LS 1/24 Chaparral 2C

KIT #: 2267
PRICE: $37.00 delivered
DECALS: One option
REVIEWER: Scott Van Aken
NOTES: Curbside

HISTORY

The Chaparral 2C is a sports prototype race car designed and developed by both Jim Hall and Hap Sharp, and built by American manufacturer Chaparral in October 1965, to compete in a few non-championship sports car races that same year.The 2C introduced the innovative in-car adjustable rear wing. The integrated spoiler-wing was designed to lie flat for low drag on the straights and tip-up under braking through the corners. The car's clutchless, semi-automatic transmission kept the driver's left foot free to operate the wing mechanism. The 2C was based on a Chevrolet-designed aluminum chassis and was a smaller car in every dimension than the 2B. Without the natural non-resonant damping of the fiberglass chassis, Hap Sharp nicknamed it the EBJ — "eyeball jiggler".

THE KIT
Initially released in 1967, the kit has been reissued a number of times, some of these including new parts to make the kit more accurate. This is the last LS release from the 1980s, though ARII, who bought the LS catalogue, reissued it in 2001. I bought this from a seller in Japan after a Facebook seller offered it at what I though was a ridiculous price. When I see things like that, I always research it to see if I can get it for less.

Though it is a kit from the late 60s, it is fairly accurate, or at least as accurate as a race car can be. In those days, the cars changed in detail from race to race. This one is how the car looked during the Nassau Trophy race of 1965. The car only entered four races and won one of them, the 200 mile event at Kent, Washington. It finished 21st at the Nassau race after having mechanical issues.

The kit provides a one piece body and one piece pan chassis. Some of the parts, most notably the body have a bit of flash and some fairly large mold seams, but nothing major. Each of the front wheels is held in place with a metal stub and the front wheels are designed to steer, while the rears have a metal axle. Four rubber/vinyl tires are included. The interior is quite minimal and not up to today's standards. A plate holds the vertical carbs with velocity stacks and that fits from the underside of the body. Rear spoiler has to be bent slightly to snap into the rear and there is no actuating rod. The body basically just snaps into place atop the chassis once all is done.

Instructions are nicely drawn and provide Gunze paint  references. All of the writing in the instructions is in Japanese, but this won't be an issue. The car is overall white with a black interior. Since there are no chrome bits, one will need to paint the wheels and intake bits with aluminum. Though it is old, the decal sheet looks to be still viable. Those who want to improve the look of the model might want to consider cutting away all the molded in screening and replacing it with actual screen material, but that is up to the builder. 
CONCLUSIONS

I have always liked the Chaparral. They piqued my racing car crazy interest when I was considerably younger and while there have been kits of the various versions, most of them have been overly expensive. I was able to get a 2D kit back when it was reissued by Fujimi and you can read about that in the archives. I'll definitely be building this one to add to the collection.

REFERENCES

http://en.wikipedia.org

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