Chaparral Race Car Museum

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Wifey & I just finished a 10 day 3000 mile roadtrip out to the Grand Canyon, which was just spectacular. On the way back we stopped by Midland, TX where the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum is located. Part of the museum is the Chaparral racecar exhibit, and I thought most of you would enjoy seeing some of these advanced (for their time) racecars. Looking back at these, I’m still amazed that a “good ole boy” from Abilene, TX came up with these ideas and designs, and beat the best that the world had to offer.
Here’s some background info on the cars & the company:

 

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The Man (Jim Hall) himself in the early days:





Here’s a few of one of my favorite Chaparrals, the 2D:

 

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More of 2D:

 

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Here’s 2E, which was being prepped to be sent to a car show this weekend. We met the caretaker of the cars, Mr. Ron Lowe, and he kindly escorted us back to his maintenance garage to see 2E “up close & personal” and entertained us with some Chaparral anecdotes.









Yours truly, thinking about all the stories this car could tell……

 

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And my other favorite Chaparral, the 2F (very similar to 2D but with a wing.) Jim Hall was one of the first to explore aerodynamics and ground effects with his racecars. In many of the races where this 2F was photographed, it was the only car sporting a wing.

 

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And here was a real surprise, the Ford MKIV that Gurney/Foyt won Le Mans with in 1967. I thought it very curious that it was on display with the Chaparrals, which were its competition, but Mr. Lowe advised that the museum had done a short term swap with the Ford museum to get this piece of racing history for awhile:

 

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Here’s probably the most famous (or infamous) Chaparral, the 2J or “Sucker Chaparral”. Jim Hall says the idea for the car wasn’t actually his, but it came from a young fan who wrote him and asked him why he couldn’t mount some fans on the car to make it hold the road better.

And the 2K which won at Indy with Johnny Rutherford at the wheel:



And a few other innovative ideas from the Chaparral garage:

A nitrous boosted bar stool (when you’re REALLY in a hurry for that beer):



An electric powered cattle herding bike, c/w longhorn handlebars and eyes that light up, nostrils that snort out CO2, and a Mooo horn.



Last, but not least, a single cylinder gasoline powered pogo stick. The redline on this has not yet been found…..

 

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The End!

 

[Zuffen]

Remarkable collection of ground breaking cars.

Not too sure the pogo stick and electric bike changed history but the rest of his cars certainly had an impact.

John, like me, will remember the 2J from when we were young. One advantage of being "old" is we got to see the really cool cars of the 60's and 70's in real action.

 

[JustenGT8]

LOL at the spare wheel the 2D had to carry. Engineers would spend zillions these days trying to find ways to lose that much weight

That GT40 would be worth a mint?