Customer Reviews

Chaparral

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...............................I first saw this book at Watkins Glen's new library & museum during the Vintage races. Since I had found myself deep in discussions with other race fans on the history of the Chaparrals I needed to know what the facts were. My search was centered on the great 2J which had its 1st race at the Glen with Stuart as pilot. It was with much anticipation that I opened the pages of this automotive history. I had to see and learn more of what was under the body of 2J, that mysterious really fast 'sucker'. To know what its detail history would provide a deep insight to automotive evolution. Since my recent purchase of this historic book, I now feel enjoyably enlightened.

My interest was in part due to having filmed one of 2Js builders. Tom Dutton built and raced a Caddy Lola which I followed from Lime Rock tests to racing at Mossport and the Glen before he joined Hall's team. I now wanted to learn more of what was then only very limited information on this remarkable car's history.

This book has an ability to make you feel close to all that seminal racing history. In some ways it felt familiar to the experience of waking up with the sun while camping at the Glen, yet there is no book that could make my heart pound like watching most all my old cars scream past the camp site in a glorious deafening 100+ mph 'warm up' traffic snarl. The book's many helpful semi transparent line drawings aid one's journey back deep into the Chaparral development. The book gives insight to the man who might be the single most innovative individual builder & driver in racing history if ones counts all the firsts his team effort produced in these formative years in racing history.

Jim Hall was first to create so many new ideas and racing machine breakthroughs that are still with us. Reading this book is like digging up the archeological roots of the able cars we know today both on and off the track.

The great "2J" ending the series in the book, could have been the best performing car ever attempted to be built by any one, for road racing on this planet. It not only culminated many ideas to precede it in the Chaparral legacy, but most importantly the 2J sought to achieve what may be a 'maximum' potential concept for any motor racing car. In order to drive in the quickest possible means around a track, Hall's very basic and seminal idea was to force the rubber that meets the road to an absolute minimum of slip, in cornering, accelerating, or decelerating. To have all the power, torque & brakes usable, seems a worthy vision the likes of which was only to be attempted by such an amazing racing team.

The only way for the competition to deal with such a marvel was of course to ban it. The authors neatly pointed out that those who feared its potential failed to hold onto the principles of the; "original concept of the Can Am series was to provide,, an absolute minimum of rules to promote engineering innovations. Jim Hall's Chaparral Cars is the only entrant that has attempted to fill this concept to any degree". The authors state that this is the eloquent epitaph to the long and honored line of Chaparral sports cars.

Thankful to the inspiration of Jim Hall and those he likewise inspired, open ended visionary technology was discovered and was made well enough to then to cause the rest to follow him till today, and this book helps tell us how and where so much came from.

An incredibly well-researched volume covering some of the most famous race cars of all time. Co-author Falconer at one time owned one of the earliest Chaparrals, so there's no questioning his expertise. The book features hundreds of photos and drawings, mostly from the cars' heyday, but there's also a color portfolio showing the cars as they were in the mid-'80s, in the collection of Jim Hall. The text comprehensively details the evolution of each Chaparral and its racing history, and pulls back the cloak of secrecy that surrounded Hall's cars in the '60s. Several appendices cover the specifications and history of each chassis. The book's shortcomings are few: some glaring typos that should have been caught in the proofing process; and practically no mention of the last Chaparral, the 2K Indy car of the early '80s. The book is a must for Chaparral fans, and students of 1960s racing history.

This is better than Friedman's(as his is only photos) I am not sure of the accuracy as I was not alive to be there, Seems Pretty accurate, Talks about Hall,Sharp, and many of the players Involved, I heard that Jim was not too happy with the outcome of the book, Not sure why, but most Chaparral Fans agree this IS THE MOST Comprehensive of all Chaparral Books SO FAR. It goes at times into Technical analysis and alot of aerodynamics, but it is very informative and well laid out, Wish there could have been more to cover,and perhaps a Revised edition, since Hap has since passed on(R.I.P.). Covers alot on my personal favorites : 2/2c, 2F And my Favorite of all: the 2D!

A great book about some of the most innovative cars to ever grace the track!
Great photographs and text. As a Jim Hall and Chaparral fan who read everything I could about the cars, races and the drivers when they were racing I was pleasantly suprised to learn new details in the first couple of pages! As to the person that said that the great Hap Sharp is not mentioned in this book I have to ask - What were you reading? If that were true it would be an incomplete story indeed! Thankfully, this is not the case and Hap is well represented in the text and photographs.

My grandfather was on the manufacturing team for these vehicles, and this book does not tell the full story of it's design and fabrication. There are only four members of that fabrication team with us now, and the only member of that team that was crucial to Mr. Hall, Mr. Sharp is not mentioned in this book. This is a disappointment considering the author and the time he spent researching a very closed community of talented indivuduals that helped build motor sports as we know it. The full story is still out there.