Photo: RM Auctions
When talking about fast Can-Am race cars, most racing enthusiasts usually think about McLaren, Porsche or Lola. The first two have seven championship to their names in the initial series, while Lola won six titles, five of them after the series was revived in 1977.
But Can-Am was also about innovation and cutting-edge technologies, and no one was better at it than Texas driver and race car builder Jim Hall and his Chaparral team. Although he experienced very little success, Hall built several groundbreaking cars, such as the 2C, 2F and 2J, most of them featuring technologies that surfaced into Formula One only a few years later. For instance, the Chaparral 2J “sucker car” raced in 1970, while the Brabham BT46, F1’s only “fan car”, was introduced in 1978.
But before building his own cars, Hall used to race European brands like Maserati and Lotus. His first racer, the Chaparral 1, was brought to life in 1961 and although it didn’t feature any of Chaparral’s famous aerodynamics or a mid-mounted engine like the models that followed later in the decade, it captured an overall win at Road America and a class win at Sebring in 1962.
Only five of them were built, two of which were owned by Jim Hall himself. One of these racers will go on sale this January at RM Auctions’ Scottsdale event and its estimated to fetch between $2.25 million to $2.75 million. The same Chaparral 1 sold for $1.1 million in 2004, which means its value has more than doubled in about nine years.
But before building his own cars, Hall used to race European brands like Maserati and Lotus. His first racer, the Chaparral 1, was brought to life in 1961 and although it didn’t feature any of Chaparral’s famous aerodynamics or a mid-mounted engine like the models that followed later in the decade, it captured an overall win at Road America and a class win at Sebring in 1962.
Only five of them were built, two of which were owned by Jim Hall himself. One of these racers will go on sale this January at RM Auctions’ Scottsdale event and its estimated to fetch between $2.25 million to $2.75 million. The same Chaparral 1 sold for $1.1 million in 2004, which means its value has more than doubled in about nine years.
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