Chaparral Race Cars and Jim Hall

[Silverplate]

Chaparral Race Cars and Jim Hall

This past weekend I attended live drive and dinner event with Jim Hall of Chaparral race car fame. The event started off with a tour of Chaparral gallery of these historic race cars, followed by watching Jim Hall demonstrate his favorite Chaparral, the 2E. This was followed by an awesome catered dinner and then Mr. Hall taking questions from those in attendance. Autograph and photograph opportunities immediately followed desert. A super great time.













Jim Hall was a two-time Indy car owner winner.

[8E45E]

Closest I ever came to owning a Chaparral was a white one that ran on an orange track: http://www.toycarcollector.com/1969_...m#69_chaparral

Craig

[fatboylust]

Oh how loved those cars, with every twist and turn and rule change Chaparral kept innovating.

[Dick Steinkamp]

One of my race car memory high points was watching the 2G at Laguna Seca at a Can-Am race in 1967. Aluminum 427 Chevy. Epic!

[j.byrd]

I saw some of these at Green Valley Raceway in the late 60's, but was only interested in the drags at the time..... what a dip I was ! It seemed like the "vacuum cleaner" car went the same speed in the corners as on the straights ! Mr. Hall, Shelby, Smokey Yunick, etc, what a bunch of innovators ! Thanks for the pics, beautiful stuff !

[t walgamuth]

Wish I had been there!

[GinettaG12P]

Jim Hall is a genius. His ingenuity caused the SCCA to restrict innovation in the CanAm Challenge Series, banning such things as movable wings and vacuum-assisted down force, both of which Hall introduced to the sport. His monocoque fiberglass chassis and multiple-planetary transmission paved the way for other innovators. In 1969, I saw the Chaparral 2H "Roadstoupe" at a motel not far from Texas World Speedway after Tom Dutton crashed it prior to the CanAm race. I have a couple of photos I took of it, but I can't seem to attach them here. I will if someone tells me how to do it.

[t walgamuth]

I read recently that the sucker car was actually built by Chevy and Jim simply put his numbers on it and went racing. He got his engines from them of course too. ....course a lot of folks did back then.....but chevy was officially not in racing.

[GinettaG12P]

Never noticed before that the Chaparral 2F had a periscope rear-view mirror much like that on the Ford J Car.

[8E45E]

Never noticed before that the Chaparral 2F had a periscope rear-view mirror much like that on the Ford J Car.

Marmon had it FIRST! http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...ghlight=MARMON

Craig

[GinettaG12P]

OK, we come full circle here. My late wife and I used the number 32 - Ray Harroun's car number on the 1911 Indy 500 winning Marmon - on our SCCA race cars in honor of her great uncle who was a mechanic on Harroun's team

[Mike Van Veghten]

I've got one of these -

http://www.slot.it/immagini/Models_indice/Classic/Chaparral/sk%20ca16b_UK.pdf

I remember watching them run at Riverside Raceway in SoCal as a kid. Great times. Then I could go on my own a little later in the CanAm car days, didn't need a ride

Mike

[JBOYLE]

[Packard53]

When talking about Chaparrals most persons tend to forget the other person that was Jim Halls partner Hap Sharp. Hall and Sharp got a ton of back door help for GM. A few years back I had the privilege of being at Watkins Glen and seeing Dan Gurney inducted into their racing Hall of Fame. During the ceremony he took time to answer questions from people in the audience. When I asked him a about Jim Hall and Hap Sharp and the Chaparrals he seem to show a great respect for both persons and the cars they built.

Mike THANK YOU for posting the pictures