Jim hall on Jim hall. Jim Hall of Chaparral Cars - America
...about two hours. Jim is not much of a self promoter but opens up a lot about the race cars. I always thought he got a lot of support from GM. It is evident that he did but it sure is true also that he put in a load of work on the cars himself.
One thing he said near the end was that he tried to live an ethical life.
He also said his story could only happen in America with our personal freedom.
There is a glitch in the continuum...
yes thanks.
Absolutely fascinatingOriginally Posted by bob darcey
V/r
Iverson
Interestingly it seems most people danced around the totem of aerodynamics by attaching spoilers at times when they could not balance it mechanically.
He basically said the rules folks systematically made all his innovations illegal until he got tired of it and retired.
Although he did manage to run the indy 500 two or three times and win at least once with the yellow submarine!
Found this aerial of Rattlesnake Raceway behind the Chaparral shop:
https://www.google.nl/maps/place/31%...4d-102.0466389
There is a glitch in the continuum...
Jim Hall is obviously a pretty amazing man...
...but I could do without the jingoism.
To quote The Newsroom:
And [to the conservative panelist] with a straight face, you're going to tell students that America's so starspangled awesome that we're the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium has freedom. 207 sovereign states in the world, like 180 of them have freedom.
(And BTW, if you haven't seen it, it is pretty great)
I take nothing away from Mr. Hall, but it seems Mr. Chapman did some pretty amazing things, too.
Well, he may have overreached on the America theme but he did not say we were the only ones with freedom. .. Of course we are not Colin Chapman, Bruce McClaren and others who built some fine race cars and more. It is an interview, not a history book with references and attention to a lot of detail.
I'm still interested in knowing more about what GM did and did not do for and with Jim.
Last edited by t walgamuth; 10.04.21 at 6:40 AM.
I named my younger son after Colin Chapman, so I'm a big fan, but off the top of my head I am at a loss to think of a race driver who died in a Chaparral due to an under-engineered component failure.
Lola: When four springs just aren't enough.
I could not find any deaths either. Jim was seriously injured in a crash himself but came back for a while.
Sadly, Jim never really “came back.”
A full year and a half after clouting Lothar Motschenbacher’s damaged McLaren Can-Am car, Jim did run part of the Trans-Am schedule in the Chaparral Camaro. But if recalling correctly, he never again had the leg strength to be fast over a full race distance (200 miles in the day).
At mid-season, Jim turned the reigns over to Vic Elford, who was already driving the insane 2J for the team in Can-Am. I think Vic won at least one Trans-Am race in the car, but Jim never returned to driving.
The incident with Motschenbacher may sadly be the presiding memory of Hall’s driving for many, at Stardust Raceway in Las Vegas as I recall. The infamous photo is striking, and Hall was lucky to live.
My personal, overwhelming Can-Am memory of Hall was at Road America — in 1967 or ‘68. We stood outside of Turn 5, me 7 or 8, as a large photographer actually crossed the hot track at 5’s exit, saw Hall charging through the apex, freaked out and fell down, and it was all Jim could do to not run him over.
In open wheel, his enduring legacy lies in the 1980 Pennzoil Indy car Rutherford won Indy with, but it’s often forgotten he first won Indy in the otherwise-marginal Lola T500 (I think) two years earlier, with Al Unser driving to his third 500 win.
Also sometimes overlooked is that Jim teamed with Carl Haas to win the last three years of Formula 5000, driven by Brian Redman, through 1976.
A Hero for the Ages, in every way that matters.
Hey, I'm not claiming that either Hall or Chapman was in any way better than the other.
I'm only addressing the idea that "only in America" could Hall have done what he did, because... ...FREEDOM!
It is the worst kind of jingoistic, chauvinistic nonsense.
There are lots of places that have freedom.
Thanks for extending the story!
Well, I love Canada.
I don't understand why a Canadian would find it unacceptable and "jingoistic" that an American like Jim Hall would feel his story could only have happened in the USA. Is simple patriotism now considered identical to chauvinism (or does this only apply to Americans?).
Other countries are free to one extant or other, but despite never-ending attempts to roll back our rights this country is still freer than most others - Canada included. Jim Hall is a very American type - innovative, iconoclastic, unafraid to do things differently. There is a reason why there were never any Belgian, Danish, Canadian etc. Jim Halls, Carroll Shelbys, Smokey Yunicks. Some societies respect mavericks, some don't.
My head hurts.
Essentially, this is the American Exceptionalism argument, which I find has moved the term in a direction never intended by Alexis de Tocqueville and much to far in the direction of master race.
Peter Olivola
(polivola@gmail.com)
I got to meet Jim Hall back when he was still running Indy cars in the 90's at Road America…I had an great black and white photo of him leaning on the old pit lane armco next to his 2G that my dad had taken back in the day. I waited until he stepped out from under the awning and went to stand in line to get something to eat. No one even recognized him as I came up with my old photo and asked for an autograph. He looked at the picture with a surprised expression and said “where in the hell did you find this old piece of history!?!” and chuckled. He signed it and I thanked him and shook his hand, he then gave me a “now get outta here kid” type of send off. Great memory.
PS I’d add NZ John Britten in there as one of the all time great “maverick’s”, epic thinker and doer
I love Canada, too.
But I'm perfectly willing to accept that it's not a perfect country.
A rich oil guy who had the money to play in a series of barely professional competitors with no rules to speak of. While I waited each new season to see what new innovation were developed, the fact is that his Can Am cars were not likely to win.
After his Can Am days he used his name to gain funds to race. Absolutely nothing to speak of in the way of engineering. His great Indy car was completely designed by John Barnard. He showed no interest in improving race car engineering skill set.
Certainly not in the same league as Chapman.
Brian
I'm sure Jim would be mortified that his comment had ruffled feathers.
I recommend travel abroad for all Americans (I mean from the US). I had always thought of Canada as being sort of almost a part of the US. I was startled to find Canadians who didn't seem to think too much of the US.
In my first trip overseas in summer of 1970 the only Europeans who really liked the US were the Belgiums who openly admired the US for its role in WW2.
I found a lot of anti war sentiment. I also found some Americans who acted as if they were the most important people in the world and who disrespected the earnest folks who worked with travelers who spoke three or five languages and nearly all of us spoke just English in one of our five or six local dialects.
I found much to admire in Europe but after spending a year there in 1973 I decided that I would continue living in the US. I was full of optimism at that age and would have been shocked at the continued political divide we now have.
But for much of the world it represents the land of opportunity still.
I would welcome the opportunity to move to Canada if that were necessary and if Canada would have me.
Enough already!
Can we return to Jim Hall's accomplishments and leave the USA -vs- Canada -vs- Rest of the World to some other forum.
We burned the White House 200 years ago. Don't make us do it again.
John Nesbitt
ex-Swift DB-1
Colin Chapman is the precise comeback to Jim Hall; at least as brilliant (if not more). Honestly, it didn't take a whole lot of brilliance to realize that using a second engine to vacuum the car down to the track would produce greater cornering speeds.
Carroll Shelby took an English sports car and stuck a big engine in it, then he took over development of an English LeMans car (the Eric Broadley designed Lola Mk 6 GT) for Ford and with oodles of dollars at his disposal turned it into a winner.
Smokey Yunick mostly seems to have found a lot of innovative ways to cheat.
Canadian Alexander Graham Bell gave us the telephone.
Canadians Banting and Best gave us insulin (literally gave, as in: the donated the patent for the good of all people. It too American drug companies to make it cost so much that diabetics in the US get to choose between eating and insulin)
Belgian Robert Cailliau (and Englishman Tim Berners-Lee) gave us the world wide web we're using to host this discussion.
You should read yourself back to yourself. What you have done is provide exactly the same kind of jingoistic nonsense that I'm complaining about.
Give your head a shake, man.
"Never any" innovative iconoclastic mavericks in any country but the US? Please. I didn't even try hard to find counterexamples.
Is the US a great country? Yes. Absolutely.
Is it "the greatest country in the world"?
Let's look at some indicators and see where the US ranks:
Lowest infant mortality rate:
At 5.22 deaths per thousand he US is 52nd out of 227 countries (in the CIA's World Fact Book). Ahead of it are (among many others), Belgium (21st @ 3.24), Denmark (15th @ 3.09), Canada (44th @ 4.44)... ...shall I go on?
How about life expectancy at birth:
US, 46th; Belgium, 31st; Denmark, 35th; Canada, 6th.
I could pile on here, but my point is that blind belief in anything is probably not a good idea.
Is the US a great country? Yes. So is Canada, so is Belgium.
Does the US have some huge flaws? You bet. So do Canada and Belgium and Denmark, and, and and...
This is getting pretty pathetic.
This has morphed into something that was unintended. Gents, we are here for racing, not geopolitics
V/r
Iverson
Canada as well as quite a number of other nation states are contained by “America.”
Jim was on to something with his race cars.
Chris Livengood, enjoying underpriced ferrous whizzy bits that I hacked out in my tool shed since 1999.
Of course he was. I never said anything different.
I objected to his jingoism, and then the jingoism of those who rushed up to defend it.
There's no need to put others down to lift someone (even yourself) up.
Sir;
Put it to bed, let it go. We are family.
V/r
Iverson
& we still all have guns is that great or what?Enough already!
Can we return to Jim Hall's accomplishments and leave the USA -vs- Canada -vs- Rest of the World to some other forum.
We burned the White House 200 years ago. Don't make us do it again.
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