Chaparral legend Jim Hall is 91: His motto? There’s always a better solution

When racing fans discuss who ranks among the best racing car designers, the names that usually come up are those of the usual suspects: Lotus founder Colin Chapman, South African Gordon Murray, Englishman John Barnard and, of course, the man who can ‘see’ air, Adrian Newey.

But this list is missing one man who came up with numerous astonishing solutions, long before these brilliant minds: Jim Hall from Texas.

The motto of Jim Hall, now 91 years old, is: ‘There’s always a better way’ – there’s always a better solution. And boy, oh boy, what solutions Hall came up with!

What his company, Chaparral Cars in Midland (Texas), put on the track continues to shape racing car design to this day. Some inventions had to be nipped in the bud by the governing bodies because Jim Hall’s opponents raised a storm of protest. Fancy a few examples?

Refining wings to generate downforce

Topic of the week

From major doubts to a major spectacle: why GP fans have reason to be delighted

Before the start of the season, critical voices dominated, but the World Championship rounds so far have shown that the rule changes are delivering exactly what was hoped for: excitement right up to the final lap.

Read more

TV program

Live

Budapest: Das Rennen Re-Live

FIA Formula One World Championship

26.07.2026 - 17:15

Wings adjustable by the driver

Der Chaparral 2E im Firmenmuseum von Midland/Texas

Foto: SPEEDWEEK.com

Composite chassis

Side-mounted radiators

Semi-automatic transmission

Data logging

Downforce generated by creating a vacuum beneath the underbody

These are just a few of the technical innovations that Jim Hall brought to the racetrack, some of which were only understood and implemented by other engineers years later.

All developments were tested extensively on the company’s own test track, which – not entirely by chance – was called Rattlesnake. Anyone who stopped their car there had to watch their step very carefully.

Jim Hall’s pioneering spirit also stems from his background: Texans tick differently; challenges spur many of them on to adopt a ‘now more than ever’ attitude.

Throughout his career, Hall exemplified the belief that obstacles are there to be overcome and that any task, however seemingly insurmountable, might just be achievable after all.

Hall is one of those ‘no-bullshit guys’ in what I call the ‘full-throttle industry’ – a man who calls a spade a spade and doesn’t shy away from criticism, yet who has always remained decent and fair in his dealings with opponents.

It’s likely to be quite difficult to find anyone amongst his contemporaries who has a bad word to say about him.<

What sets Hall apart from the other design geniuses is that he wasn’t just able to drive his own cars; he also beat many of the best drivers of his era without breaking a sweat. In the few Formula 1 races he entered, he wasn’t put off even by substandard machinery and very quickly earned the respect of the Grand Prix stars.

Hall’s famous white cars beat the top-class Ferrari, Ford and Porsche teams in the World Sportscar Championship; in the Can-Am series, his cars left their rivals in their wake thanks to superior technology – whereupon the American racing car association repeatedly threw a spanner in the works.

Hall’s Chaparral, for once a bright yellow, dominated the IndyCar Series with drivers Johnny Rutherford and Al Unser Sr.

Hall’s racing cars left their mark on American Formula 5000 and also won touring car races in the TransAm series, which was then dominated by the major car manufacturers.

In my view, the word ‘legend’ is bandied about far too liberally these days. After just five minutes, some people already consider something to be ‘cult’ or – nowadays, usually a clumsy and lazy derivation from the English – ‘iconic’.

Jim Hall is truly a legend.

His racing cars are cult classics.

Jim Hall’s Holy Grail was called ‘net downforce’. With almost all his racing cars, the American was determined to press his cars down onto the tarmac – be it with wing profiles or that ‘vacuum cleaner’ car known as the 2J, which even exceptional drivers like Jackie Stewart or Vic Elford couldn’t push to the limits of what was possible.

Stewart still says today: “No racing car has impressed me more than this one; the limit of this car was the driver.”