Book review: Texas Legend – Jim Hall and his Chaparrals

Even if he wasn’t a genius-level engineer and designer, Jim Hall would still be worthy of an in-depth biography by dint of his status as a genuine world-class racing driver, certainly one of the world’s finest during the 1960s. The thing is that Hall, long known as a taciturn Texan, rarely had much to say when it came to extolling his inspiring career of both creating race cars and then putting them in victory lane, both in the United States and elsewhere.

By gaining Hall’s trust, and convincing him that his story needed to be told in appropriately respectful fashion, the American racing author and historian George Levy has finally given Hall’s career the narrative treatment it’s deserved for decades. With Hall’s full cooperation, Levy has authored a scholarly, yet conversational, recounting of Hall’s accomplishments behind both the steering wheel and drafting table.

Pilot’s son

Levy, fittingly, requires 484 pages to tell this story, which charts the years from his childhood as the son of a pilot, an experience that would help establish Hall’s life, including as the owner and pilot of a World War II-era fighter. The tale weaves its way through Hall’s education and coming of age as a driver. Once he realized his goal of designing competitive race cars, Hall took on a driving partner in Hap Sharp who was also instrumental in the team’s success.

Experimental

The cars Hall built distinguished themselves in American road-circuit competition, the wild, rules-free Can-Am series, the World Sportscar Championship and ultimately, in victory lane at the Indianapolis 500. Among other advances, Hall was among the first to use an automatic transmission in a serious race car, among the first to experiment with composite materials and plastics for car construction, and is arguably the father of modern ground-effect aerodynamics, which shocked both the Can-Am crowd and the establishment at Indianapolis.

In addition to the anecdote-rich and fact-crammed text, Hall’s book also makes extensive use of photography from luminaries including Dave Friedman, Pete Lyons, Hal Crocker, the late Pete Biro and Bernard Cahier, plus the Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Johnson, who captured the historic image of Lee Harvey Oswald getting shot in addition to his work photographing early Texas sports car racing.

Landmark

To suggest that this book is decades overdue is an understatement. Nobody has ever delved into the Chaparral story in such depth, and with such impressive detail. It took a skilled journalist to invest the time needed to source and tell about Hall’s lifetime, especially with this level of detail. Texas Legend is a landmark racing book, which should deservedly take its place among the finest and most compelling motorsport titles published this year.

Evropublishing.com

Author: George Levy

ISBN: 9781910505663

Publisher: Evro Publishing

Pages: 484

Price: $80.00 (€73.95)