1970 Chaparral 2J Race Car kindda looks like a really fast washing machine (25 photos)

If I remember right, they changed the rules to outlaw this car, because it had an such an unfair advantage of road handling over the competition.

They had wild ideas back int he day, there is the 6 wheeled Renault car too.

The Chaparral 2J, aka 'the ground effects car' or 'the sucker car.' Yes the car is fairly ugly, but was very quick (when it worked) and was technologically advanced for its time. The car was powered by two engines. The first, an all-aluminum 427 Chevrolet V-8, straight out the backdoor of chevy's R&D lab, which was the main powerplant for the car. The second engine was a small 2-cycle, two-cylinder air-cooled snowmobile engine, which drove the two fans at the rear of the car to suck out the air underneath the car. This car also had a series of lexan skirts that surrounded the car at its bottom edge that contour to the track to create a seal. These would move up and down to the contour of the track via a complex system of cables and linkage attached to the cars suspension. With a good seal, the cars fans would create enough downforce to literally be able to 'suck itself' upside down and stay there. This meant it was very quick in corners. If memory serves me correct, this car didn't even compete for a complete season before it was banned for its 'movable aerodynamic devices.' (the skirts) It was also plagued with reliability issues and didn't finish many races. It would, however, consistently qualify on the pole, sometimes two seconds faster than its competitors. Who knows what could of happened if this car wasn't banned and Jim Hall and his team would of had enough time to iron out its bugs.