Quite possibly the coolest vintage race around these days.
The entry list is fun to look at:
http://www.lacarrerapanamericana.com.mx/participantes2.asp
For some reason, I find the number of Studabakers entered amusing.
Quite possibly the coolest vintage race around these days.
The entry list is fun to look at:
http://www.lacarrerapanamericana.com.mx/participantes2.asp
For some reason, I find the number of Studabakers entered amusing.
Lots of Studebakers. Cadillacs, Mercedes, and Volvos as well. Quite an eclectic mix, and some top-shelf driving talent, too.
Harri Rovanperä has been at the highest levels of Rally.
I'd love to see this event someday.
Those are Studebakers in appearance only -- under the bodywork they have tube frames and 600 HP V8s. They are popular because they are relatively light and aerodynamic compared to other cars in their class.
It's interesting to me that there are a number of Volvo PV544s entered in that same top class, and also one or two in the class under that, which is mostly 5-liter Falcons and Mustangs. They are re-engined with Volvo OHC engines, but they are still naturally-aspirated, carbureted four bangers of about 2.3 liters.
There's a Volvo 122S entered in Historico B, which is normally the 3-liter six-cylinder class. No idea what they have under the hood.
Several of the Mercedes Gullwings have modern BMW power, which is specifically permitted this year for some mysterious reason.
The Volvo I was associated with this year withdrew their entry last week, sad to say. That was a 122S based in the Atlanta area, and I took on building them an engine on an emergency basis after the original builder stiffed them. I pulled a lot of rabbits out of a lot of hats getting it to them with several weeks to spare, but they ran into too many snags on their end and were not able to get the car going in time. Sigh...
Yeah, I had a feeling many of the 'vintage' American iron has more in common with NASCAR than anything from the 50's...
Sorry to hear the VClassics 122 won't be making an appearance. I was wondering about that.
Ian F wrote: Sorry to hear the VClassics 122 won't be making an appearance. I was wondering about that.
Not the same car or team as last year's Historico A+ winner -- I only built the engine for the one that withdrew and shipped it to them. There was some problem with the 123 ignition and also what sounds like a defect in one of the Weber DCOEs, and they just ran out of time.
If anyone wants to a blow-by-blow of this year's running, check out Gary Faules's blog.
I wouldn't run just any vintage racer here or any car you really care about for that matter. Sure looks fun and I would love to play with house money at this event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuEH9f7XdLM
Dougie
dougie wrote: I wouldn't run just any vintage racer here or any car you really care about for that matter.
It definitely takes a purpose-built car, and it's going to take a beating. That's the nature of the event -- it's an endurance test as much as a speed contest, and the cars need to do all sorts of things well rather than any one thing superbly. Not many race tracks have over 10,000 feet elevation changes, for one thing 
The starting field is typically 110 - 120 cars. 15 of those will be wrecked, 60 will complete the course entirely on their own power, and 0 will get to the finish without requiring repairs of some sort along the way.
Reports are spotty, but on Day One (yesterday) one of the Original Panam class cars -- a '54 Lincoln -- had a wreck serious enough that the driver and navigator had to be cut out of the car, a Mustang and a Hudson had enough damage that they'll be unable to continue, one Volvo had an engine fire and another went down with a bad wheel bearing (they are running again today), one former overall winner blew up the rear end and another former winner lost the transmission -- one of those last two is Doug Mockett in the Oldsmobile that was featured on a CMS cover some months back, but I don't know which is the problem he had.
Still, it's gotta be a blast when it all works:
At least until the clutch gives up...
We are working on a feature story on this truly wild event.
I recognized several names on the entry list most notably Harri Rovanpara (sp) and Jochen Mass.........that's some stout competition.
Tom
Rovanpera was leading overall as of yesterday evening...
I like his style......
Dougie
Check out the slide show on BaT, taken yesterday.
La Carrera ended today. Unofficial results have Harri Rovanpera as the overall winner, which is impressive for a first-time competitor at La Carrera regardless of previous accomplishments. Timing and scoring is always a shambles and seems to have been particularly problematic this year, so we may not know the official results or anything about the final standings in the other classes for some days yet.
Bill Beilhartz was the overall winner in 2008. Here some in-car video of what can happen when even a top driver in a top car makes one little mistake...
(No one was badly hurt.)
Publisher Tim wrote that CM is going to do a feature story on this event. Excellent! But I hope it includes some in-depth mechanical details of the cars.
Every now and then I see an old car at a vintage event with La Carrara Panamericana and "Saludos Amigos" written on it. Whether it actually participated in the event isn't known. What I'd really like to see is a North American road racing series consisting of "The Cars of La Carrera," maybe as a support race to another major series like the ALMS or something. It's a shame these cars are prepared for only one event. I think a series with these cars would draw big crowds anywhere.
Gary, you can get a general idea of the mechanicals on the Mats Hammarlund Racing website. Check out the Studebaker build for a Turismo Major class car, and the Falcon build for a Historico C car. I've written up building a Historico A Plus class Volvo on the Apple Farmer Racing site (not that I would dare compare what I do to what Mats does).
The trouble with racing these cars elsewhere is that they really are specialized for La Carrera (and the smaller version, the Chihuahua Express), and most would not be impressive in a different context. The above Volvo is not at all what I would build as a vintage track racer -- it's actually heavier than a stock Volvo, it's got more ground clearance and softer springs than a track car would, it's cammed for torque rather than HP (it also has to run on 92-octane Pemex pump gas), and it would be way over-geared for all but the longest track circuits.
Some more good videos on BaT 
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