlike the official biography of Chapman, written by the hero-worshiping, apologist Gerard 'Gabby' Crombac, this is a warts and all account of a car company founder who cheated, lied and stole to create an image of himself, his race team and - less so - the road car company, which got in the way of his racing ambitions.
It's a page-turner, full of revelations, but it focuses on his racing activities to the detriment of a fuller history of Lotus Cars Limited. I guess we'll have to await publication of twice-Lotus CEO Mike Kimberley's long-promised autobiography to read that.
My only complaint is the penultimate chapter, which focuses on the demise of John DeLorean's business, DeLorean Motor Cars Limited in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland. This seems more a precis of a very questionable book by former Sunday Telegraph journalists, Ivan Fallon and James Srodes. There is evidence that was written to satisfy an agenda composed by the late Jock Bruce Gardyne MP, a 'Thatcherite before Thatcher', according to former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, and a hater of the special relationship between the UK and the USA.
That is a small complaint about what is otherwise an excellent and revealing read about a 'hero' who the judge in Belfast, when sentencing his financial director, Fred Bushel to a three-year stay at Her Majesty's Pleasure, said that - in common with my former boss John DeLorean - 'would have received a sentence of ten years', had he not fled to Brazil - sorry 'died'.
It's a page-turner, full of revelations, but it focuses on his racing activities to the detriment of a fuller history of Lotus Cars Limited. I guess we'll have to await publication of twice-Lotus CEO Mike Kimberley's long-promised autobiography to read that.
My only complaint is the penultimate chapter, which focuses on the demise of John DeLorean's business, DeLorean Motor Cars Limited in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland. This seems more a precis of a very questionable book by former Sunday Telegraph journalists, Ivan Fallon and James Srodes. There is evidence that was written to satisfy an agenda composed by the late Jock Bruce Gardyne MP, a 'Thatcherite before Thatcher', according to former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, and a hater of the special relationship between the UK and the USA.
That is a small complaint about what is otherwise an excellent and revealing read about a 'hero' who the judge in Belfast, when sentencing his financial director, Fred Bushel to a three-year stay at Her Majesty's Pleasure, said that - in common with my former boss John DeLorean - 'would have received a sentence of ten years', had he not fled to Brazil - sorry 'died'.
Displaying 1 of 1 review