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[Spridgets] Chaparral Can Am 1967

To: ladaniels@sbcglobal.net
Subject: [Spridgets] Chaparral Can Am 1967
From: Kirk Hargreaves <khargreaves2@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:35:30 -0800
I think I read somewhere that the early Chaparral wing car was an automatic
tranny car as Hall used one foot to control the wing?  If so, pretty
competitive for a car running with an automatic gear box, right?

Maybe the auto tranny Chaparral was the one that came just before this one
with the wing further towards the back of the car?

I have always been fascinated with the burgeoning technology of the times
and Hall's cars.  . especially his "vacuum cleaner" Chaparral.

And fuel injection in 1967?  That surprised me.  I wonder if the fuel
injection system was similar to the mechanical fuel injection systems on the
early Corvettes?  Which from, again, what I have read, were not as reliable
as a carb car.

I had great fun as a kid building Chaparral slot cars (amongst others) . .
during a time when we made our own frames out of piano wire and the cars
were much more slower than the latter wing cars with fly around the tracks
so fast that you can hardly see them.  It was a fun time as as the cars ran
at speeds that (for me as a kid) created a sense of reality.

And as most of you probably recall, there were slot car tracks in just about
every city. .  large tracks with big banked curves.  We took that stuff
pretty seriously. .  everyone trying to out do your friends with the piano
wire frames and bodies.  . as well as the many different motor
configurations you could buy. . such as my favorite, the SP500 (I have no
idea how I remember a detail like that, pretty scary).  Some also got into
rewinding their own motors.

We built our little frames on jigs and on the weekends we had the soldering
irons going all the time.

Fantastic footage . . thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Kirk
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