Turismo Carretera

Turismo Carretera is a racing series in Argentina. The series started in 1937, and from then until the sixties, the cars hardly changed. The races were run on a mixture of tar and gravel surfaces until the sixties. At this point, manufacturers started investing heavily as prototypes were legalised

The Liebre cars, based on the IKA (Industrias Kaiser Argentina) Torino, were some of the most succesful in the late sixties. They were numbered I, I and a 1/2, II, III. The MK II won in 1967 and the MK III in 1969. All of the cars were built by Heriberto Pronello. Normal IKA Torino’s were also being run.

Ford had recruited Horacio Steven from IKA to make a new car for 1967. Unfortunately the car had a highly flammable rear and fuel tanks located in the doors, and so if the car caught fire, it was consumed within. After the deaths of Oscar Cabalén and Guillermo Arnaiz, Ford withdrew its official support of Horacio Steven. The car was based on a Ford Falcon with the V8 from the F-100, and was bought by Pairetti and won the championship (with a few changes to make it, you know, not likely to burst into flames) in 1968 with a Chevrolet engine.

For 1968, Ford ran a car, built by Heriberto Pronello and nicknamed Huayra (Quecha for wind) because of the amount of wind tunnel testing. The car only won one race, on an oval course, but it was a dominant win, finishing more than a minute ahead of the second placed car. The cars often set fastest laps that year, but rarely finished the race.

A number of prototypes were produced for Chevrolet, starting from 1964. The first was the Chevitú, then the Carafe, the Trueno Naranja, the Trueno Dorado, then the Chevytres, and finally the Nova Orange.

Froilan Gonzalez, an ex-F1 driver, built the Chevitú. There were four versions, with the first and second winning races and the third and fourth losing races. The first Chevitú came out in 1964 and the last raced in 1967

The Garrafa was built for the 1967 championship, and won a couple of races. It was actually based on a Kaiser Brigantine

The Barracuda, which was commissioned by Carlos Pairetti, ran between 1967 and 1969, winning three races.

The Trueno Naranja (Orange Thunder) was also commissioned by Pairetti, and built by Horacio Steven. This car won the championship in 1968, and raced up until 1970.

Trueno Dorado was an exact copy of Trueno Naranja, but raced by Oscar Fangio instead of Pairetti. This car was only introduced for 1969 and so was never really competitive.

The Chevytres was commissioned by Froilan Gonzalez, but raced by Carlos Marincovich. The only Chevrolet part of this car was the engine. The rest was custom made by the builder, Francisco Martos. This car won two races in 1968.

The Nova Naranja was commissioned for Carlos Pairetti, to compete in 1969 against the new Liebre MK III. The car was actually a Ford with a Chevrolet engine, as it was built by Horacio Steven, who had just been dropped by Ford because of a few deaths. The car ran in 1969 and 1970, scoring two wins.

In 1970, Pairetti was hired by Ford, and the Nova Naranja was raced with a Ford engine. It was eventually renamed Liebre-Ford.

In 1970, the championship split, with Formula A bringing the cars back to their stock car roots. Formula B was the existing prototype class, but thanks to the popularity of Formula A it slowly withered away.

Thanks to CTzen Ryosuke Nagato for suggesting these cars to me.

I don’t speak Spanish, so I’ve probably missed something. Please tell me in the comments. Thanks for reading and hope you’re not bored :)

#blogpost

EDIT: Sorry about the photo quality.