Goodwood FoS: Two ground-breaking racers ...
This weekend's Goodwood Festival of Speed will celebrate 'Racing Revolutions – Quantum leaps that shaped motor sport'. One of the many revolutionary machines that will line up for the event is this Chaparral 2J Chevrolet that starred briefly in the 1970 Canadian-American Challenge Cup. What set it apart from the rest of the field was a small snowmobile engine that literally sucked the air from under the car. As a result the 'sucker-car' generated a huge amount of downforce without the drag penalty usually created by wings. Vic Elford managed to put the car on pole but in the races the snowmobile's poor reliability proved the car's achilles heel. At the end of the year the Chaparral 2J was banned and the innovative manufacturer left Can-Am. Elford will be back behind the wheel of the ground-breaking this weekend. Jim Hall and Chaparral returned in 1979 with this 2K Cosworth Indy racer. Bringing ground-effect aerodynamics to the 'Brickyard', it was driven to victory in the 1980 Indy 500 by Johnny Rutherford. Celebrating the 500's centenary, the Texan will also be at Goodwood in the 2K as well as in the McLaren M16C/D Offenhauser, which he piloted to his first win in 1974.
Another convention defying racer is this Huron 4A, which is the only car of its type fitted with the Variomatic gearbox and was showcased by the inventor's grandson at Goodwood last year. He will be back this weekend with a slightly earlier Formula 3 Tecno fitted with a similar continuously variomatic transmission (CVT). When Williams later tried a CVT gearbox in 1993, it made their dominant car even faster and the FIA were quick to ban the system. The Huron was successfully raced and secured the 1972 Belgian Hillclimb Championship.
Enjoy the links:
1970 Chaparral 2J Chevrolet - Images, Specifications and Information
1971 - 1972 Huron 4A Cosworth Variomatic - Images, Specifications and Information
If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.
(Ted Joans)
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Hey, it's eight cyclinders! 
