Secret Life of Colin Chapman

[AugustneverEnds]

I don't know if this has already been posted anywhere but this is a nice documentary about ACBC, Lotus cars with a surprising amount of DeLorean content, JZD even mentions the notorious GPD!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IJd_tMPCmU

the other parts are all on youtube

[Jeremy Popp]

Interesting, thanks for the link. For those interested, Delorean stuff primarily starts a 6:35 of part 3 and ends around 9:07 of part 4.

[martydmc12]

One of things that drives me crazy, most especially from car enthusiasts and critics alike, is how so many of them will bash John Z. about how he "scammed" the British government, cocaine, etc, etc., and yet I never hear anyone criticize Colin Chapman, when he so obviously took some of that money and put it in his Swiss bank account. It's almost as if to say anything negative about Chapman and Lotus is sacrilege, and JZD and the DMC-12 get the entire brunt of it all.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there have been negative remarks about him, but I sure haven't ever seen it.

[AugustneverEnds]

It does seem critics and history was much harder on JZD than Colin Chapman in terms of what happened to the GPD monies and where they ended up. Maybe since Chapman passed away when he did, he got the benefit of speak no ill of the dead? Perhaps many British journalists were reluctant to sully the name of the man who put Britain on the map in Formula 1 and other categories of motorsport especially when DeLorean was already controversial in the UK and easy to denigrate. A ready made American villain whom was willing to deal in narcotics, according to the FBI and DEA, and misuse public funds, according to Marian Gibson, MPs Nicholas Winterton, Jock Bruce-Gardyne and Robert Cryer. Accusing JZD of the disappearance of $17 million dollars that went to Switzerland to pay GPD to pay Lotus was the path of least resistance.

[David T]

It does seem critics and history was much harder on JZD than Colin Chapman in terms of what happened to the GPD monies and where they ended up. Maybe since Chapman passed away when he did, he got the benefit of speak no ill of the dead? Perhaps many British journalists were reluctant to sully the name of the man who put Britain on the map in Formula 1 and other categories of motorsport especially when DeLorean was already controversial in the UK and easy to denigrate. A ready made American villain whom was willing to deal in narcotics, according to the FBI and DEA, and misuse public funds, according to Marian Gibson, MPs Nicholas Winterton, Jock Bruce-Gardyne and Robert Cryer. Accusing JZD of the disappearance of $17 million dollars that went to Switzerland to pay GPD to pay Lotus was the path of least resistance.

It does seem to make clearer that it was the abuse of the use of the funds by Colin Chapman, funneling it into GPD that was the real problem, not JZD paying it. Many times it was mentioned that CC was playing fast and loose with his accounting, not worrying about which pocket money came and went from. The other thing I found interesting was that it was brought up that CC used uppers and downers. With that combination over a long period his massive heart attack when under all that stress makes more and more sense. In a very real sense the demise of DMC did contribute to his death among other factors (abusing prescription drugs). I agree JZD made the perfect villain, especially when the previous government and the general economy was the main problem. Deflect people's attention away from the real causes and blame the greedy capitalistic American. Some thanks for taking a big chance and building a factory in a war zone! Make note to self, after the fighting is over the accountants come in to bayonet the wounded! If DMC had survived and thrived none of this would have been a problem.