Chaparral 2 Sports Car at Indy?

[sandysixtysfan]

Hi,
I was putzing around on the great Indy photo achieves that stonecold provided. In the '65 archieves there was a photo of the Chaparral sports car running the track at Indy. What is the story behind this? Thanks, Sandy
www.indy500.com/photos/1965/01/01/133/Indianapolis_500/37451

[indy]

interesting....

Jordan

[herk56]

Yeah, that's a cool pic! If they'd had the road course back then, what a race they could have had! All those neat USRRC cars tooling around that historic track!

Brian

[herk56]

Well, guys, I found the answer to this one! I was just re-reading (by coincidence) the Chaparral section by Pete Lyons in "Cars in Profile - Collection 1" and came across this info:

"During that latter summer (1965) the team spent an interesting few days at Indianapolis trying the sports car on the oval; it went a very respectable 144 mph and behind the scenes work was started on a single-seater. This project was abandoned, emerging only six years later when the chassis was finished privately as a F5000."

So we ALMOST had a Chaparral Indy Car as early as 1966! Interesting!

Brian

[sandysixtysfan]

Hi Brian,
Thanks for the info. The Chaparral 2 lapping at Indy must have been a sight to see!
Sandy