Chaparral Design Sketch #3: The 2J Is Reborn!

Our new issue is live and available for reading, dear readers. As we’ve mentioned before on this news site with another sketch, one of our favorite stories from this month’s issue is our feature and drive of the Chaparral 2E. As many of you have already read, GM Design Director Ed Welburn is a huge fan of the 1960s race cars from Texas and played a big part in our story. He mentioned that young members of his staff were passionate about Chaparral, too, and can be found sketching “what if” Chaparrals on envelopes and napkins all the time. Weeks later, Ed sent over three sketches from his design team; one of those is featured in our magazine, one was posted weeks ago on our site, and a third is here, above.

The above sketch is from Vladimir S Kapitonov from GM Design. His design is a modern-day interpretation of the Chaparral 2J, the famous “sucker car” that was far less successful than its legend would become. The car carried two engines–a thumping Chevy small-block V-8 for the wheels and snowmobile engine to power the rear fans. The suction generated by the fans was said to be able to, in theory, hold the car upside down on a ceiling. After many complaints from competitors, the 2J was banned at the end of the 1971 season. It was to be the end of Chaparral Cars as a racing entity (until Hall’s return in Indy racing in the 1980s).

It’s exciting to see a GM designer doing a contemporary version of the 2J. The only view of this car is from the rear, but we hope that his sketch ignites a flame within GM Design to bring out a concept car in the future off the Chaparral idea.

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+ WINDING ROAD: Read our Chaparral 2E feature story here