[DeTomaso] chaparalls/FWIW

[Adin, David]

Gene grew up in Midland and, if you believe him, is the world's foremost
authority.

 

Follows his take on the questions:

 

David, my chaparral book by falconer says that in 68 gm r&d did a crude
vehicle using vacumn principles to test suspensions.  Hall developed the
2h streamliner car in 68 to get rid of the wing because of drag.  That
didn't work out too well so in late 69 he hired one of chevy R&d guys to
come out and develop the j car using some of the ideas from gm research.
The concept was from gm but chaparral worked out the big issues to make
the car work. There was lots of issues with pressure centers and loading
on the suspension that hall worked out with the lexan skirts and bell
cranks tied to the suspension.  There was a lot of back and forth from
chaparral to gm from about 62 on but chaparral was owned and run by hall
and hap sharp.  The original concept of the chaparral car was halls, gm
had a corvair midengine concept car in late 62 that had an aluminum
chassis rather than the fiberglass hall had been using.  The
relationship was very informal between the two groups as gm had signed
the no racing agreement and went to lengths to keep the operations
separate. I guess in a nutshell, the vacumn concept was gm's the
development and making it work halls. By the way the j car raced at four
races before being banned(this is in an unlimited class) it had fastest
lap in one race and pole position in the other 3!!!it out qualified the
all mightly mclarens by 2.2 seconds at riverside in the fall of 1970!!!
I will bring my book to the next breakfast and we can compare notes with
Ludvigsen's book gene