La Carrera Panamericana - “The World’s Greatest Road Race!”

La Carrera Panamericana - “The World’s Greatest Road Race!”
Author: Johnny Tipler
Publisher: David and Charles
Total Pages: 1077
Release: 2014-02-10
Genre:
ISBN: 1845846893

The Carrera Panamericana was first run to celebrate the inauguration of the Panamerican Highway, and traversed the length of Mexico, from Tuxtla in the south to Juárez near the Texas border. Firms like Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Porsche took advantage, and as class winners, Porsche even applied the event's Carrera name to its sportier models. Since its 1987 revival, it's been run rally-style with half-a-dozen special stages a day. Just as it did in the early-'50s, half the entry comprises brash American stock cars, today mostly Panamericana specials based on spaceframe chassis and 600bhp NASCAR V8 engines and running gear, lurking beneath period Studebaker, Hudson, Lincoln or Oldsmobile bodywork. The '50s and '60s European classics are no less heavily modified. Mexicans love a fiesta, and the arrival of La Carrera Panamericana at each of the provincial towns on its seven-day, 2000-mile progress through central Mexico last November provided an excuse for wild celebrations. As Johnny Tipler and his co-piloto Sarah Bennett-Baggs experienced when they drove the race in 2011 in a Porsche 914/4, everywhere the entourage is mobbed by enthusiastic spectators, waving, cheering and demanding souvenirs. Crowds throng, brass bands play salsa, and the tequila overflows. Includes over 400 images, maps of the modern and original 1950s routes, plus results of original events.

La Carrera Panamericana

La Carrera Panamericana
Author: Johnny Tipler
Publisher: Veloce
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2008
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9781845841706

The Carrera Panamericana was first run to celebrate the inauguration of the Panamerican Highway, and traversed the length of Mexico, from Tuxtla in the south to Juárez near the Texas border. Firms like Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Porsche took advantage, and as class winners, Porsche even applied the event's Carrera name to its sportier models. Since its 1987 revival it's been run rally-style with half-a-dozen special stages a day. Just as it did in the early-'50s, half the entry consists of brash American stock cars, today mostly Panamericana specials based on spaceframe chassis and 600bhp NASCAR V8 engines and running gear, lurking beneath period Studebaker, Hudson, Lincoln or Oldsmobile bodywork. The '50s and '60s European classics are no less heavily modified. The arrival of La Carrera Panamericana at each of the provincial towns on its seven-day, 2,000-mile progress through central Mexico last November provided an excuse for wild celebrations. Everywhere the entourage is mobbed by enthusiastic spectators, waving, cheering and demanding souvenirs. Crowds throng, brass bands play, and salsa and tequila overflows. Includes 350 images, maps of modern and original 1950s routes, plus results of original events.

Carrera Panamericana

Carrera Panamericana
Author: Daryl Murphy
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN: 0595483240

Carrera Panamericana: the Mexican Road Race. In its day it was the longest, fastest and likely wildest international automobile race ever staged. A World Championship event along with Le Mans, the Mille Miglia, Nüburgring and the Tourist Trophy, most drivers considered it the best-and the worst-of them all. From 1950 to 1954, it was witnessed by ten million spectators along a nearly 2,000-mile course that featured deserts where the faster cars could reach 180 mph and 10,000-foot mountain passes requiring first-gear operation. Carrera Panamericana influenced engineering and marketing from Michigan to Modena. Ferrari designed and named a model specifically for the race. Lincoln emerged as a high-performance sedan and Porsche's Carrera was named in honor of its wins. The Pan-Am was so unconventional and fascinating that it came to hold the world's attention for a full week each year. It was one of the last of the great open road events and the first in which European and American cars could be compared and marked the return of US factory support to racing in America.

Carrera Panamericana

Carrera Panamericana
Author: Daryl E. Murphy
Publisher: Motorbooks
Total Pages: 192
Release: 1992-12
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9780879387341

!Carrera!

!Carrera!
Author: Mike McNessor
Publisher:
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2016-07-05
Genre:
ISBN: 9780692649404

Automotive writer and classic underachiever Mike McNessor never realized it, but he had spent his entire life preparing for a lackluster performance in the world's greatest amateur road race, run with vintage cars, La Carrera Panamericana. If it has been your dream to complete in vintage racing, this book is the perfect how-NOT-to manual. In fact, you should stop reading right now to avoid filling your head with bad ideas. But, if you're into old cars for the fun of it and you've always dreamed of embarking on the ultimate high-speed road trip with your friends, there are plenty of bad ideas in here for you as well. Proceed at your own risk.

Book of the 1950 Carrera Panamericana - Mexican Road Race

Book of the 1950 Carrera Panamericana - Mexican Road Race
Author: Floyd Clymer
Publisher: Valueguide
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2009-02-01
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 9781588501165

148 pages, 344 illustrations, size 8.25 x 11 inches. Why is this book considered by many automotive historians as the "Most Complete Account" of the 1950 Carrera Panamericana Race? When the inaugural "Carrera Panamericana" road race was run in 1950, there was very little coverage of the race printed in the contemporary press of the day. Most European publications totally ignored the race or perhaps they did not even know it was happening, and while a few US newspapers managed to print a paragraph or two on a daily basis, it certainly was not "front page" news and much of the information was questionable and sometimes inaccurate. Even the reports that appeared in the specialized "Auto Racing" magazines were sketchy at best, and it appeared that those magazines did not take the race too seriously, or attach any significance to the possible future potential of the event. Looking back, it was fortuitous that publisher Floyd Clymer secured the services of Roland Goodman, a US newspaper reporter living in Mexico, to cover the race in depth and to document all of the finite details such as the race statistics, accurate lists of the drivers, cars etc. Had the Clymer-Goodman relationship not happened, much of the history of the 1950 race would have been lost forever. All too often details become clouded over the years and the Spanish language custom followed by most Mexican parents of attaching the mother's name after the father's name such that the son Agustin of Mr. Garcia and the former Miss Lopez would be named Agustin Garcia Lopez and, at times, may be referred to as Garcia or Lopez, which makes for questionable interpretation of reports at a later date. In other words, you had to be there to get it right and Roland Goodman was Floyd Clymer's "man on the spot" and our thanks should go out to both of them for creating this comprehensive record of the 1950 "Carrera Panamericana."

The Limit

The Limit
Author: Michael Cannell
Publisher: Twelve
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2011-11-07
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1455506494

In The Limit, Michael Cannell tells the enthralling story of Phil Hill-a lowly California mechanic who would become the first American-born driver to win the Grand Prix-and, on the fiftieth anniversary of his triumph, brings to life a vanished world of glamour, valor, and daring. With the pacing and vivid description of a novel, The Limit charts the journey that brought Hill from dusty California lots racing midget cars into the ranks of a singular breed of men, competing with daredevils for glory on Grand Prix tracks across Europe. Facing death at every turn, these men rounded circuits at well over 150 mph in an era before seat belts or roll bars-an era when drivers were "crushed, burned, and beheaded with unnerving regularity." From the stink of grease-smothered pits to the long anxious nights in lonely European hotels, from the tense camaraderie of teammates to the trembling suspense of photo finishes, The Limit captures the 1961 season that would mark the high point of Hill's career. It brings readers up close to the remarkable men who surrounded Hill on the circuit-men like Hill's teammate and rival, the soigné and cool-headed German count Wolfgang Von Trips (nicknamed "Count Von Crash"), and Enzo Ferrari, the reclusive and monomaniacal padrone of the Ferrari racing empire. Race by race, The Limit carries readers to its riveting and startling climax-the final contest that would decide it all, one of the deadliest in Grand Prix history.

Operation Mexico!

Operation Mexico!
Author: Karl Pippart III
Publisher: Hillcrest Publishing Group
Total Pages: 137
Release: 2015
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1634136136

Carl Kiekhaefer vs the 1951-53 Pan American Road Race For five years, Mexico staged a car race that held the sporting world mesmerized for a week of thrills, spills, and chills. Competitors came from all around the world to participate in this brutal race of about 2,035 miles over rugged terrain. Goliaths of the car industry soon discovered the race provided a platform to test new products and rise within the U.S. market. It wasn't long before an intense competition between big players like Chrysler Corporation and Daimler-Benz emerged, and the legendary Carl Kiekhaefer found himself at the heart of not only a dangerous physical race but a fierce battle to be at the top of U.S. motor manufacturing. That position afforded a larger-than-life prestige and power. Carl was a hard-driving, competition-loving Wisconsin industrialist and manufacturer of outboard motors, chainsaws, and military drone engines. He surely would not bow down to political pressure, rigged races, sabotage, or threats. And so the stage was set for the Pan American Road Race-a spectacular spectacle, never to be forgotten. ***** This book explains, in detail, Carl Kiekhaefer's involvement with the Mexican Road Race during the early 1950s. The post race controversy following the November 1952 race reshaped Carl's approach to race car preparation, which paid huge dividends in the mid 1950s when he fielded stock car racing teams. By the 1953 PARR, Carl was fully engaged in beating the factory-backed Lincolns, but was foiled by suspected sabotage, catastrophic mechanical failures and bad luck. What allowed Carl to be competitive in the Mexican Road Race was Chrysler's FirePower (Hemi) V8 engine. Beginning in 1951, the FirePower V8 was utilized by notable motorsportsmen during the 1950s to achieve racing successes around the world.

Runways & Racers

Runways & Racers
Author: Terry O'Neil
Publisher: David and Charles
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2022-02-03
Genre:
ISBN: 1787118436

Runways and Racers focuses on sports car races held at military installations throughout America in the early 1950s. It was a marriage of convenience for the Sports Car Club of America and the Strategic Air Command, with both parties gaining advantages from the arrangement. The thorn in the side turned out to be a Congressman whose own aspirations exceeded his standing, but who found himself in a position to be able to influence the outcome of events ...