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Yellow Submarine

31. May 2021 
by Ziv Knoll
4699 views

The Chaparral 2K was an Indy racer designed and using some principles that Jim Hall had actually tried back in the 1970 with his 2J CanAm design, ground effect.

In 1977, Jim Hall retired from racing at this point, was always interested in new avenues and was still around watching and looking at the cars and designs.

Interest in racing came back when he saw Chapman’s Lotus 78 Formula One car using with great success the same principle of ground effect he had pioneered but in a much different way.

Instead of using two small engines to generate ‘suction’ under the car like Hall did, Chapman shaped the underside of the car like an inverted aircraft wing. This inspired Jim Hall to build the 2K.

The design of the chassis was the work of John Barnard, the man who later introduced at McLaren the first ever carbon chassis, a revolution in chassis design.

Interesting were the tunnels which ran all the way from the front wheels to the back of the car and it’s integrated rear wing.

The beautiful yellow car, soon called ‘Yellow Submarine’ by the fans, was powered by the efficient Cosworth DFX V8 producing more than 700 bhp.

1980 saw the car winning the Indianapolis 500 with Johnny Rutherford at the wheel, having qualified on pole with an average speed of 192,258 mph (309, 408 kmh).

Source: DR

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