Tuesday March 24, 2009

 

MRRC Chaparral 2F

by Rich McMahon

 

 

The Chaparral 2F only raced for one year, 1967. It was a remarkable car then and it still is today. It was the last version of the original Chaparral 2 glass reinforced plastic chassis racecars made by the small team based in Texas. The trend setting Chaparral 2s were years ahead of their time. These designs incorporated many groundbreaking ideas such as composite chassis, semi-automatic transmissions, relocated cooling systems and of course what the Chaparral race cars of the sixties are remembered for; advanced aerodynamics. Adding to the mystique was the backdoor assistance from General Motors; the details of this are still a subject of much conjecture.

 

  

The most striking feature of the 2F was the tall wing directly over the rear wheels. This pushed directly onto the rear wheels for additional traction. To reduce drag on the straights there was a driver activated foot pedal that trimmed the wing for low down-force, which also means lower drag for a higher top speed. These ideas had been utilized the previous year on the Chaparral 2E Can Am racer. These type of features would be outlawed in later years but in 1967 Chaparral was leading the was.  It was very different than today’s racing, many advanced ideas were tried and many small teams would find an advantage. But this type of freethinking has been eliminated by strict rules.

 

The 2F was Chaparrals racer that would contest the great endurance races in North America and Europe such as the 24 hours of Daytona, Sebring 12 hours, Targa Florio and others, with the 24 hours of Le Mans being the most prestigious. The car had tremendous potential; it was very fast but suffered from transmission durability issues. In its last race the trans stayed together and the car won. An engine rules change for the next year made this advanced design obsolete.

 



 The MRRC Chaparral 2F has been eagerly awaited for a few years now.  The first batch of 1800 two-car sets has all but disappeared.   I got a set from Slot Car World and a few were still available at this writing. I was lucky to find one of these sets because other releases are planned but there are rumors, which maybe unfounded, that no other 2Fs will be produced.  If this were true it would be a shame. Hopefully we will see more of these Chaparral 2F slot cars produced.  This is also a great reason to pre-order any car you really must have.

 

The car comes in a very nice display box with a sleeve around it. The graphics on the box and sleeve are excellent. There is even a clear dust shield for the two cars.  I would prefer a clear display for special sets like this seems to be the standard now for limited edition slot cars. The cars are held tightly by four-twist wire.    I had to cut these with wire cutters to set my cars free.

 

 

We may have waited a long time for these slot cars and it was worth the wait. I’m impressed with the appearance and modeling. The shape and proportions of this car look great.  The finish is fantastic too!  The decoration is simple but all of the details of the actual cars as they ran at Le Mans in 1967 are captures including the Texas license plates and side marker lights. Another detail added is the tape around the headlights, its even different colors of the two cars.

 

 

The body modeling and molding are top notch. Panel lines and other details like fasteners are crisp and clear. The glass not only has the vents in the side window lines molded into them but the hinges are painted too.  The wing can be removed relatively easily and even has the fairing on the bottom side. When removed from the chassis the body is rather hefty because it has six large pieces attached to it. There’s the wing of course but there’s also the front grill with the headlamps, this part is much larger than expected. An interior with a driver figure is also included and behind that a radiator and engine piece is mounted. There’s another part for the exhaust outlet and rear taillights. Add in the windshields and a few other small parts and you have a hefty body that looks fantastic.

 

 

One interesting aspect is that the three-post body mounting looks identical to that of the brass 1/32 scale Monogram pan chassis of the sixties.  The interior and the radiator/engine piece would interfere with the red can motors of these vintage chassis but
I think it would fir.

 

Another distinctive feature of the Chaparrals were their wheels.  The 2F actually had wheels that varied a bit from the other Chaparrals and MRRC has the proper ones on these slot cars. These plastic wheels even have the three-prong knock offs attached separately.   The Firestone lettering and yellow pin stripe tires are the finishing touch. The tires do look a bit narrow but are probably perfect size for the time period.

 

 

The chassis is a two-piece plastic affair with adjustable wheelbase.  It has two, yes two magnets, one in front and one behind the motor.   The motor is the long and thin type we have seen in some other slots lately, notable the Scalextric MotoGP bikes.  A shallow snap-in guide is used and I don’t understand why a deep guide is not included with every slot car made today. The rear axle gear mesh is awful.

 

 

How is it on the track?   Both cars ran fast and smooth right out of the box.  No problems at all, no braid adjustment, no oiling and no tire prep were required.   It is very quick!   It shoots around my 35-foot track at an impressive speed.  Like many slot cars today it has plenty of power and with strong traction magnets it holds the road well even in tight turns.  But when it does oversteer there is not much time to catch it. Surprisingly it was much more quiet than I expected, those gears which feel so bad when you turn them by hand seem to function well on the track.  It did make some gear noise but I have many cars that are worse.

 

I am really impressed! This is a really great model of a Chaparral 2F and a fine running slot car. Hopefully MRRC will produce more Chaparral 2Fs. If you would like one I suggest pre-ordering them as MRRC products regularly sell out fast and quickly become almost impossible to find, especially one this cool.

 

- Rich