L a second part of Competition Pegaso Touring Spyder Panamericana ( Part - click -) to discuss the Carrera Panamericana, the infamous - as a dead - mythical marathon race, staged between 1950 and 1954 , a total of five editions in that 27 people, including pilots, spectators, mechanical ... killed, the highest ratio of deaths in any competition car for a race between 300 and 600 miles a day, a race that would be like a race Madrid - Warsaw stages. Of course, all this done, and done, the American or the Mexican Road Race, a race infinitely more heroes than villains a myth with a lot of epic .
Race, which in '54 was beginning to call " The Death Race", was played in extreme hardness, both in the state of the road, despite to be novel was nothing more than a two-way road that skirted precipices in many cases not to shock anyone or shoulder, a race that was played the same from sea level to 3,300 meters , undergoing changes in a same day, which involved passing 40 ° C to 3 º C within hours , asphalt of various kinds, including the famous lava, varying the type of grip and in general any condition mediananmente expected within a circuit. The difficulties were added when the passage of towns and cities, the public was thrown to the pavement, leaving a very narrow corridor for such machines without realizing that in seconds it pasar la siguiente; o dificultades creadas por accidentes en medio de la nada y que tardaban horas en ser atendidos..., perros cruzando la calzada, animales salvajes..., el riesgo ya no era sólo la carretera sino también sus circunstancias ..., y sin eso..., qué es una carrera..., eso, sólo eso :
Dicha carretera, la Panamericana , unía el país de Norte a Sur , desde su frontera con los Estados Unidos a la frontera con Guatemala; hasta El Paso/Ciudad Juarez desde Tuxtla, ciudad no frontera con Guatemala pero la más meridional con capacidad y recursos suficiente para poder organizar an event like the Carrera Panamericana, the Pan Am As I said at the time, this road is the result of the V Conference of American States as a means of union and move to a new world to unite different cultures through a route between northern Mexico and the city of Buenos Aires, and extreme social, cultural, climatic ... and now joins two ends of the Americas, Prudhoe Bay in Alaska and Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, without prejudice to a small section south of Panama.
C 1954 American Arrero ... at first only for vehicles with five seats, those produced by the neighboring country, who wanted to attract a Mexican land, and landed the Buick, Ford, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Packard ..., dotted, logically Alfas, Jaguar, Talbot ... The Fifth edition of the Carrera Panamericana was divided into eight stages, not in eight days to travel a total of 3,070 miles, miles that now control the Mexican government ( Secretariat of Communications and Public Works) and and not the National Automobile Association (ANA) , taking control after months of rumors the possible disappearance of the race because of its danger, danger on the rise due to the voracity of Mexicans who had discovered and were racing almost every weekend, a competition in highways, airports, improvised tracks ..., Tlaxcala, Guadalajara, Puebla ... and of course City.
The country-Mexico-GB as he wrote, was filled with many races and so much popular enthusiasm. Now, under the command of Edmundo Stierle ( Mexican Automobile Association-AMA- ), a senior financial officer and treasurer of the Mexican Chamber of Commerce. A major Stierle priorities is safety and compliance schedules and technical and sporting regulations. Thousands of police and judges are not so many encaragarán to monitor the road, the first-and second-contestants. Never be like a circuit ... but that's big.
One of the main changes compared to the fourth edition was that of repairs during the race, only pilots and navigators would be allowed to "accommodate" the vehicles becomings Career. In addition, different categories :
A. - Categoría Sport hasta 1500 cc , límite de 50 participantes y 280 US $ de inscripción. B.- Categoría Sport de 1501 cc en adelante , ímite de 50 participantes y 560 US $ de inscripción. C. - Categoría Touring hasta 2000 cc, reservada para turismos europeos, con un límite de 50 participantes y 280 US $ de inscripción. D. - Categoría Touring de 2001 cc hasta 4000 cc, reservada para turismos norteamericanos, con un límite de 50 participantes y 280 US $ de inscripción. E.- Categoría Touring de 4001 cc en adelante y con un límite de 100 participantes y 560 US $ de inscripción.
La nueva clase era la Clase "C" , abierta sólo a vehículos turismo de carrocería cerrada. Con respecto al reto de clases, cambios mínimos; obviamente, los realmente "atados" por los reglamentos eran los vehículos de categoría Touring ; permitiéndose sólo la modificación, con respecto al de serie, como la modificación del equipo de luces, mejoras en los sistemas de frenos, optimización del sistema de montaje de llanta y neumático, mejoras en los sistemas de ignición, mejora en los sistemas de baterías sin alterar el voltaje original, modificaciones dinámicas sólo para el sistema de alimentación, ...
Other major changes introduced by Stierle was that of the exit orders per class, ie the first to arrive in their respective class would be the first out in class the next day. Established the order in this way, the difference in time between the pilot and pilot exit would just a minute. Funny .. only that, but if so we enrolled at Mexico, in "National Com-mittee of the Carrera Panamericana, Avenida Cuauhtemoc, No. 242, Mexico 7, DF Mexico, today to be enrolled for renewed American should be heading a. London .. .
C omo commented, the Panamerican '54 began with our Pegasus arriving late to his date with history in what would be his last race . The participation of "The Dominican" in the Pan American was the same thing Trujillo, a personal friend of General Franco - in fact was a granddaughter of the goddaughter of the English Dominican - and lover of these beautiful Pegasus, who decided to participate him. In fact, the participation of this jewel of American vehicle in the closed during the visit to last room in Barcelona which was attended previously Trujillo, involvement with that Ricart was, undeniably enthusiastic.
A Panamericana efore and after the Barcelona Motor Show this Pegaso - 151-142 chassis - had been involved with a 3,200 cc without compressor not very successful in competitions parallel to the Paris Autumn Salon , competitions that were developing in neighboring Monthléry path, with the same mechanical configuration does get, sin embargo, el mejor de los éxitos en el circuito de Montjuich; fracasando en Pedralbes - ya con el 3.200 con compresor -, donde ni tan siquiera llegó a meta. Así, sus tres últimos puestos , un octavo, una retirada y una victoria absoluta hacían el resultado - ya impredecible de por sí - de la Panam una incógnita...
E L PEGASO SPYDER TOURING COMPETICIÓN con chasis 0142 se termina en 1953 y su objetivo es competir en las 24 Horas de Le Mans , competición a la que no llegó por un incendio sufrido en el propulsor en el banco de rodaje. Sin embargo la fama de este Pegaso nació en un artículo de Autospor t ( Ver Forix ). Siendo una máquina de competición, sobre todo velocidad, el Pegaso se lleva a las autopistas planas y rectas de Bélgica para ser testado, revisado y optimizado tras las mismas por Celso Fernández . Tras dichas pruebas el Pegaso regresa a España para que otro de los habituales, Joaquín Palacio , tome el relevo de Celso al volante, ya la joroba del capó motor modificada por sus carbuadores verticales sobre compresor. Tras una mala Vuelta a Cataluña y mala Subida al puerto de Lions get a second absolute position and my first of class in the Rise to Rabassada . His last three races before the Hall was told by success, no doubt it was the best prepared. Second category climb to the Col de la Fusillo , first of its kind in the Cote de la Rochette and first of its kind on the climb up Col Bayar, no doubt a sprinter that was to become a runner.
E condition of 54, that of the V Carrera Panamericana. were presented after the above changes, as top favorite to win, Umberto Maglioli and Phil Hill. With them, and pending a ruling from the previous two, a large number of runners of great international stature as Alfonso de Portago, registered as the Marquis de Portago, Dominican Porfirio Rubirosa, Lance Mackiln, Carroll Shelby, the local Francisco Ibarra Franco Cornacchia and Luigi Chinetti ... , including many of those enrolled in Sport 1500 cc category . Our Pegasus, but ours did not have any of the pools, per driver - without much international prestige as one of the present - for car, they all knew about the reliability of the Pegasus on longer runs. No doubt the war machine should be sent by Ferrari faithful star of the '54 Race. Quite another minor categories were - in which I shall not go beyond pointing out that they were present almost all the best drivers in Stock Cars. . In 1500 cc Sport Category which in the end had triumphed: Juhan, Hermann, Chiron and Fernando Segura.
still had not overlooking the first rays of sunshine in the morning of November 19 when the Governor of Chiapas was the starting signal to the number 1, Jack McAfee and co-driver Ford Robinson - who was visibly nervous McAfee -. His speed was not desired, they would soon see as he passed Portago, who had come second. Behind them Rubirosa, Rononil, Christie and Macklin ... curiously of the seven first exit none would end the first stage ..., a competition that could really open about losing everything. The eighth-out, Carroll Shelby, will not end the second stage. McAfee and Robinson, after being overtaken by misfortune Portago found in a car accident 200 miles from Tuxtla because of a blowout, an incident which threw them off the road, throwing Robinson out of the machine and finding instant death. Portago broke the engine only 103 miles from the exit. The disaster, as I said, was monumental in this first stage, only in Sport category did not reach 9 of 20 , ie, only 11 (in Category Sport 1500 cc) reaching the end of this phase. Not for me to say that Joaquin Palacio (4h 19 '21'') was not up to the rest of the field, certainly, ranked eighth, eighth of eleven participants but nearly one hour of Phil Hill (3h 25' 16'' .)
The second day was divided en dos mangas diferentes , la primera muy montañosa de Oaxaca a Puebla , 253 millas en las que Maglioli aventajó a Hill. Palacio pese a los problemas con las bujías consiguió llegar cuarto, escalando hasta la séptima posición en la general. Palacio y el Pegaso comenzaban a funcionar, tanto es así que en la segunda manga (Puebla-México DF ) - que comenzó tras media hora en el parque cerrado - del día Palacio llegaba tercero tan sólo por detrás de Maglioli y Hill; algo que ponía de claro manifiesto que los Pegaso eran máquinas de Sprint. Recuerdo que esta segunda etapa era de sólo 120 kilómetros (75 miles). The accumulated - after two days - but left to our Pegaso seventh a cumulative 8 h 29 '09'' while Hill accumulated first, was in 7 h 10 '00''. The caravan had arrived in Mexico City and had the worst is past, the remaining Estapar should not pose any serious irrigation.
However at this stage our Pegaso find the end of his life due to accident Karl Guenther Borgward in just 26 miles from Mexico City, an accident leaving the vehicle off the road and a large number of spectators and military medical personnel. I have read that it was the haste and lack of signs that left curve in low visibility conditions in terms of its layout, however and after reading some texts from different national -no - understand that was speeding - combined with the difficulty curve - the one who made Joaquín Palacio Pegaso to kick in, direct from the photographer Bob Flora, who covered the Race for Life Motor , seriously wounding a soldier. Curiously the same point were a Dodge and a Chevy. Race however was a terrible struggle between Maglioli and Hill, rising at the end as just won the Italian ... but that was another stroke ... and not our Pegasus, who ended on fire in the ditch and returned to Spain much later, to be scrapped ... but never forgotten . So yes, I will talk to the Carrera in full, to the finish it soon, because that Ferrari ... I can read here. Viv ME x ico!!
Salud .
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