Chaparral 2A |
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Wikipedia: Chaparral Cars: 2
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History
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Chaparral Cars page on 24 May 2016, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Background
Troutman and Barnes were builders of the original Chaparral race cars (later referred to as Chaparral 1). Jim Hall purchased two Chaparral 1s to race. When Hall and Sharp began building their own cars, they asked Troutman and Barnes if they could continue to use the Chaparral name. That is why the Hall/Sharp cars are all named Chaparral 2s (models 2A through 2J for sports cars/CanAm cars, and the 2K which was the 1979–1982 Indycar).
2
The first Chaparral 2-series was designed and built to compete in the United States Road Racing Championship and other sports car races of the time, particularly the West Coast Pro Series races that were held each fall. Hall had significant "under the table" assistance from GM, including engineering and technical support in the development of the car and its automatic transmission (this is evidenced by the similarity between the Chevy Corvette GS-II "research and development" car and the Chaparral 2A through 2C models).
First raced in late 1963, the Chaparral 2 developed into a dominant car in the CanAm series in 1966 and 1967. Designed for the 200 mile races of the CanAm series, it was also a winner in longer endurance races. In 1965 it shocked the sportscar world by winning the 12 Hours of Sebring in a pouring rain storm, on one of the roughest tracks in North America.
The Chaparral 2 featured the innovative use of fiberglass as a chassis material. The Chaparral 2C had a conventional aluminum chassis.
It is very difficult to identify all iterations of the car as new ideas were being tested continually.
The 2A is the car as originally raced, featuring a very conventional sharp edge to cut through the air. It also featured a concave tail reminiscent of the theories of Wunibald Kamm. The first aerodynamic appendages began to appear on the 2A almost immediately to cure an issue with the front end being very light at speed with a consequent impact on steering accuracy and driver confidence.
As the car evolved, it grew and changed shape. Most call these 2Bs, as raced through the end of 1965.
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Subject: Chaparral 2A Scale Model Car
Photographer: Bill Crittenden Event: 2013 GTR Summer NNL View photo of Chaparral 2A Scale Model Car - 3.1MB |
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Subject: Chaparral 2A Scale Model Car
Photographer: Bill Crittenden Event: 2013 GTR Summer NNL View photo of Chaparral 2A Scale Model Car - 3.2MB |
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Subject: Chaparral 2A Scale Model Car
Photographer: Bill Crittenden Event: 2013 GTR Summer NNL View photo of Chaparral 2A Scale Model Car - 2.9MB |
