Chaparral 2J "Sucker car" 1/32

[festerbzombie]

 

  Chaparral race cars were competitive in road racing throughout the sixties. The company was founded by ex F1 drivers Jim Hall and Hap Sharp. Jim Hall used his engineering background to innovate the use of wings, spoilers, ground effects & the use of space age materials like fiberglass and Lexan.

  In 1966 the Chaparral 2E shocked the racing world by introducing a functional wing attached to the rear suspension. It set off a revolution in the use of wings to increase down force in race cars. Not all the experiments were successful and the cars were banned by the FIA in 1967.

  The Chaparral 2J made its debut in the 1970 Can-Am series. It was shockingly simple in it's appearance! The back of the car featured a simple fibreglass bodywork with full skirts made of a new space age material called lexan. The two fans protruding from the rear acted as a vacuum and created downforce lowering the car as much as 2 inches.

In it's debut race at Watkins Glenn it handled extremely well & qualified
3rd. It was closing in on the leader when the brakes failed. It missed
the next 3 races but came back to set a track record at Laguna Seca.
Beating the record set By McLaren the year before. The car retired early due to engine failure. In the last race of
the season at Riverside it qualified 2 seconds faster than the next
quickest car. It retired early again with a seized fan motor.

Other
drivers complained that the car would suck up all the debris from the
track and propel it out the back. It was banned by the FIA at the end of the
season.

This model is a 1/32 kit made by CG slot cars. The body and chassis were made with a 3D printer. It also has working fans!

[petel]

I like all of the Chaparrals Hall built, one was more exciting than the last. I'm glad to see some more slot car exposure on here because after all, they are model cars !