The Carrera Panamericana was a border-to-border sedan (stock and touring and sports car) rally racing event on open roads in Mexico similar to the Mille Miglia and Targa Florio in Italy. Running for five consecutive years from 1950 to 1954, it was widely held by contemporaries to be the most dangerous race of any type in the world. It has since been resurrected along some of the original course as a classic speed rally.
Original
1950
After the 2,178 mile (3,507 kilometer) north-south Mexican section of the Pan-American Highway was completed in 1950, a nine-stage, five-day race across the country was organized by the national government to celebrate its achievement and attract international business. The 1950 race ran almost entirely along the new roadway.
The first of five annual races began on May 5, 1950, and was entered by racers from all over the world representing virtually every motor sport: Formula One, sports cars, rallying, stock cars, endurance racing, hill climbing, and drag racing. Because it started at the border with Texas, it was especially attractive to all types of American race drivers from Indy cars to NASCAR. Bill France Sr., the founder of NASCAR, was there for the first race as well as later races. The Mexican government's representatives worked closely with the American Automobile Association and other motor sports groups in the United States to organize and promote the event which was limited to stock sedans with five seats. Piero Taruffi and Felice Bonetto, both Italian F1 drivers, entered a pair of Alfa Romeo coupes specially constructed for the event. However, many of the 132 competitors were ordinary unsponsored citizens from the United States, Mexico, and elsewhere. The entrants included nine women drivers.
The first race ran from north to south beginning in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, across the international border from El Paso, Texas, and finishing in Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, Chiapas (formerly known as El Ocotal) on the Guatemala–Mexico border opposite from La Mesilla, Guatemala. The event comprised nine "legs" or stage. At least one leg was run each day for five consecutive days. The elevation changes were significant: from to above sea level, requiring among other modifications the rejetting of carburetors to cope with thinner air. Most of the race was run between and .
The first four places were won by American cars and American drivers. The winner, Hershel McGriff, drove an Oldsmobile 88 at an average speed of . The car cost McGriff and his partners only $1,900, when the winner's purse was 150,000 pesos (around $17,200 U.S. dollars). Though less powerful than its big Lincoln and Cadillac competitors, the car was substantially lighter. This meant that it would eventually pull away from them on the steep, winding course. The car's light weight gave it another advantage: it was much easier to stop, meaning that McGriff finished the race on his original brake shoes when the big cars were re-shoeing every night. This was important because neither McGriff nor his co-driver were capable of even basic car maintenance. McGriff also noted that the control afforded by his manual gearbox gave him a significant advantage the last day on the gravel roads in Chiapas, when he finally passed the Cadillac leading the race. The final miles to the finish were run without oil due to bottoming out the oil pans leaving the engine smoking and rattling to the checkered flag. The best placed European car was an Alfa Romeo sedan driven by Italian driver, Felice Bonetto. The race, however, set its bloody and dangerous reputation right from the start: 4 people (3 competitors, 1 spectator) were killed during this event.
1951 The following year, the race was run from south to north, starting in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas on the Mexican/Guatemalan border and finishing in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua on the Mexican/U.S. Texas border near El Paso. This was changed from the previous event because of the lack of accommodation available for race officials, drivers, crews and press in El Ocotal and the jungle. This northerly direction also allowed the U.S. drivers to finish at their border. The race was moved from early May to late November to avoid the hot and rainy weather at that time of year in Mexico and to give the European teams a chance to compete during what was normally their off-season. For the first time, a European manufacturer entered a 'factory' team, Ferrari entering several cars including a 212 Export LWB Vignale. Although the Ferrari entries did not technically satisfy the requirements of the touring car category, the Italians were permitted to compete anyway.
The race would prove to exact a heavy toll upon drivers. During the first stage, José Estrada and Miguel González died after their 1951 Packard left the road and fell into a ravine. Estrada was an experienced racer and car dealer, who had announced at the start of the race: "I will win, or die trying." The next day Italian driver Carlos Panini also died after an accident. Panini was a pioneer of Mexican aviation who established Mexico's first scheduled airline in 1927. He is credited with being the first pilot to fly a light plane around the world. The fatal accident occurred on the second day, during the second stage from Oaxaca to Puebla. Although the registered driver for the race was Carlos' daughter Teresa, he was at the wheel of a 1949 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS despite poor health and not having a valid license. The accident happened while a young Bobby Unser was trying to overtake Panini in a Jaguar, as Unser related in his book Winners Are Driven: A Champion's Guide to Success in Business & Life:
Ricardo Ramírez of Mexico City abandoned the race to rush the Paninis to a hospital in Puebla, but Señor Panini was announced dead on arrival. His daughter survived with minor injuries. The deaths of Panini and Estrada resulted in denunciations of the race by Mexico City's El Universal newspaper, who called the race a "crime", and by a government official who stated the race was "an imitation of North American customs not suited to Mexican characteristics." 4 people were killed during this edition of the Carrera Panamericana: in addition to Panini, Estrada and González's deaths, the mayor of Oaxaca, Lorenzo Mayoral Lemus, lost his life during a run of the first stage between the cities of Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Oaxaca. His car went off a mountain road and he died in a hospital in Oaxaca.
First and second places were won by the works Ferraris 212 Inters driven by Piero Taruffi and Alberto Ascari, third and fourth by ordinary American cars. Bill Sterling, a salesman from El Paso, Texas, placed third in a Chrysler Saratoga entered by Carl Kiekhaefer of the Mercury Marine boat motor manufacturer, and well-known race car driver Troy Ruttman followed him in a flat-head V8 Mercury Eight he reportedly had bought for $1,000 in a used car lot in El Monte, California yet bested several factory Lancias and Ferraris.
1952
In 1952 the organizers of Carrera Panamericana divided what had been a single class into Sports Car and Stock Car entries so heavy American sedans did not have to compete directly with nimble European sports cars. The major automobile manufacturers had taken notice of the race and Mercedes-Benz sent a highly organized team of drivers, mechanics, and new Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (W194) that already had won major races, especially Le Mans, but these cars were carbureted and had less power than the later fuel-injected roadgoing 300 SL (W198). Karl Kling/Hans Klenk and Hermann Lang finished first and second, and a 1-2-3 finish may have been the final result had American John Fitch not been disqualified for permitting a mechanic to touch his car on the second to last day.
Klenk used pre-prepared 'pacenotes' to identify and communicate upcoming road bends in rapid shorthand to Kling. This preparation was also used by Mercedes for the 1955 Mille Miglia which was won by Moss/Jenkinson while Fangio and Kling drove solo, and Hans Herrmann with a mechanic. This system proved so effective that it is used in all motor sports involving a navigator today, such as rallying. The highly organized Lincoln teams also used a similar system. American Chuck Stevenson won the touring car class in a Lincoln Capri, his first of two consecutive victories in the event.
The Mercedes-Benz W194 of Kling and Hans Klenk won despite the car being hit by a vulture in the windscreen. During a long right-hand bend in the opening stage taken at almost , Kling failed to spot vultures sitting by the side of the road. As the birds scattered at the roar of the virtually unsilenced 300 SL, one impacted through the windscreen on the passenger side, briefly knocking co-driver and navigator Klenk unconscious. Despite bleeding badly from facial injuries caused by the shattered windscreen, Klenk ordered Kling to maintain speed, and held on until a tire change almost later to clean himself and the car up. For extra protection, eight vertical steel bars were bolted over the new windscreen. Kling and Klenk also discussed the species and size of the dead bird, agreeing that had had a minimum wingspan and weighed as much as five fattened geese.
'Only' one person was killed in this event, Santos Letona of Puebla, Mexico, who died in a crash near the town of Texmelucan on the third stage between there and Mexico City.
1953
In 1953 the Sports and Stock classes were both subdivided into Large and Small groups, giving four categories in which to compete. These were split by engine cubic capacity; sports cars under and over 1600 cc were Small and Large respectively, and stock cars under and over 3500 cc likewise. This was to accommodate the huge number of participants and the diverse breeds of cars within the race. This race, like the subsequent running of the Carrera Panamericana was to be the last round of the 1953 World Sportscar Championship season.
Both Lincoln and Lancia came to the race highly organized and both factories swept 1-2-3 finishes in their respective categories. The Mercedes team did not return because of its focus on Formula One. The Europeans dominated the sports categories, and the Americans the stock. Large Sports Cars was won by Juan Manuel Fangio of Argentina in a Lancia, Small Sports Cars by José Herrarte from Guatemala in a Porsche. Large Stock Cars was won by Chuck Stevenson of the United States in a Lincoln and Small Stock Cars by C.D. Evans (again of the U.S.) in an ordinary six cylinder Chevrolet. Stevenson has the distinction of being the only person to ever win twice in the same category in the original race.
However, the race was marred by the death of a number of competitors. The co-driver and pacenote systems championed by the Mercedes teams of the previous year were vindicated by the failure of an alternative contemporary system used by some other works drivers, notably those of Lancia who in 1953 year had entered five cars; three 3.3-litre D24s for Felice Bonetto, Juan Manuel Fangio and Piero Taruffi, winner of the 1951 edition of the race, and two 3-litre versions for Giovanni Bracco and Eugenio Castellotti. During pre-race runs of the route at much safer speeds, Bonetto and Taruffi painted warning signals on the road to remind themselves of particular hazards. As the D24 was both open and single-seat, there was no co-driver. This resulted in the death of Bonetto who, leading the race under pressure from Taruffi, missed his own warning signs. Entering the village of Silao, he encountered a dip in the pavement at excessive speed and impacted a building, killing him instantly.