Chaparral Cars
Founded in 1962 by American Formula One racers Hap Sharp and Jim Hall, it was named after the roadrunner, a fast-running ground cuckoo also known as a chaparral bird.
When Hall and Sharp began building their own cars, they asked Troutman and Barnes if they could continue to use the Chaparral name.
In 1965, it shocked the sports car world by winning the 12 Hours of Sebring in a pouring rainstorm, on one of the roughest tracks in North America.
A two-article series in Car and Driver magazine featured Hall's design theories, turning speculation about vehicle handling into applied physics.
The 2D was equipped with a 327 cubic-inch displacement (5.3-liter) aluminum alloy Chevrolet engine producing 420 horsepower; the car weighed only 924 kg.
[3] It was startling in appearance, with its radiators moved from the traditional location in the nose to two ducted pods on either side of the cockpit and a large pivoting variable-incidence wing, mounted several feet above the rear of the car on struts.
As opposed to an aircraft wing, it generated downforce instead of lift and was attached directly to the rear suspension uprights, loading the tires for extra adhesion while cornering.
By depressing a floor pedal that was in the position of the clutch in other cars, Hall was able to feather or flatten out, the otherwise negative-incidence wing's angle when downforce was not needed (as on a straight track section) to reduce drag and increase top speed.
The resulting accidents from their failures led to pivoting wings mounted on the suspension until these kind of moving parts were fully banned.
After solving the transmission problems, the 2F scored its only win on 30 July 1967 in the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch with Hill and Mike Spence driving.
While on par with its competitors in terms of power, the lightweight 2C chassis was stretched to the limit and it was only Hall's driving skills that kept the car competitive.
John Surtees was brought in as driver for the 1969 Can Am series but never figured out how to drive the 2H to take advantage of its low drag potential.
Surtees complained he couldn't see out of the car and demanded a redesign which ruined the aerodynamics, then ran the rear wing almost upright, negating any advantage of the compact slippery shape.
Ultimately, by 1969 the massive amount of power being generated from the big block Chevrolet engines that Hall effectively debugged in 1967 and 1968, downforce was more important than low drag.
Had the 2H kept the low drag shape but with a wider track it most likely would have been very competitive, but the true monocoque construction made changes to the chassis almost impossible.
On the chassis' sides bottom edges were articulated Lexan plastic skirts that sealed against the ground (a technology that would later appear in Formula One).
[6][7][8][9][10] The 2J competed in the Can-Am series and qualified at least two seconds quicker than the next fastest car, but mechanical problems limited its success.
Although originally approved by the SCCA, they succumbed to pressure from other teams who argued that the fans constituted "movable aerodynamic devices".
Later in the season Unser added wins at the California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway and the Schaefer 500 at Pocono International Raceway; this remains the only time a driver has won the Triple Crown.
At the 1979 Indianapolis 500, Hall and fellow CART board men Roger Penske, Pat Patrick, Teddy Mayer, Ted Field, and Robert Fletcher were initially not allowed to compete in the race since it was part of the USAC National Championship.
He later won the season-ending Miller High Life 150 at Phoenix International Raceway and finished fifth in CART standings but was ineligible for USAC points.
The team managed to get a victory in their debut, the Gold Coast IndyCar Grand Prix on the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit.
He then left the team at the end of the season to compete in the NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series for Jack Clark.
11 Pennzoil Reynard 94i-Ilmor D. Fabi's best results that season were a pair of fourth-place finishes at the Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway and the Texaco/Havoline 200 at Road America.
For the 1995 CART season VDS dropped out of the venture and the team became known as Hall Racing and rookie Gil de Ferran was signed on to pilot the No.
De Ferran avenged this later in the season when he won the season-ending Toyota Monterey Grand Prix at Laguna Seca Raceway.
Despite the recent success Hall closed up the Indy car team for good, after which de Ferran drove for Walker Racing in the 1997 CART season.
In 2005, a wing of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas, was dedicated to the permanent display of the remaining Chaparral cars and the history of their development.
