Chaparral Racing

the Car

getting IT ready

The Increbible Chaparral 2J

Chaparral Racing was founded by Jim Hall. He had built cars for many years prior to the beginnings of Can-Am in 1966. Jim Hall and Tracy Bird came up with the rules for Group 7 cars.

Jim Hall's car, the Chaparral, was an early winner in Can-am but never won the driver's championship. In 1970 after developing the most advanced racing car in motor sports, the Chaparral 2J, he quit racing. SCCA banned the car because of moveable panels on all four sides of the car. These LEXAN panels helped keep the air flowing under the car to be extracted via fans at the rear. This design caused a vacuum effect UNDER the car that geatly help in holding the car to the pavement. In effect sucking the car to the ground. Today all cars use this technique, known as Ground Effects.

One unintended consequence of having the secondary engine is that the time to replace the main engine was about 8 hours. This was because this secondary engine was on top of the big Chevy engine.

The racing history of the Chaparral 2J was 4 races in 1970. The results were:

It was also Jim Hall that developed the wing. Jim is considered by many in motor sports as one of it's greatest innovators.

Web Sites of Interest:

• Vic Elford's web site is over here. Vic was the driver of the Chaparral 2J.
• Here is an article that features Vic recounting his experiences with the Chaparal 2J.
• Here's a short story about the Chaparrals at Road America's Brian Redman International Challenge vintage racing event in 2001. Make sure you visit the photo gallery.
  
• For more about the Chaparral head over to Michael Stucker's page on the history of the Can-Am.
• Here's a stort history of Jim Hall and the Chaparrals.
• Here is another site with the history of the Chaparrals and Jim Hall.
• Autoweek story on the Chaparral.
• The Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas will have a wing (no pun intended) devoted to the Chaparrals and Jim Hall.

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