The racing hybrids and specials of South America

[Ray Bell]

This is one really huge subject and it would be nice to see what pics people can come up with here...

Like this one:

https://i.postimg.cc/JnRsHkRN/0120frblogdojovino-blogspotvedetteongrid.jpg

The car in the centre of the front row is one built by a very young Alex Ribiero and his friends from a worn out VW1200 in the mid sixties. The driver, however, is Nelson Piquet, though Alex and his friend did very well in it in Brazilian racing. In short, it surprised a lot of people.

This is from a website called blogdojovino-blogspot

But there are so many more cars which have seen service in local series in these countries, remembering that their heritage was so steeply in long races around the country in which the likes of Fangio competed and excelled.

Oddball stuff, they had, too. The OHC Jeep engine of the sixties was a favourite and there were other engines not so often seen elsewhere. The Chrysler Slant 6, AMC V8s too, if I recall.

What about we plumb this source of interesting cars and competitors?

[Roger Dowding]

Great idea for a thread, Ray Bell, I have seen many photos of the Chev and Ford 1930's /40's that were raced long distance in South America, usually with cut down Mudguards / Fenders - in American parlance.
seems that they [ the South Americans were like us [ both sides of the Tasman ] with Specials and modified cars ..they had a Motor Industry but generally to build obsolete US and European models ..

Remember reading about Juan Manuel Fangio " 24 June 1911 – 17 July 1995), nicknamed El Chueco ("the bowlegged" or "bandy legged one") or El Maestro ("The Master"), was an Argentine racing car driver. "
Another Argentinian -South American driver José Froilán González " (October 5, 1922 – June 15, 2013). known as
The Pampas Bull (by his English fans) and El Cabezón (Fat Head, by his close colleagues). - quotes Wikipaedia " racing those Coupes in his early days, in long distance Races - similar to Carrera Panamericana.
El Cabezón raced a Chev powered single seater before entering Grand Prix Racing in Europe around 1950 and finished in Argentina racing a Chev V8 powered Ferrari singel seater that he obtained form Enzo - an outdated chassis - in their Formulae Libre - again sound just like Australasia..

No photos of my own but will keep looking.

-however I do have this an AMT Kitset -produced under licence by Tonka in New Zealand in the 1960's.70's was built modified to look a bit like the V8 and Chev 6 Coupes that we had in NZ in the 1950's early 1960's.
Have both this version - underwent a minor restoration in 2019, having been in a box since around 1970, and an unmade kitset still in the box - a project for next winter perhaps.

Before the rebuild - showing the original AMT Tonka boxes.

64687.

Rebuild almost complete - a few components to go on/in.. racing numbers required too !!

64688

The Boys in 1950 in England ..

64689

[Ray Bell]

Not quite that early, but early enough:


From Allpar.com
The BF 161 [Jeep] was the first Brazilian motor used in a racing car — the Eclipse Special, built by Antonio Santilli at Retífica Eclipse, a machine shop that still exists in Lapa, Sao Paulo. This single-seater premiered at the 500 km Interlagos race in 1958, piloted by Waldomiro Nunes and Ivair Bombardi. The first car had the word “Hurricane” misspelled on the intake manifold; it was later replaced by the phrase “Fundido em Taubaté" (“Made in Taubaté”).

https://www.allpar.com/photos/willys/engines-brazil/eclipse-special.jpg

Later many Jeep engines were used.

[Kwaussie]

This is a great photo.

[Ray Bell]

Oh yes it is...

Shirtsleeves and skinny tyres, those were the days.

Can anyone find the sites which contain all the cars they used to run in their National series, I think it was for sports cars, I think it was a 6-cylinder limit. Some even sank to using Falcon engines.

[Roger Dowding]

" National series, I think it was for sports cars, I think it was a 6-cylinder limit. Some even sank to using Falcon engines. " The sites I found about Fangio and Gonzales - mentioned a serewis in the 1960's and Froilan used a Chev 6- presume the later version of the
" Stovebolt " the " Blue Flame ". I didn't find photos apart form their exploits in Uk /Europe for the " Grand Prix " series of the time.

Must do some more work on it, though !!

[bry3500]

Biica Votnamis Star-Fighter

[bry3500]

Deoclides Carpenedo Bi -motor. 1971 Ford Corcel engine in the front and a Simca V8 in the back

[Ray Bell]

Unbelievable!

The Corcel was a Renault 12 redesigned by Willys and taken over by Ford when they bought that company! That engine is pure Renault 12 1300cc. Whether the Simca V8 was the Esplanada engine or not is in question, but I'd suggest that if this thing was built using a 1971 engine at the front, the Simca V8 would be the Ardun-headed Emi-Sul engine which was designed by Ford, moved to Simca with the purchase of Ford France, bought out by Chrysler and migrated to Brazil where the Ardun head was added.

What a mix!

There's some good stuff among these Specials, I know. See if we can keep them coming.

[bry3500]

Unbelievable!

The Corcel was a Renault 12 redesigned by Willys and taken over by Ford when they bought that company! That engine is pure Renault 12 1300cc. Whether the Simca V8 was the Esplanada engine or not is in question, but I'd suggest that if this thing was built using a 1971 engine at the front, the Simca V8 would be the Ardun-headed Emi-Sul engine which was designed by Ford, bought out by Chrysler and migrated to Brazil where the Ardun head was added.

What a mix!

There's some good stuff among these Specials, I know. See if we can keep them coming.

He made several different versions - this one had a VW engine in the front and the Simca V8 in the back. The cars had 2 accelerators !!

[Ray Bell]

Madness!

[Ray Bell]

Perhaps the front engine was there to drag it home if the rear engine failed?

Here's a page with a lot of inline 6 devices. Argentinian F1 in the early seventies, just click on the thumbnails for more useful picture size:

http://www.info-maf1.facundogalella.com/nacional/numeracion1972.php

Falcon, Jeep (Tornado), Chevrolet and Chrysler Slant sixes were the engines in most of them.

[Ray Bell]

Meanwhile, chapter and verse on the twin-engined things... or at least this bloke's twin-engined things (he wasn't alone!):


Unusual two-engine racing car designed between the 60's and 70's in Cascavel (PR) by mechanic Deoclides Carpenedo. At least five versions were built, the first of them in 1967, even before the Fittipaldi brothers created their twin-engine Fitti-Volks. The first car was mounted on a DKW chassis, from which it received the two engines, one front and one rear mounted between axles, and coupled to them two Volkswagen gearboxes.

The car was driven by two accelerator pedals (!), One for each engine, two shift levers, positioned side by side (!!), one clutch pedal and one brake pedal. A car with such a configuration was evidently very difficult to control.

Seeking to make it more competitive, Deoclides was successively changing the mechanics and making it increasingly powerful. Until 1971 the twin-engine was introduced in four different configurations: DKW front and rear VW engine, front and rear VW engine, front VW engine and Simca V8 rear and finally Ford Corcel engine in front and Simca behind.

The main driver of the car and what best managed to "tame" him was the Paraná Valdir Favarin, who with him managed to win even the best Brazilian prototypes of the time. Favarin raced the twin-engine until 1974.

Thirty years later, in 2004, Deoclides decided to rebuild his prototype, "already very tired of racing and attacked by rust". The new car was also a hybrid, formed by the front half of a DKW chassis attached to the rear of a Kombi platform and equipped with two air-cooled VW engines and their gearboxes.

The set was covered by a glass-fiber-reinforced plastic cowl that, as if to honor tradition, had an unusual detail: a circular opening in the front enclosing the engine's cooling fan. The new Bimotor was inaugurated in 2009 by Favarin, a retired driver, penta-champion and two-time Brazilian runner-up of Sport-Prototype.

And a web page with the pics above plus two more:

http://www.lexicarbrasil.com.br/bimotor/

And to be honest, I would have been happy with more about single-engined cars!

[bry3500]

Baufer-Chevrolet BSPO31. A wee bit off topic but worth a mention
http://sportprototipoargentino.blogspot.com/2014/08/

[Ray Bell]

Not off-topic at all... in fact, completely on-topic.

From that site I found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCQD24K34x0&feature=emb_rel_pause

All South American Specials, mostly with 6-cylinder engines.