ISSUE #05 - English Edition

COVER STORY

JIM HALL & CHAPARRAL

HALL OF FAME — DRIVER AND DESIGNER 
CHAPARRAL — THOSE AMAZING WHITE CARS FROM TEXAS 
THE ASTONISHING CHAPARRAL 2J 
TEXANS TRIUMPH AT THE GREEN HELL 
THE CHAPARRAL SPORTSCARS 1961 TO 1970

Those Amazing White Cars from Texas

From the obscure oil town of Midland, Texas rolled anonymous white pickup trucks towing the most radical sports-racing cars the world had yet seen. Jim Hall’s Chaparrals were on the march.

It seemed to be the logical next step, yet when it happened it surpassed most expectations. American manufacture of serious sports-racing cars in the modern era started on the East Coast with Briggs Cunningham and his magnificent cars. Wealthy sportsman Briggs was not one to see the Jaguars, Ferraris and Allards take all the prizes. He built his own Cunninghams in Florida from 1951 through 1955 and saw them win big in America and perform with pride at Le Mans.

Next it was the West Coast’s chance. Having caught the racing bug, young Lance Reventlow invested his Woolworth inheritance in the magnificent Scarab sports-racers and Grand Prix cars from 1958 through 1961. California was in the ascendancy, with Carroll Shelby taking over Reventlow’s facility and creating his fabled Cobras.

Then came rumblings from Texas. It was the turn of another region of America. John Mecom set up an impressive team that supplied winners both at Indianapolis and in the big sports-car events. There was word of strange doings at Midland, Texas. Midland has been described as where you are “when you’re too far from El Paso and you can’t get to Houston,” a hard-working oil, cattle and cotton town. Midland is where oil-explorer Jim Hall and oil-driller James “Hap” Sharp combined forces to design and build the astonishing Chaparral sports-racers.

I’ve always been fascinated by the Chaparrals; I was at Riverside testing a Scarab on the same summer day in 1961 that saw Hall shaking down his original front-engined Chaparral with its builders Dick Troutman and Tom Barnes. Later I helped introduce Hall and Sharp to GM vice president Bill Mitchell at GM Styling, a connection that blossomed into a closer relationship with Chevrolet.

I was at Bridgehampton in 1966 when the first winged 2Es appeared, wonderful works of art and science. Still employed by GM then, I had some insights into the links between its Chevrolet Division and Chaparral Cars.

Abilene-born James Ellis Hall was only 17 in the summer of 1953 when his parents and a sister were killed in a light-plane crash. He was the middle of three brothers, a trio who did their best to keep Condor Petroleum — their geologist father’s company — alive and well. At Cal Tech Jim studied geology and then switched to mechanical engineering. 

With his older brother involved in an imported-car dealership, Jim began racing cars at the age of 19. A link with the past was his chief mechanic, Red Byron, who had once worked for Briggs Cunningham. Hall was successful with some heavy sports-racing machinery, developing a special liking for Listers and Maseratis…

by Karl Ludvigsen

Photographs: Ludvigsen Library

The Astonishing
CHAPARRAL 2J

Begun as a project at Chevrolet and inherited by Jim Hall, a sports-racing car with phenomenal potential became the Chaparral 2J. Although framed and intended to encourage innovation, the Can-Am series had seen nothing like it.

At Watkins Glen they said, “It looks like the box it came in.” Even that harsh judgement of the appearance of the new Chaparral 2J may have been too generous. However, handsome is as handsome does and in its astonishing way the 2J did handsomely. 

A World Champion was sufficiently impressed with its concept to drive the Chaparral 2J at Watkins Glen in 1970 and set a fastest lap while running in very fast company. Although the 2J did not last long enough to get close to winning, it showed great potential and restored its developer, Jim Hall, to his well-won status of the Wizard Technician of Group 7 racing. In the rest of the 1970 Can-Am season it revealed phenomenal pace. 

But was it the Chaparral Show...or was it really the Chevy Show with Jim Hall as master of ceremonies? In fact the new 2J Chaparral was conceived and constructed, in its major essentials, at the Chevrolet Engineering Center in Warren, Michigan. This was not a new relationship. Since 1964 Chaparral and Chevrolet’s secretive R&D Department had been closely cooperating on the building, testing and even racing of advanced sports-racing cars.

The 2J’s basic concept was simple enough. If a vacuum could be maintained underneath a moving automobile, it would hold the car down with greater force. With the latest racing tires, more force would mean more grip, translating into vastly increased cornering power. The idea was not new. Dresden, Germany’s Vasa Ni?in applied for a patent on it on December 29, 1925.

The wider and larger the tires, the bigger the contact patch on the pavement and the more work they will do before sliding as the downforce is increased. Faster cornering is the key to success on road-racing tracks. This would later be exploited in so-called “ground effect” racing cars but these were a decade in the future when the basis of the 2J was created in the winter of 1968.

This concept was available long before the FIA implemented a height reduction on aerodynamic wings that sent all Can-Am and other competitors scrambling for some new “unfair advantage.” During 1968 engineers in Chevrolet’s Research and Development Department seized on suction downforce as a radical breakthrough that could revitalize their activities under new chief Charlie Simmons. 

With Jim Hall building his Chaparral 2H on his own for the 1969 season, they needed something new that might help the Texan in the future. After tests with mockups and mule vehicles showed promise, said R&D engineer Paul Van Valkenburgh, “Simmons gave Don Gates all the draftsmen, technicians and budget he needed to have it ready for the next racing season.”

Gates, the brainy engineer who had won Simmons’ approval, concentrated on the suction system of Chevy’s “Suspension Test Vehicle” or STV. Don Cox, Joe Marasco and Ernie DeFusco designed the car that would carry it. The challenge they faced in creating a suitable body forced them to ignore conventional aerodynamic ideas. Their dominant need was for a robust box that would not collapse under the vacuum generated inside it…

by Karl Ludvigsen

Photographs: Ludvigsen Library

Texans Triumph at the Green Hell

Chaparral arrived at the Nürburgring in 1966 as an unknown quantity to the Europeans who traditionally dominated racing at this most demanding of all road circuits. Success there would suggest an overcoming of heavy odds.

Since it opened for business on 19 June 1927, when the flag fell at 10:23 a.m. for its first race, the Nürburgring has been regarded with justifiable awe and respect. Undulating as it does through the craggy Eifel Mountains, its 174 corners covering an altitude of 300 meters, its ever-changing roadway poses the greatest challenge ever devised for automobiles and their drivers. Its creators had in mind a demanding road that could both challenge racers and serve as a proving ground for motor-car perfection. They succeeded magnificently.

German automobile club ADAC was present at the ‘Ring’s creation, setting up a branch office at Adenau to look after activities there. Tracing its origins to a 1903 society for motorcyclists, the ADAC was destined to have a long relationship with racing at the Nürburgring. When in 1953 the FIA launched a new World Sports-Car Championship, the ADAC organized its first 1,000-kilometer race at the ‘Ring. Its thousand-kilometer became one of the world’s most demanding and esteemed sports-car contests.

Unlike most of the other races in the Championship, the ‘Ring event emphasized quantity as well as quality. With 350,000 spectators spread around the main circuit’s 14 miles and 300 yards [22 kilometers and 800 meters], the emphasis was on giving them something to look at. This meant making room for a huge field of starting cars.

Encouraging depth of participation was the awarding of prizes for 11 classes in addition to the overall winner. In the 1966 race, for example, the winner of the class for Grand Touring cars of up to 1.3 liters, a Lancia Fulvia, finished in 31^st place with an 11-lap deficit and only one other car classified behind him. Among the starters were Glas GTs, Triumph Spitfires, Healey Sprites and even a Ginetta-Ford. These acted as moving chicanes for the faster racers, of which there were many.

Many of these modest entries managed with only the minimum of support equipment. Some just drove their racing cars to the ‘Ring. Thus no special attention was awarded the arrival of an unmarked white pickup truck with utility box towing an enclosed white trailer. This was the entry of Chaparral Cars, Inc. from Midland, Texas. It might have been afforded more respect if onlookers knew it had been flown to the Old World on a chartered cargo plane.

by Karl Ludvigsen

Photographs: Ludvigsen Library

Günter Schmid Was A Maniac!

In our exclusive interview, Gerhard Berger talks to AUTOMOBILSPORT about his Formula 1 debut with ATS. At the first tests in Zandvoort, he was still braking for the Tarzan corner with his eyes closed. Two months later, he achieved an impressive 6^th place at Monza. In between: Austrian home advantages, kidding around with Piquet, a temper tantrum from Eddie Cheever and an audacious rain practice on slicks. ATS team boss Günter Schmid is remembered fondly by the Tyrolean: “The kind of character Formula 1 is in urgent need of today.” As our entertaining chat shows, today's Formula 1 could also use a character like Gerhard Berger.

AUTOMOBILSPORT: In 1984, you were driving for Trivellato in Formula 3 and touring cars for Schnitzer. A Formula 1 debut still seemed to be some way in the future.

Gerhard Berger: That's right, I wasn't really thinking about Formula 1 back then. It was Burghard Hummel who initiated the idea, as was so often the case. Burgard knew Günter Schmid well and asked him one day why he didn't field two cars. After all, he always had two chassis standing around in the truck. Günter said he would like to, but he did not have an engine. In the meantime, I was an established touring car driver at BMW, with good support from Dieter [Stappert, BMW racing director]. So Burghard said to me, why don't you ask Dieter if he will give you an engine? Dieter said okay, he would discuss it at the company. And he actually succeeded in convincing the managing board. It was hard work, but with good support from Adolf Prommesberger and Paul Rosche, he was able to pull it off. BMW would provide me with engines for two race weekends. Günter Schmid hired some new people for the second car. The plan was for me to drive at Hochenheim and Zeltweg.

AUTOMOBILSPORT: You almost made your Formula 1 debut in Monaco after Manfred Winkelhock tore his shoulder muscles in a crash in practice. However, Winkelhock gritted his teeth and drove himself. In hindsight, are you glad that you did not drive your first F1 race at Monte Carlo, of all places? 

Berger: Absolutely! I don't think I would have done that. To drive for the first time in Monte Carlo with those cars, in that era... Pretty much impossible to look good under those circumstances!

AUTOMOBILSPORT: At the seat fitting in Hockenheim, it turned out that you did not fit inside the car.

Berger: We realised that it was not going to work, given how tall I was. The whole backside had to be cut out of this carbon fibre structure in order for me to even have room in the car. The tank had to be opened. So Hockenheim was out. My first race had to be postponed until Zeltweg. 

It must be said, the chassis was probably the best in Formula 1 at the time alongside the McLaren. Günter Schmid and Gustav Brunner were ahead of the competition, they had made an early start using carbon fibre. I believe they were the only ones at the time who manufactured the chassis in one piece. It was sensational, actually. But badly suited for what I needed, which was a change in the interior dimensions…

by Christoph Stappert

Photographs: Sammlung Gerhard Berger, Sutton, Jochen von Osterroth

ALPINA turns 50

The famous tuners celebrate a major anniversary

One of the most respected brands in the business of automotive tuning and racing is turning 50 in June 2015. For five decades, Alpina has been rolling out cars such as the C1, B10, B12, XD3 Biturbo and B7 biturbo, and selling them all over the world. And Alpina's cars have had a huge impact on touring car and GT racing as well.

In the early days, the term Alpina-BMW was essentially a synonym for BMW in touring car racing. Almost immediately after the company was founded in Kaufbeuren in 1965, 1600 and 2002 cars started popping up in national races, rallies and motorkhanas. Alpina offered not just performance-enhancing engine upgrades in the traditional sense of a tuner, but showed through its modifications that the already sporty blue-and-white brand could be much improved for motor racing. It all began with the development of the Weber twin carburettor kit for the BMW 1500. From that moment on, founder Burkard Bovensiepen's intentions were clear: “Everything we do, we do to industrial quality.” With that, the company's mantra was set – solidity and reliability take top priority. The brand wanted to be forward thinking, which in turn became one of Alpina's secrets to success in motorsport. Quickly, BMW drivers swore by Alpina carburettors, camshafts, exhaust systems, and eventually complete engines and upgrade packages from Buchloe. And the parts weren't just fast, but reliable too. This was key to Alpina's parts developing a good reputation, because as every racer knows, to finish first, you first have to finish.

By the late 1960s the results were speaking for themselves, and it became known at home and abroad that drivers were using Alpina to improve their cars. And in 1968, the first of many proud chapters of Alpina's factory racing history began. From the outset, Bovensiepen made a clear commitment to motorsport, seeing it as meaningful promotion for his road cars. And in spectacular fashion, usually painted in glamorous orange and matte black, Alpina took the full-throttle business by storm, with aces like Niki Lauda, Helmut Marko, James Hunt, Jacky Ickx and Hans-Joachim Stuck behind the wheel of cars such as the 1600-2, 2002 and 2800 Coupé…

by Uwe Mahla

Photographs: Archiv Alpina, Sammlung Marco Kögel – H.P. Seufert, Archiv BMW

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN:
ATS FORMULA 1

SHADES OF YELLOW – PART 2: THE WINKELHOCK YEARS 1982-1984

In our last issue we looked back on the early years of the German ATS team in Formula 1. Günter Schmid’s charismatic outfit took off to an impressive start and scored a championship point at its debut Grand Prix at Long Beach in 1977. But things soon turned sour. Drivers, team managers, designers and mechanics – they came and went, not many of them staying for long as Mr Schmid rarely accepted any opinion other than his own. Nevertheless, ATS went on to produce some very competitive F1 cars. As we will learn in the sequel of the team’s history, ATS would finally have all the ingredients for a potential front-runner at its disposal by 1983. But there would be no happy end for the yellow cars from Bicester. Instead there was much drama with many lost opportunities. In part two of our ATS story, we reflect on the years with the charging Manfred Winkelhock behind the wheel and powerful BMW engines in the back of the cars. 

At the end of the 1981 Grand Prix season, however, ATS was still a far cry from being competitive. In terms of speed, the year with the overweight HGS1 chassis was by far the worst for the team since it had entered F1. First Dutchman Jan Lammers and then Slim Borgudd often struggled to qualify the ATS for the races. Whenever they made it onto the grid, they were only to be found at the very back. Günter Schmid was determined to get his cars back into a competitive position for 1982. For the new season, the team permanently entered two cars for the first time since 1978. Even more remarkably Mr Schmid would keep the same two drivers throughout the year! Eliseo Salazar from Chile would partner German F2 racer and sportscar ace Manfred Winkelhock. Salazar had some F1 experience; he successfully raced a privately-run Williams in the British F1 Championship before stepping up to the World Championship with March and Ensign in 1981. The Chilean was not regarded as the greatest of talents, but Eliseo had a reputation for being a solid driver and he brought Copec Oil sponsorship from his homeland to the team. 

More was expected of Manfred Winkelhock. Manfred was a member of the original BMW Junior Team in 1977. With the support of the Bavarian manufacturer Winkelhock spent three years in Formula 2, albeit with mixed results. During a test with ATS at Silverstone in the summer of 1981, the young German convinced Günter Schmid of his talents and the two agreed a deal for 1982. Originally, Winkelhock’s ATS contract would oblige him to come up with a quantity of Deutschmarks in the high 6-digit range. Manfred had planned to cover this with his long-time personal sponsors Liqui Moly lubricants and DVF, the German association of driving schools.

When DVF suddenly pulled back heavily on their support late in 1981, Winkelhock seemed in trouble. However, after some negotiation Günter Schmid finally agreed on a reduced budget from his compatriots and he had good reasons to do so. First, the signature of Winkelhock gave ATS a lot of good press in Germany and secondly, Schmid was well aware of BMW’s continued support for the German driver. Both Dieter Stappert and Paul Rosche, the two key players at the Munich manufacturer’s motorsport division, were instrumental in Winkelhock’s F2 career. And in 1982 BMW was about to enter F1 as an engine supplier with their newly developed turbo power plant for Brabham. So it was a clever move for ATS to have a promising German F1 youngster with Munich connections under contract. 

1982: Tyres, politics and the final Cosworth year

But for the time being, the team had to do with Ford Cosworth power. Hervé Guilpin updated the 1981 ATS with a reinforced chassis and changes to the skirts system, the weakest point of the previous year’s car. The 1982 ATS D5-Cosworth also had new bodywork sections and it started the season with an unusual bulky airbox that would be replaced with a more conventional engine cover by Monaco…

by Robert Weber & Andreas Riehl

Photographs: Sutton

Comeback of the RSR

The 911 Carrera RSR 3.8 was introduced in the early 1990s to spearhead the revival of Porsche's 911 customer sport range. Project leader Roland Kussmaul and director of customer racing Jürgen Barth spoke to AUTOMOBILSPORT about the development of the car and the factory-backed outings with the new-generation 911 RSR.

When the introduction of Group C changed the sportscar world in 1982, things went quiet for the Porsche 911 in terms of motorsport. The 935 was still living on in the hands of customer teams, but Porsche itself was busy with its highly successful 956 and later 962 models. That meant the 911 received very little attention. 

Inside Porsche, however, there was a small team of people committed to making sure the 911's racing career wasn't quite finished. “The 911 couldn't just disappear from motor racing,” says Barth. “Over all these years we had built these fantastic cars, celebrated great successes, had built a massive, worldwide network of customers – and we couldn't just let it all come to a close.”

In 1978, Porsche launched a Safari Rally program under the direction of Jürgen Barth and Roland Kussmaul (“That's how we met each other,” says Barth), and in the years that followed the pair worked on a series of international rally events. “In 1981, we entered several rally events with the Group 4 911 – and it was based on our initiative that the car was built and homologated,” adds Barth. “In 1983 we came back from an event, and we decided to build the 911 SC RC. We thought it would be a shame if the 911 died out from motorsport. Through an internal memo, we got the green light to build 20 cars. 'Go and do it' was the short and sharp response from the board.” 

Kussmaul was named as the project leader for the 911 SC RS, which got the internal type code 954. The plan was to build 20 of the cars in 1984 and sell them to customers in a bid to keep the 911's motorsport career going. “But as far as the development of the 911 and its use in motor racing, there was kind of a vacuum that followed in the years to come,” says Barth. “It was only when Patrick Peter, Stéphane Ratel and me brought the BPR Series to life in 1994 that we had a new base on which we could start making suggestions for new projects such as the 3.8-litre models of the 964.” …

by Robert Weber

Photographs: Historisches Archiv Porsche AG