<VV> Chaparral Transaxles

[james rice]

All:  This is not a engineering detailed answer.

The Chaparral's never had an automatic as we generally think of them. It
certainly wasn't a modified Powerglide.  Basically they replaced the clutch
with a torque converter.  Their 1st automatic in early '64 was a one speed
transaxle w/torque converter.  When more gears were added to the transaxle,
shifting was accomplished just like you would if the clutch went out on your
car.  Since the internals of a racing transaxle are different than a
"normal" transmission/transaxle, the drivers much more skilled than the rest
of us and the internals components only had to last at a maximum of 24 hr at
LeMans ('66 & 67), the clutch less shifting wasn't a problem.

There were two issues with the Chaparral clutchless transaxles.  The first
was slow starts against cars with conventional multi-speed transaxles, the
second was cooling on the transaxle. They had transaxle failures in
endurance racing due to heat degrading the seals with the subsequence fluid
loss.  Once solved, the transaxles became bullet proof.

It was the no clutch pedal with facilitated the suspension mounted moveable
rear wing, which was the real advantage the Chaparrals had for several
years.  Controlling the wing gave the drivers something to do with their
left foot.

See Chevrolet=Racing...? by Paul Van Valkenburgh pages 122-127.  There are a
couple other Chaparral books out there, but PvV's book was an arms length
away in "my room" while the others are downstairs in the library.

As a side note, the 2nd Chaparral 2 which Hap Sharp drove in only one race
had a BOP V-8 and a modified Corvair 4-speed.

Historically Yours,
			James Rice

********************************************

I think the semi-early Chaparrals were reported to have a 2 speed
transmission with some automatic transmission like capabilities


Dan Timberlake
Westford, Massachusetts, USA

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Message: 6
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:37:22 -0400
From: Jim Houston <jhouston001 at cfl.rr.com>
Subject: Re: <VV> 2 speed auto

Jim Hall's Chaparrals used a Powerglide transmission.  They were
probably modified to some degree, but still PG...

Jim Houston