No racing car exemplified and exploited the admirable freedom of the Can-Am series rules more than the 1966 Chaparral 2E. It introduced new aerodynamic concepts that were game-changing, though it took a while for others to catch on.
David Kimble superbly captured the features of the Chaparral 2E, including the tubes that carried the wings with their hydraulic actuators hidden inside their aerofoil covers.
Jim Hall’s Chaparrals were the cars to beat when the Can-Am series was born. In the SCCA’s U.S. Road Racing Championship, the amateur series that predated and later paralleled the Can-Am, the Chaparral 2A had been almost unbeatable. Their outstanding success in 1964 and 1965 in the USRRC helped make them top Can-Am favorites. At that time Hap Sharp, a partner in their company Chaparral Cars in Midland, Texas, shared the driving in the two-car team with Jim. Older than Hall, Sharp was a source of good ideas, which, bounced against Jim’s engineering education at Cal Tech, and produced results.
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