Datsuns in La Carrera Americana

[240zdave]

My Hemmings daily newsletter had an article about this years La Carrera Americana race that is starting today or tomorrow. I went to the official website, clicked on Participants, and noticed 2 teams were racing Datsuns, one a 510, and another what appears to be a 240Z. Pretty cool. Here is the link to the website:

http://www.lacarrerapanamericana.com.mx/index2.asp

[John Coffey]

Benton Performance, a Porsche shop across from mine, is supporting a customer team running a 356 (last year's class champion). They are posting lots of pictures on Facebook and here's a shot of one of the 510s running:

[TomoHawk]

Wow- All classic or antique cars. It's good to see that this historic race (rally?) is still going on. Are they required to wear body armor or bullet-proof glass?

Edited October 22, 2010 by TomoHawk

[John Coffey]

The teams are well escorted and the locals are 100% behind this event. Its rumored that some of the supposed drug kingpins are owners/drivers.

[Rick Q.]

240zDAVE, that was a great link. The car on the bottom #123 was the one my Grandfather raced in!

I have never seen that Lincol Capri, always heard of it though. I want to have a print made up from the owner of the negative - great surprise for him. If I remember right he told me that was a 53 Lincoln that they drove down from Manhatan,N.Y.C.

They wrecked on the first of eight laps. Based on the maps, it looks like it was couple of hundred miles to a lap. That had to be a crazy dangerous race to run. My Grandfather is 85 now, and also raced Triumphs in Colombia, S.A.

I found 3 cars in a Museum in Indiana from the LCP. I wonder if 123, still exists? I hope that Z tears it up at the LCP, thanks again. Love this place and the people!

[Bruce Palmer]

Well, not hard to see where the majority of the remaining mid 50s Studebakers went. Man, those were great looking bodies.

[Carl Beck]

Agreed - if you had never seen one before - it would look totally modern today.

Carl B.

[240zdave]

I don't know if I would agree on the good looking part, but certainly more aerodynamic than most cars of that period. Did anyone count how many of the Studebakers are entered?

[John Coffey]

My friend, John Benton (mentioned above) performing a midnight service on his customer's 356 in Puebla. This is typical of the race - up at 5:00am getting the car ready for grid, follow the race car in the transporter all day, work on the car in the paddock until mid-night, repeat for 11 days.

He's also learned a new phrase: No me mates, yo sólo soy el mecánico!

[240zdave]

There's a photo of the 240Z coming into Morelia on day 3 or 4 (?) on this blog site:

http://lacarrera2007.blogspot.com/

[240zdave]

Before anyone comments, the blog is called lacarrera2007, but the coverage and photos are from this years event going on right now.

[John Coffey]

Maybe, but he's got some pics from the 2009 race mixed in.