The 2E was developed on the Chevrolet-designed aluminium chassis that had first appeared on the 2C, and it applied Jim Hall's aerodynamic theories at a scale and ambition that had not been attempted in production racing cars before. Hall held a degree in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology and approached car development as an applied engineering problem rather than an empirical craft. His access to General Motors engineering resources, Firestone's tyre development programme, and his private Rattlesnake Raceway test track gave him the means to validate ideas before committing them to competition, a methodical process that distinguished Chaparral's development approach from most contemporaries.
The 2E's most striking departure from convention was the relocation of the radiators from the nose to two ducted pods on either side of the cockpit. Removing the radiators from the nose freed the front body to act as a Venturi tunnel, generating aerodynamic downforce from the front end rather than lift. This was one of the earliest uses of ground-effect principles in racing car design.
The rear of the car carried a large wing mounted several feet above the bodywork on tall struts. Unlike an aircraft wing the structure was inverted, generating downforce rather than lift. Critically, the wing struts were attached directly to the rear suspension uprights rather than to the body or chassis, meaning downforce from the wing loaded the rear tyres directly without passing through the body structure. This configuration — loading tyres via a suspension-mounted wing — maximised the adhesion benefit from the aerodynamic downforce.
Hall retained the driver-operated active control from the 2C, using a floor pedal in the position where a clutch would normally be. Depressing the pedal feathered the wing and closed the nose ducting, reducing drag for straight-line speed. Releasing the pedal returned both the wing and the nose duct to full downforce mode. The semi-automatic transmission again freed the driver's left foot to operate the aerodynamic control.
The 2E kept an aluminium 5.3-litre Chevrolet engine in a period when rival Can-Am teams were running iron-block engines of 6 to 7 litres, trading the power deficit for a meaningful weight advantage.
The 2E competed in the inaugural 1966 Can-Am season, which comprised a five-round series on circuits across the United States and Canada. Phil Hill drove the car as the primary Chaparral entrant. The car's only win came at the Laguna Seca round, where Hill drove to victory. The season as a whole saw Chaparral narrowly miss the championship title, which went to John Surtees in a Lola T70. A 1–2 finish at Laguna Seca demonstrated the 2E's outright pace, but the lighter aluminium engine placed the car at a power disadvantage against the larger-engined McLarens and other competitors on high-speed circuits.
Jim Hall described the 2E as his favourite Chaparral, and it remained a crowd favourite at Can-Am events throughout its season.
The Chaparral 2E established the paradigm for virtually all racing car design that followed. The suspension-mounted high rear wing it introduced appeared on Formula One cars from the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix onward, and within a season had proliferated across the entire Formula One grid. The repositioned side radiators and the nose-as-Venturi concept anticipated ground-effect and aerodynamic packaging approaches that would define the sport through the following decades. The 2E's direct aerodynamic influence on the 2F, which raced in the 1967 World Sportscar Championship and was witnessed by Formula One designers and drivers, made it one of the most consequential racing cars built in the 1960s.