{"id":703285,"date":"2020-11-01T09:30:50","date_gmt":"2020-11-01T09:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/?p=703285"},"modified":"2020-11-01T16:07:35","modified_gmt":"2020-11-01T16:07:35","slug":"car-that-blew-the-others-away-racing-the-fan-powered-chaparral-2j","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/articles\/sports-cars\/car-that-blew-the-others-away-racing-the-fan-powered-chaparral-2j\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Out of this world’ Chaparral 2J fan car: Vic Elford on the machine that blew rivals away"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Seven years before the ground effect-harnessing Lotus 78 and all-conquering Brabham \u2018fan car\u2019, Jim Hall introduced a racing innovation which – almost quite literally – blew away the opposition.<\/p>\n

It may have finished only once in its short history, but the reverberations created by Hall\u2019s pioneering Chaparral 2J have been felt ever since.<\/p>\n

Fifty years on from the 2J\u2019s final competitive appearance, Vic Elford<\/a>, who drove the car for its last three races, spoke to Motor Sport<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust out of this world – the ultimate driving car,” he says of the machine that looked more like a Star Wars prop rather than a 1970s sports car.<\/p>\n

Fans from a M-109 Howitzer tank could pump out a cool 9650 cubic feet of air per minute<\/blockquote>\n

Chaparral Cars, the racing team and constructor founded by oil-dynasty-heir-turned-racing-driver Jim Hall, had been experimenting with aerodynamics throughout the 60s.<\/p>\n

In collaboration with his friend and fellow driver Hap Sharp, Hall had already exploited downforce with pioneering moveable rear wings on both his 2E and 2F cars. Inspired by an unusual letter he received from a young Chaparral enthusiast, the Texan elected to take the downforce concept even further.<\/p>\n

Elford had previously recounted the car\u2019s genesis in conversation with Simon Taylor<\/a>: \u201cA 12-year-old kid sent Jim a little drawing, saying: \u2018Why don\u2019t you put a helicopter rotor in a car, so it sucks the air out and then sucks the car down?\u2019 He got together with the General Motors guys, batted it around,\u00a0 and then they worked out how to do it. I don\u2019t know what Jim said to the kid, but he\u2019s still got those drawings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall, in collaboration with the car manufacturer and his engineering accomplice Don Gates, made the idea a reality.<\/p>\n

\n \"Chaparral\n
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Vacuum-generated ground effect made the car incredibly quick when it wasn’t breaking down<\/p>\n

\n Bernard Cahier\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

The result was an all-white wedge-shaped car with two turbines (powered by an auxiliary 2-cylinder engine JLO engine) attached to the back. Taken from an M-109 Howitzer tank, these fans – which operated at 6000RPM – could pump out a cool 9650 cubic feet of air per minute.<\/p>\n

Moveable plastic skirts, made from a new \u201cunbreakable\u201d plastic called Lexan, were attached to the front, sides and back of the car’s floor, their alignment to the road surface meaning it stayed planted to the asphalt as the fans sucked the air underneath the car and pushed it out the back, creating the vacuum effect. This provided unprecedented levels of downforce – over 2220 pounds to be exact. Regardless even of the fact that the car, driver and all, weighed about 1800 pounds, these were incredible figures. The car would pull up to 2G through corners.<\/p>\n

Before anything to do with airflow, ground effect or downforce was even mentioned, the Chapparal\u2019s big block engine was giving it serious shift in the first place, an aluminium Chevrolet V8 which produced 650hp.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChaparral 2F: Jim Hall’s winged wonder\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t
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Don’t doubt it for one moment: Jim Hall of Chaparral Cars in Midland, Texas is a towering figure in motor racing history. During 1966-67 he proved influential in racing car…<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDecember 2020\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIssue<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
By\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDoug Nye<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n<\/article>\n <\/div>\n
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Elford first came into contact with the 2J when competing at the Can-Am Watkins Glen round for Porsche. The Brit and his fellow competitors found the 2J as baffling as it was breathtaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all just thought \u2018Jesus Christ, how the hell does that work?\u2019 he recalls, \u201cI mean I’d seen some of Jim Hall’s creations before, [but] I guess we were all a bit shocked!\u201d<\/p>\n

In an age when the designs of other Can-Am vehicles might be described as fantastical, the 2J was somehow shockingly functional in its space-age tendencies. The plain liveried car, with its lightweight fibreglass body which covered the rear-wheels before being brutally cut off at the point where the turbines emerged, was described by Motor Sport\u2019s<\/em> David Gordon as \u201cthe big white shoebox\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

GM had pulled in one Jackie Stewart to pilot the 2J for its debut at the Glen. In his book Faster<\/em>, the Scot was wide-eyed in his description of the car\u2019s capabilities.<\/p>\n

“The car’s traction, its ability to brake and go deeply into the corners, is something I’ve never experienced before in a car this size or bulk,” he said, \u201cIts adhesion is such that it seems to be able to take unorthodox lines through turns, and this, of course, is intriguing.”<\/p>\n

Certain components couldn\u2019t take the strain of the loads they were put under. After problems in qualifying with the auxiliary engine (which was being run full-throttle the entire time) meant the car couldn\u2019t exploit its full downforce potential, Stewart then retired from the race with brake failure – but only after setting the fastest lap.<\/p>\n

“Adapting to it mentally is difficult because no other car has gone around a corner this fast”<\/p>\n

After the race, Elford received a phone call from the Chaparral boys, who were coincidentally staying at the same hotel as him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to Jim\u2019s room. He said to me \u2018Well, you saw the Chaparral today. Would you like to drive it?\u2019 I replied, \u2018C’mon Jim, you’ve got Jackie Stewart driving!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said: \u201cThat was just a one-off PR thing with General Motors. We now need a proper driver for the rest of the year. We’ve been looking at people and we think you’re the best one that we’ve seen out there – to understand the engineering, work with the engineers, and drive the car into the bargain. So how about it?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said \u2018Of course, love to. Thank you very much!\u2019 So that was how it all started.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n \"Vic\n
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Vic Elford at the wheel of the Chaparral 2J at Riverside<\/p>\n

\n Fred Enke\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Chaparral\u2019s newest driver flew out to Midland, Texas to start testing the car. The sleepy desert town was home to Chaparral\u2019s workshop and also their bespoke testing track – Rattlesnake Raceway.<\/p>\n

In spite of the wide variety of machinery he\u2019d already sampled, the Chaparral 2J was like nothing else Elford ever encountered.<\/p>\n

\u201cDriving the car was just out of this world,\u201d he says, \u201cThe [start-up] procedure was a bit like an aeroplane I suppose. You didn’t just jump into first gear and drive away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would put my left foot hard on the brake to make sure it didn’t go anywhere. Then I would fire-up the little engine which would immediately start to drive those two monster fans at the back, sucking up the air underneath.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I did this the car would literally go: \u2018Shhhp!\u2019 and lower itself down to the ground by about two and a half inches.”<\/p>\n

Such was the sucking power of the turbines, the car would move of its own accord at about 30mph, hence the driver needing to have his foot on the brake throughout the start-up procedure.<\/p>\n

“I drove around the outside of Denny in third gear. He went into the pits and sulked for the next half an hour.”<\/p>\n

The new driver\/car combination\u2019s first race was at Road Atlanta, Round 6 of the 1970 Can-Am season.<\/p>\n

Despite its obvious promise, the car had so far only driven a few laps in competitive anger. In Motor Sport\u2019s<\/em> race report at the time<\/a>, Elford described the challenge of driving such an \u2018easy\u2019 car:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to the stage of thinking that it\u2019s just not possible that the car can go around any corner at that speed,\u201d he said, \u201cand adapting to it mentally is the most difficult approach because no other car has ever gone around a corner as fast as this one\u2026 Another great thing about the suction is that it doesn\u2019t allow the car\u2019s handling characteristics to change as you go through a corner \u2026 Whichever way it\u2019s set it remains like that at all times, whether it\u2019s a slow corner or a fast swerve \u2013 it remains absolutely constant\u201d.<\/p>\n

Elford\u2019s eventual confidence in the car translated into pole position for the race, taken by 1.26sec ahead of McLaren\u2019s Denny Hulme.<\/p>\n

Come race day though, it all started to fall apart. Chaparral\u2019s sluggish getaway at the start didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem was I only had a three-speed gearbox,\u201d Elford explains, \u201cThey [Hulme, McLaren\u2019s Peter Gethin and Lola\u2019s Peter Revson] all had four. Although I was way out [in first] on the starting grid with a rolling start, they all went by me at the startline.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n \"Vic\n
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A sub-1 minute lap at Laguna Seca was easily enough for pole at Laguna Seca<\/p>\n

\n Fred Enke\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Ignition issues put the 2J out but things were looking good for the next round at Laguna Seca.<\/p>\n

Elford didn\u2019t disappoint, taking pole once more. On this occasion, it was an even bigger margin of 1.8sec despite the Monterey circuit being particularly short. The Chaparral\u2019s drubbing of the opposition was described by Motor Sport\u2019s<\/em> David Gordon as a \u201cdemoralisation process\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went around [Laguna Seca in] 59sec and it was about five years before the next car managed to go under a minute – and then that was an IndyCar anyway,\u201d says Elford.<\/p>\n

However, come the warm-up, reliability gremlins struck again. This time, the Chevrolet engine fell on its own sword as a connecting rod punched a hole through the block.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember people coming up to me, throwing their arms around me, sobbing in the paddock and saying, \u2018Please go and change the engine, it only takes a couple of hours to change a Can-Am engine!\u201d Elford remembers, laughing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it probably did in a McLaren. But it took all day in a Chaparral, because you had to literally take the whole damn car apart!\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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Related article<\/h2>\n \n\t\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJim Hall and his Chaparrals\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t
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Back in the 1960s Jim Hall\u2019s Chaparral Can-Am cars captured many imaginations and revolutionised racing as Hall and his small Texas-based team dabbled in aerodynamics \u2013 without the use of…<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

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The team had one more roll of the dice for 1970, down the California coast at Riverside.<\/p>\n

Cue an even bigger qualifying margin: Elford was on pole this time by 2.2sec.\u00a0\u201cAt one point we came into Turn 9 with Dunny Hulme just in front of me,” says Elford. “I was right up against the wall and I probably didn’t even change gear. I drove all the way around the outside of Denny in third gear. He went straight off, went into the pits, took his helmet off, sat on the pitwall and sulked for the next half an hour.<\/p>\n

The mercurial 2J\u2019s race appearance was once more short-lived though, as the auxiliary engine failed on the second lap. After coming so close to success in Can-Am, Elford found the car\u2019s failures hard to take.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did three races and I was disappointed not to win each one,\u201d he says. \u201cNot as in \u2018Oh, that would’ve been nice\u2019 – I was really upset because had it been in an unbreakable state right from the word go, I would have been on pole position and won every race – and blown everyone into the weeds! Of course this never happens with a new car…<\/p>\n

\u201cThat disappointed me terribly, probably more than Jim, because as an engineer he looked at it like \u2018Oh that’s a shame, that’s something we need to fix for next week.\u2019 While as a driver, you go \u2018I could\u2019ve won that. I would\u2019ve won that. I should\u2019ve won that.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n \"Vic\n
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New car gremlins meant the Chaparral’s pace was never converted into victory<\/p>\n

\n Fred Enke\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

With the team planning for all-out domination in 1971, Jim Hall told Motor Sport<\/em> what happened next<\/a>: \u201cAt the end of 1970 there was a terrible outcry from the rest of the Can-Am competitors about our car. We had been premature in going to the racetrack with 2J, but when you think you have something that will put you ahead of the field, you are in a big hurry to get out there before any info leaks out. We made a decision to go ahead and do it, learn about the car this year, and win with it the next\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren, fearing domination (ironically), had been lobbying the Can-Am governing body SCCA to ban the 2J, alleging that it exploited \u201cmoveable aerodynamic devices\u201d. Under threat of being sued by the protesting team, the SCCA acquiesced and outlawed the 2J.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChaparral and Jim Hall’s techno brilliance: when America took the lead in racing innovation\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t
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Jim Hall is tall for a racing driver \u2014\u00a0for that’s what he was to begin with. He would be taller still but fora knock-kneed stance decreed by injuries sustained in…<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNovember 2003\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIssue<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
By\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPaul Fearnley<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n<\/article>\n <\/div>\n
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Elford had had visions of a long winter of testing Texas-style, an off-season spent pounding round Rattlesnake Raceway in preparation to avenge his Can-Am travails in 1971.<\/p>\n

It was not to be though, and the dream died in the desert. Elford moved on to more F1 and sports cars appearances, scoring a second Le Mans class win to crown a glittering racing career. Hall stepped back from motor sport before returning with another ground effect car, the Chaparral 2K, which brilliantly won both the 1980 Indy 500 and IndyCar Championship.<\/p>\n

Some machines often have the same effect on the human psyche as the cult hero or the underdog. The dream of the unfulfilled, the potential performance, sometimes fires the imagination more than actual success.<\/p>\n

The Chaparral 2J might just be argued to be racing’s greatest example of this.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":786,"featured_media":703413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118722,118746],"tags":[126132,126450,34312,34887],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/786"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703285"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":703878,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703285\/revisions\/703878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}