Jim Hall's Chaparral racers

[wahoo5]

Dave and I recently visited an amazing exhibit of Chaparral cars in Midland, TX. Here are our pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ogburn/sets/72157623877958050/

David

[L8APEX]

Great photos.  Especially for those of us who remember seeing these cars race back in the day.  Thanks for the memories.

[venom65]

Those pictures were awsome.  You looked real good in the drivers seat.  Right at home.
Sounds like a great trip.

Bob

[pipefitter]

I liked the "sucker" cars. I think he used a snow-mobile engine to spin an impeller creating a vacuum to suck the car to the ground. I didn't know he had a museum.

[wahoo5]

He did use a snowmobile engine. Something like 45HP. It has Lexan edging around the bottom to create the seal for the vacuum.

The exhibit is an addition to the Permian Basin Oil Museum and has been open a couple of years. They keep the cars in running condition and take them outside on certain Fridays to crank them up.

How is the Monza? Sorry to hear that you popped the engine at Summit.

David

[pipefitter]

The Monza is in "time-out". Actually, I promised myself I would finish a home project I started a year ago before I started on the car again. That way I won't feel guilty when I ignore the house while I work on it. The car ran strong for a fairly stock V-6, and the handling was far better than I had hoped for. I was not ready to go into the engine this soon, but....that's racing.