I grew up designing on a drawing board, right to the end of my time in motor racing, and I\u2019m still on a drawing board today. I\u2019ve designed a lot of cars from scratch, and when I say from scratch I mean a blank piece of paper. Even in today\u2019s age of modern technology, with the various computer systems available, I still cannot see how you can start without a drawing board. I suppose the first thing to say is that I was always interested in cars, not only was I interested in cars, but was interested in things mechanical. I continued my schooling to the age of 23 and I gained an HND (Higher National Diploma) in mechanical engineering. I have to say I did not attend University, but rather Technical College. We didn\u2019t have computers, just slide rules, so I can relate to having done it from the ground up. At the conclusion of my education, I decided to write to various racing car companies, and eventually got a job with Eric Broadley at Lola, and I started off working on Peter Revson\u2019s Can-Am car.<\/p>\n
After a couple of years, I went to McLaren and worked on the McLaren M23\u2014maybe one of the most successful Grand Prix cars of all time. Despite winning two World Championships, I\u2019d yet to design my greatest racecar\u2014the Chaparral 2K Indycar. Yes, I was also very pleased with the successful 1984 McLaren turbo car, which was fast straight out of the box. However, I look upon the Chaparral as the \u201cgreatest\u201d in the terms of it being done at such low cost and meager means, yet winning the 1980 Indy 500\u2014America\u2019s most prestigious motor race. For me, it certainly didn\u2019t come any better than that. I started from the proverbial blank piece of paper and my \u201coffice\u201d was simply a drawing board in my dad\u2019s front room, as I\u2019d returned to the UK from the U.S. upon the birth of our first child. Gordon Kimball came over to assist me, we\u2019d worked together at Vel\u2019s Parnelli Jones team, following my move from McLaren. At VPJ, I\u2019d also become immersed in ground effects by adding pieces of plastic to the sides of the car and continued those ideas I\u2019d learned when joining Jim Hall. We built three 2K cars in Luton, England and had them shipped out to Midland, Texas\u2014a real shoestring operation, but successful. One thing that did surprise me about Jim Hall was the lack of his input, he was literally team owner. In terms of design there was no involvement, but in terms of the team there was the finance and his name that brought along companies like Pennzoil and that was it. I remember when the first car went over there he got the mechanics to check it over. He checked the rear bump steer and said, \u201cI don\u2019t know about this rear bump steer.\u201d I asked what the problem was as he seemed to be moving it right out of the range where it would work. It was the things he did and didn\u2019t do, which raised questions about him in my mind. Johnny Rutherford did the business in the race by gaining pole position, leading for around 120 laps and taking the yellow Pennzoil-sponsored car to the flag. It was such a defining moment in my career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I grew up designing on a drawing board, right to the end of my time in motor racing, and I\u2019m still on a drawing board today. I\u2019ve designed a lot of cars from scratch, and when I say from scratch I mean a blank piece of paper. Even in today\u2019s age of modern technology, with the various computer systems available, I still cannot see how you can start without a drawing board. I suppose the first thing to say is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":551599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2188,17165,9348,17100],"tags":[2272,6834,11408,13444,18173,21501,13061,11925,6722,245,11471],"class_list":["post-495554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1980s","category-chaparral","category-guides","category-model-guides-race-cars","tag-1980s","tag-1980s-cars","tag-chaparral","tag-2j","tag-chaparral-model-guides-all","tag-chaparral-model-guides-race-cars","tag-car-profiles","tag-can-am-race-cars","tag-race-car-in-depth","tag-race-car","tag-can-am"],"yoast_head":"\n