Detroit. Hard on the heels of its final major international sports car win with the Chaparral 2F Chevrolet in the 1967 Brands Hatch 6 Hour (See last week's Fumes here - WG), Jim Hall's Chaparral Cars team found itself struggling to deliver results in the Can-Am Series. Remember, as hard as it is to believe, Chaparral's last win in the Can-Am came at Laguna Seca in 1966. For 1967, while competing in Europe with the 2F, Jim Hall debuted a new machine based on a heavily-modified 2E Chevrolet - the 2G - in the Can-Am series. Again, with its high-mounted rear wing glistening in the sun, the Chaparral 2G presented an imposing figure, but the results for the car were definitely "less than," which was frustrating for the Chaparral team. In contrast, the McLaren team was clearly the Can-Am series juggernaut, with Bruce McLaren stressing testing, testing and more testing, resulting in a level of preparation that placed the British team in a league of their own, delivering dominant results that were commensurate with that preparation.

The McLaren duo of Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme would win all but one of the Can-Am Series races in 1967, four of six races in 1968 and all eleven races in 1969 in a level of dominance that had never been seen before in a major league racing series. Meanwhile, Jim Hall was trying to make the 2G into a consistent competitor, and was delivering mixed results, at best. The brutal elegance of the 2E had given way to the furious pace of tire development in the Can-Am, with the 2G sprouting bulged rear fenders to accommodate the increased size of the rear tires, which grew exponentially on the '68 version of the 2G. But the results weren't good enough. In 1967, Jim delivered a fourth-place at Road America, a second-place at Laguna Seca and another second-place at Riverside. In 1968, Jim finished a non-competitive fifth at Road America, second to Mark Donohue's No. 6 Penske Racing McLaren M6B Chevrolet at Bridgehampton and a third to McLaren and Donohue at Riverside.

The final race of the 1968 Can-Am Series took place at Stardust International Raceway, outside of Las Vegas. Picking up the pace of the 2G's development, Jim qualified a very strong third in his No. 66 Chaparral 2G Chevrolet to Bruce McLaren (No. 4 McLaren M8A Chevrolet) and Denny Hulme (No. 5 McLaren M8A Chevrolet). But the race would be another matter altogether. As Hall came upon Lothar Motschenbacher (No. 11 McLaren M6B Ford) to make a pass, Lothar's car suddenly slowed with a mechanical issue and Jim had nowhere to go, slamming into the back of the McLaren at 120 mph. Hall's Chaparral hit the McLaren with such force that it sent the 2G airborne and flipping, landing upside down off the track. It was a brutal impact, and Hall was badly injured. A group of spectators and journalists ended up removing Jim from the wreckage before the 2G erupted into flames. Hall suffered major damage to both knees, a broken left leg, and multiple cuts and burns. He was a mess.

Hall was quoted by Dave Friedman in Friedman's excellent book Chaparral - Can-Am and Prototype and Race Cars after the crash:

"Las Vegas was the scene of my worst accident. The result of that crash was the hospital, with a lot of doctors hovering over me. They were telling me that I would be in traction for several months and that I probably wouldn't walk for over a year, if ever, but I wasn't going for that. You take chances when you drive a race car and it's something you have to reconcile within yourself that, sometime, you might get hurt doing it." - Jim Hall

Hall's crash was personally devastating, but it was also devastating to Hall's plans for the replacement of the 2G, which had reached the end of its development. The 2H would be another stunning-looking racing car from Chaparral, emphasizing aerodynamic performance without the dramatic wings of his previous racing machines. Hall had originally planned for the 2H to be Chaparral's entry for the 1968 Can-Am season, but development problems and his accident put paid to that idea. By the time the 1969 Can-Am season was about to start, Hall took the wraps off the radical 2H Chevrolet and, not being fit to drive, nominated John Surtees to drive it. During testing at Hall's private test track - Rattlesnake Raceway - in the early summer of 1969, Surtees told Hall he refused to drive the car until visibility was drastically improved. Needless to say, this derailed the team's plans to compete in the season opener at Mosport on June 1.

On Surtees' suggestion, Hall took the radical and highly unusual step of buying a McLaren M12 Chevrolet customer car to race at Mosport. Hall was so consumed with the development of the 2H he didn't even attend the Can-Am opener, although he did manage to do ten shakedown laps of the McLaren before it was loaded up for Canada. Painted Chaparral bright white and adorned with John's preferred No. 7, Surtees qualified third, led for a few laps and ended up finishing third. Two weeks later at San Jovite, Surtees qualified fourth and then dueled with Denny Hulme over the first fifteen laps for the lead. But then Bruce McLaren hit Surtees from behind, which ultimately caused damaged bodywork resulting in a DNF. For the next race at Watkins Glen, the 2H was still not ready so, the Chaparral McLaren M12 Chevrolet arrived at the track with a massive, 2G-like high-mounted rear wing to help out rear downforce. Surtees qualified fourth again, but suffered another DNF.

The first race for the Chaparral 2H Chevrolet was the Edmonton Can-Am, but in an ominous sign of what was to come, Surtees qualified a full six-seconds off of the pace of the front row McLaren M8B Chevrolets of Hulme and McLaren. To make matters worse, Surtees hated the 2H, and he was beginning to express his displeasure about it every chance he got. At the next race at Mid-Ohio, it was more of the same, with Surtees qualifying five seconds off of the pole time of Denny Hulme. He finished fifth to Hulme's winning McLaren, after having been lapped twice. Needless to say, things were not going well for Surtees, Hall and the Chaparral Cars team.

Next up was Road America with Surtees qualifying in tenth, nine full seconds off of Denny Hulme's pole time. Surtees suffered a puncture on Lap 3, which resulted in another DNF. The season was such a disaster, that Surtees demanded to drive the McLaren at Bridgehampton, as the 2H was clearly uncompetitive. Surtees qualified fourth, only two seconds off of Bruce McLaren's pole time, but suffered a blown engine. The Chaparral Cars team competed at Michigan International Speedway with Andrea de Adamich filling in for Surtees, who was suffering from a nasty bout of bronchitis; he finished fifth in what would be the last appearance of the Chaparral McLaren.

Laguna Seca was next and Jim Hall's team was once again the talk of the paddock. The Chaparral team showed up at Laguna Seca with the largest high-mounted wing ever put on a racing car in a desperate search for downforce. The wing soared six feet above the ground, was 42 inches from front to back, seven inches thick and covered the full width of the car. It was also mounted dead center over the 2H. It didn't help. Surtees qualified tenth, five full seconds off of the pole, but the car did not make the start due to no oil pressure, in another exercise in futility. At Riverside it was more of the same, with Surtees qualifying the 2H fourteenth - minus the massive wing - nine full seconds off of the pole, and making only four laps before the engine blew up. By this time things were so acrimonious between Surtees and Hall that the team didn't bother attending the last race of the season at the Texas International Speedway. The following quotes, again from Dave Friedman's book, sum up what was quite simply the most disastrous episode in the Chaparral story.

"There were lessons to be learned from that car, but they should have been learned on a test track, not a race track. That car should have been used as a development car, not a race car. The objective should have been to win races, not test cars, and I don't feel that it was. It was a very sad season." - John Surtees.

"The 2H was a radical departure from the standard race car of its time. It had been through an extensive test program prior to the beginning of the 1969 Can-Am season that showed its potential to win. New race cars require a considerable amount of testing and development, particularly during the first part of the racing season in which they are introduced. To be successful in 1969, the 2H needed a driver who was fully committed and capable of doing that." - Jim Hall

"The car had a very high-tech construction. It was a full monocoque car and the skin was stressed to the outside of the car, not just the tub like everyone else was doing, and like we had done in the past. The fenders, rollover hoop, and everything else was all part of the structure of that car. It was a composite fiberglass structure, and if you were building one today, you would probably do it the same way except that you would use carbon fiber. The 2H was a predecessor to the kind of cars that people build today." - Jim Hall

The 2H marked the end of the only abject failure in Jim Hall's legendary Chaparral career. But what would come next from Hall's Chaparral Cars team would rewrite racing history itself.

The concept for the Chaparral 2J originated entirely within Chevrolet Engineering as a test project in response to the banning of movable wings and other restrictions that were being put into effect in the Can-Am and other racing series around the world. The close working relationship between Chevrolet Engineering, GM Styling and Jim Hall has been well-documented, with Chevrolet engineers and GM designers contributing mightily to Hall's efforts. Jim Hall embraced the 2J concept because after the failure of the 2H, and with Chevrolet enlisting Hall's team to run their Trans-Am Camaro program in 1970, he simply didn't have time to consider anything else. The 2J was a brilliantly conceived exercise in the burgeoning science of ground effects. It was powered by a 465-cu. in. Chevrolet aluminum big-block V8 but, in addition, two rear fans powered by an auxiliary two-stroke snowmobile engine were used to suck air out from under the machine, with flexible thermoplastic skirts sealing the underbody to the track surface. The result? When it was working it delivered absolutely incredible road holding, so much so that it was visibly and dramatically quicker in the corners than everything else.

Hall took it upon himself to develop the 2J from concept to racing reality, not an insignificant task by any means. And he did a brilliant job at it. (More quotes from Friedman's book follow).

"In testing I discovered that the thing was impressive as hell. It could do things that you couldn't believe." - Jim Hall

Critics were quick to call the 2J "the sucker car" and poo-pooed its potential when it made its Can-Am debut at Watkins Glen in July 1970, the third race of the season. Hall wasn't fooling around, however, as he enlisted World Champion Jackie Stewart to drive the 2J at The Glen. Once Stewart got used to the semi-automatic transmission and the "unique" handling capabilities of the car, the laughter stopped. Stewart qualified third, right behind Denny Hulme (No. 5 McLaren 8D Chevrolet) and Dan Durney (No. 48 McLaren M8D), who was filling in after the tragic death of Bruce McLaren in a testing accident one month earlier. But even though Stewart qualified "only" third with the 2J and didn't finish due to various teething issues, the writing was on the wall and the consensus was that once Hall got the 2J sorted, watch out.

"I didn't laugh because I knew anything that came from that shop had to be a serious contender. When I saw that thing squat down, I knew we were in deep shit." - Denny Hulme

"I sure hope that I don't have to go back to England and build one of those things." - McLaren Chief Mechanic Tyler Alexander, after the race

Jim Hall's Chaparral team skipped the next races in Edmonton, Mid-Ohio and Road America but showed up at Road Atlanta for the seventh race of the Can-Am season. Since Jackie Stewart was now fully engaged in the F1 season, and the team really couldn't afford Jackie's fee, Hall drafted British road racing star Vic Elford to drive the 2J at Road Atlanta and he promptly put the 2J on pole, 1.2 seconds clear of Denny Hulme. And since McLarens had occupied the front row of almost every Can-Am race since the series' inception this was a very big deal, especially since everyone was convinced Elford could go even faster.

"The biggest thing I had to get used to was the cornering power. That car was so phenomenally fast through the corners, unlike anything any of us had ever driven before, that you had to build up your confidence in the roadability of the car. Jim told me that the car would, depending on the track and the corners, go around a corner 7 percent faster than any other car competing in the Can-Am, including the McLarens, and that's a lot. At Atlanta, I got blown away at the start because of the three-speed automatic transmission. Denny Hulme, Peter Gethin and Peter Revson got away in front of me and led me until we got to Turn 7. As we approached Turn 7, I pulled to the inside of Revson as he braked and passed him on the inside of the corner. In any other car, I would have never been able to do that." - Vic Elford

Elford finished sixth after encountering more teething issues, but again the feeling was that if Hall ever got the 2J sorted, everyone would be racing for second. Feeling the need to sort the 2J even further, Hall skipped the next race at Donnybrooke and aimed the team's sights on the October 18 Can-Am at Laguna Seca. Elford put the 2J on pole with a lap of 58.800 sec., ahead of Denny Hulme and Peter Gethin in the factory McLaren M8D Chevrolets, who recorded identical times of 1:00.600 sec. Would this race be the breakthrough for the 2J? No. Elford didn't make the start due to a blown engine in the race warmup, which was another major disappointment for the Chaparral team.

That was it for Chaparral's involvement in the Can-Am Series, as Hall decided not to enter the last race of the season at Riverside. In spite of just one win back in 1966, Jim Hall's Chaparrals made a lasting impression in the Can-Am Series and in racing worldwide. Chevrolet engineers and Hall pioneered countless innovations in terms of materials, lightweight construction, aerodynamics - and yes, ground effects - which influenced racing for decades to come. In perhaps the ultimate compliment, preeminent racing car designer Gordon Murray developed his own version of Chevrolet engineers' ground effects technology with his Brabham BT46B "fan" car for F1.

Even though that was the end of the Chaparral in Can-Am, it wasn't the end of Chaparral, as Jim Hall decided to turn his sights to racing Indy cars. The result? The Chaparral 2K - designed by John Barnard - was yet another blistering-fast, ground-breaking racing machine. How good was the 2K? Johnny Rutherford won the 1980 Indianapolis 500 and the CART Championship with it that same year.

The Chaparral story is one of inventiveness, creativity, ingenuity and an indefatigable, independent spirit that propelled the small outfit from Midland, Texas - and a bunch of swashbuckling Chevrolet engineers and GM designers - to make their mark on the world racing stage. I'll leave you with these final words from Vic Elford on Hall and the 2J:

"I enjoyed working with Jim and his entire crew. Jim was one hell of a guy to work with and a great engineer. I loved the car because it was so different, and I liked the idea of being involved in experimental projects. When that car ran properly it was absolutely incredible. Nothing could beat it, absolutely nothing..." - Vic Elford

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