Automotive

Photos from Classic & Sports Car

... race cars.

Here in Argentina we are very fond of "irons". "Irons" meaning "cars" "fierros" in Spanish and "Fierreros" the fans of cars and specially race cars.

The different official categories of racing cars are very different to those of Europe or USA though pilots born in those categories have been great drivers who also raced in Europe, even for the official teams of Ferrari, Maseratti or Mercedes Benz. The most famous being Juan Manuel Fangio, but also José Froilan Gonzalez and Carlos Reutemann among others.

One of the most popular categories was (and still is) Turismo Carretera (TC) which in the 1940´s through the 1970´s was raced in open roads at full speed which led to big accidents involving spectators placed at sides of the roads to view the cars passing. Then TC was prohibited in open roads and only raced till today in closed race tracks.

The cars used in TC were just common street cars with their engines and suspensions heavily modificated. Two brands were very popular: Ford and Chevrolet as a base for these monster modifications. "Fierreros" were divided between Fordistas and Chevroletistas !

At ends of the 1960´s a big revolution in TC was the launching of a new car: the Torino. This street car came in two door and four door versions and was made by a local car maker firm IKA, who bought the rights to make the Rambler American here with some changes in the interior, front grille and rear lights after a desin of Pininfarina of Italy, making a more European looking car.

This car was equipped with a six cylinder engine with three Webber carburators and was a revolution for street car market but also in the TC race cars field.

Mr. Pronello begun the modification of these cars first with a more aerodinamic front and call it "Liebre 1" (Liebre means "mare" in Spanish referring a very fast kind of rabbit very often found in our lands)

Here a very poor photo of the late 1960´s :

Next step for Mr. Pronello was to modify the entier car: The Liebre 2 and 3.

Those cars were known as Liebres or Pronello Torino. And they were winning absolutely all races against Ford and Chevrolet and were invencible so they were prohibited for TC races as the fun of viewing different brands of cars racing was lost.

So a new category was born and called  "Sport Prototypes" (Sport Prototipo in Spanish) which allowed for more modifications both in mechanics and body and so be able to race the Liebres/Torino against other heavily modified cars based in Ford and Chevrolet steet cars structures but with completely different bodies (scratch made).

Then, one of those new SP cars was designed by Mr Pronello: the one you show in your post: The Pronello Ford Sport Prototipo" (it wasn´t called Torino in this case, only the Liebre was a Torino, because the American "Ford Torino" model appeared many years later and was never built in Argentina)

Pronello was the most famous and successful designer of them all and it is needed to mention also Mr. Oreste Berta another brilliant engineer who modified the engines of the Torino cars and most probably of this car too and he also built some great race cars himself, both SP and "monopostos". Mr Berta worked for the official team of Ford Motors Argentina after several years working for IKA/Torino official team.

I´m very happy that you bring the attention to this most historical car here and to know it is so well preserved. Thank you for sharing it here in these superb shots. (Ahh yes, I was a true "fierrero" when I was young! Lol!)

I wish you and our friends here find this little information of interest.

Best cordial regards, Abel

This set-up was made for Cleveland heads, so they wouldn't fit on engines with Windsor heads.  

Art

... part of the history of our race cars history.

Have a nice week ahead! Best, Abel