Hazel Chapman, race car driver, shrewd businesswoman, and the co-founder of Lotus — the ultra automaker for driving enthusiasts — has died at 94.
The wife of Colin Chapman and the co-founder of Lotus, she is the Chapman you rarely hear about, but proved essential to the company’s fortunes. Yet her legacy has been largely ignored by most automotive journalists, who never knew of her contributions. Even Colin Chapman’s obit fails to talk about her.
“Without Hazel Chapman, there would be no Lotus,” said Matt Windle, managing director for Lotus Cars, in a statement. “This is a very sad day for everyone around the world associated with Lotus.”
That would be an understatement.
Born Hazel Williams in 1927 in North London, she met Colin Chapman at a dance in 1944 when they were both 16. But Hazel’s parents must have recognized true love when they saw it. What else could explain why they let Colin use their garage in Hornsey, England where Colin developed the Lotus Mark 1, the brand’s first car? And when Colin joined the Royal Air Force, it was Hazel continued development of the Lotus Mark 1, and followed it with the Mark 2.
Colin and Hazel soon enjoyed success racing, leading the couple to form Lotus Engineering in 1952. And thanks to Hazel’s £50, the company had funding and production of the Lotus Mark 4 began.
Two years later, the couple married, and Hazel sat on the board of Lotus Cars, Team Lotus and Lotus Components.
Always a small company, Lotus never achieved the success of other companies with similar origins such as Porsche. But Colin’s engineering genius and Hazel’s astuteness as a businesswoman sustained the company, despite its meager sales. In an era when few women were involved at the top of an auto company, Hazel was an exception.
While the company’s impact on racing is well known, less recognized is Hazel’s work with nearly every Lotus Formula 1 driver, including Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna and Kimi Raikkonen, as well as her role as a co-founder of The Dog House women’s motorsport club.
When Colin unexpectedly died of a heart attack at age 54 in 1982, rumors surrounded the company about its involvement with Toyota, and there was acrimony from shareholders regarding the company’s involvement with engineering work on the doomed DeLorean sports car.
Still, it was Hazel who realized that the company had to be sold if it were to have a future. She became a Director of Classic Team Lotus, which oversees the Lotus’s racing heritage.
In the decades since, the company has had a number of owners, but Hazel was always shown the latest Lotus prior to its public introduction. She signed off on the 100,000th Lotus in 2018 and saw the Lotus Evija two weeks before its unveiling in 2019.
“The entire Hethel team, and those working at our facilities around the world, send their sincere condolences and best wishes to the Chapman family,” Windle said.
