Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot: Jim Hall's Chaparral 2-J...a Race Car that Really Sucked

The Sucker car

Chaparrel race cars was founded in 1962 by oil man/race driver, Jim Hall and Hap Sharp.
The name "Chaparrel" was kind of/sort of.... the blending of the two names.

In the 60's the aerodynamic ideas that we all take for granted now in auto design had not been totally scienced out. There was a lot of horsepower to be had in everything from aluminum big-block Detroit motors to high-revving European twelve cylinder powerplants.

It was easy to go fast down the straights, but turning corners without spinning off the track was a problem.
Jim Hall took the issue of cornering grip very seriously, so seriously in fact...that his solution turned the racing world on it's ear.

Jim decided to use a magic combination of brute force and finesse to get his race car to stick in high speed corners.
He turned his race car, the 2-J into a giant vacuum cleaner. Equipped with an auxiliary 45 horsepower, 2stroke snowmobile engine that turned two 17 inch fans, the car became a "reverse hovercraft"....instead of floating on a cushion of air...the race car was pulled down to the track. This gave it more traction by creating the illusion that the car weighed about 900lbs more with the suction fans turned on.

The car featured plastic skirting that slid up and down to create a tighter seal to the track. This sliding skirting was the source of some of the technical issues when the car raced.

When the 2-J did run right and not breakdown, it was consistently faster than it's competitors by about 2 seconds per lap.

The great benefit of the sucker car was that it's down-force was generated at all speeds...so even in a relatively slow corner, it was still delivering the massive grip....if the car had to rely on wings and spoilers for down-force...that would only work at higher speeds...but cause aerodynamic drag as well.

But alas, the other racers did not enjoy the idea of having their asses handed to them every race day, so the Chaparrel 2-J technology was banned. The 2-J only ran in the 1970 season.

Here is a video that very nicely shows the way the system works.

Keep in mind, that the 2-J has two engines...one powerful snarling V-8 to provide forward thrust in the usual manner, and the 45 hp two stroke engine that powers the suction fans.

Watch the car get sucked down, when the auxiliary engine starts.