‘It looks like the box it came in,’ was a comment heard in the paddock on its debut at Watkins Glen in 1970. Even that harsh judgement of the appearance of the Chaparral 2J may have been generous. However, handsome is as handsome does and, in its own astonishing way, the 2J did handsomely.
A world champion was sufficiently impressed with its concept to drive the new Chaparral that year, and set a fastest lap in very quick company. Although the 2J did not last long enough to come close to winning a race, it showed great potential and restored its developer, Jim Hall, to his well-earned status of wizard technician of Group 7 racing.
In the rest of the 1970 Can-Am season, it revealed phenomenal pace.
But was it the Chaparral Show, or was it really the Chevy Show with Jim Hall as master of ceremonies? To find out, we have to go back to where the car was conceived and constructed, in its major essentials, at the Chevrolet Engineering Center in Warren, Michigan. This was not a new relationship. Since 1964, Chaparral and Chevrolet’s secretive R&D department had been closely cooperating on the building, testing and even racing of advanced sports-racing cars.
Basic concept
The 2J’s basic concept was simple enough. If a vacuum could be maintained underneath a moving automobile, it would hold the car down with greater force. With the latest racing tyres, more force would mean more grip, translating into vastly increased cornering power. The idea was not new. Dresden, Germany’s Vasa Nićin applied for a patent on it on 29 December 1925.
Their dominant need was for a robust box that would not collapse under the vacuum generated inside it
The wider and larger the tyres, the bigger the contact patch on the pavement, and the more work they can do before sliding as the downforce is increased. Faster cornering is the key to success on road racing tracks, and this phenomenon would later be exploited in so-called ‘ground effect’ racecars, but these were a decade in the future when the basis of the 2J was created
