History of La Carrera Panamericana
The History of the Pan-American Highway and the Mexican Roadrace.
The idea of the Pan-American Highway emerged at the Fifth International Conference of American States in 1923, where it was originally conceived as a single route extending from Fairbanks, Alaska in North America to Quellón, Chile in South America.
Mexico, to celebrate the completion of their section of the highway and it’s magnificent engineering, announced “La Carrera Panamericana”, or “The Pan-American Car Race”, in 1949.
La Carrera Panamericana, originally held from 1950-1954, was unlike any other race in the world. More grueling than Le Mans, four times longer than the Indy 500, and much more treacherous than the Mille Miglia, the race became an international sensation.
The great European manufacturers such as Ferrari, Maserati, Lancia, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz came to race as well as the North American Manufacturers including Chevy, Ford, Studebaker, and Oldsmobile.
The great race drivers of the era from Formula 1, NASCAR, and the Indy 500 also came to La Carrera Panamericana. A partial listing of participants include Piero Taruffi, Phil Hill, Richie Ginther, Tony Bettenhausen, Bill Stroppe, Bill Vukovich, Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari.
La Carrera Panamericana also affected engineering and marketing strategies from Modena to Michigan. Ferrari designed the 340 Mexico specifically for the race. Lincoln was repositioned as a high-performance luxury sedan because of its successes in Mexico. Porsche named the Porsche Carrera in honor of its race wins.
Unfortunately, no races were held without lives being lost. Nine died in 1953 alone, with a total of twenty six in five years. Many of the dead were bystanders. At the conclusion of the 1954 event it was decided to discontinue La Carrera Panamericana.
La Carrera Panamericana lay dormant for the next 35 years, but its reputation only grew in its absence. By 1988, car safety had markedly improved. With the blessing of the Mexican government, the race was brought back once again in 1988 with changes made to make it safer for drivers and spectators. Historic racing at La Carrera Panamericana was alive and well again!
Presently, La Carrera Panamericana is held as a Historic race consisting of rally type “transit stages” to get the race through populated areas with a minimum of mishaps, and velocity sections of unlimited speed.
Modern day participants of La Carrera Panamericana Historic races include Alain de Cadenet, Clay Regazzoni and Pierre de Thoisy. Drivers and cars are once again competing in a multinational event.
2006 marked the return of modern day vehicles to La Carrera Panamericana with the innagural Unlimited Class.
In coordination with the La Carrera Panamericana Historic racing organizers, the organizers of “The Unlimited Class” are bringing modern day production vehicles back to La Carrera Panamericana to race.
The new Unlimited Class allows any mass produced street legal or track vehicle to compete.
The roar of the world’s fastest cars will once again be heard and seen on the highways of Mexico! This truly is the last great open road event in the classic point A to point B fashion. There is finally a venue where these marvels of modern technology can be turned loose.
Getting into the spirit, Porsche has once again named its most recent rocket ship the Panamera- in honor of the Panamericana.
It feels a lot like 1950 again!
We’ll see you there!
The Unlimited Class
