[DeTomaso] La Carrera Panamerica- the rookie way ( WARNING - NOPANTERA CONTENT )

Tue Nov 3 16:44:46 EST 2009

Hans - great story!

I wish I had known you were there - I was in Mexico for work last week, and
as luck would have it, was in Queretaro when the Panamerica came through!

It would have been great to meet your crew. I saw Andy Prill in a Porsche
356, but didn't know that I "knew" anyone else. 

Sounds like an adventure that you won't soon forget!

Charles McCall
1985 DeTomaso Pantera GT5-S #9375
"Raising Pantera Awareness Across Europe"
http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=2323

-----Mensaje original-----
De: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] En
nombre de Hans Lindbohm
Enviado el: martes, 03 de noviembre de 2009 21:40
Para: detomaso at realbig.com
Asunto: [DeTomaso] La Carrera Panamerica- the rookie way ( WARNING -
NOPANTERA CONTENT )

When I visited San Diego this summer and met with a number of very nice
Pantera guys on this list, I mentioned that, me and my partner Peter were
heading to Mexico this fall to drive the La Carrera Panamerica race.

I promised to send a few lines and tell the story. Having just returned from
Mexico a few days ago ( my stomach though, is still behaving like it was in
Mexico ) – so here is the story

THE LA CARRERA PANAMERICA

About the race. It is 3 600 km, 7 days, from Huatulco in the south to Laredo
in the North of Mexico. Hight difference from 0 to 3000 meter of altitude.
About 600 km are timed speed stages and the rest are transit stages. Cars to
enter must be from 1965 or older.

( http://www.lacarrerapanamericana.com.mx/index2.asp,
http://www.panamrace.com <http://www.panamrace.com/>   )

BACKGROUND- WHY LEAVE A COOSY OFFICE TO RUN LA CARRERA??

It all started in the office in Stockholm in March this year. My collegue
Peter, reading another Classic Car illustrated  – found an article about the
La Carrera. As being the decision maker in our partnership he said  “ we
must do this”. 

That was when my work started.

First a car had to be found. We found out that old Volvos had been run quite
successfully in the race. And by a coincidence there was a Volvo 544 1960 (
“prepared” for the race by a Mexican driver ) for sale in Mexico city. 

Second we had to find somebody to provide service for the car during the
race. The first low budget idea from me was that I would do it myself in the
nights between the race days.. This stupid idea was luckily ruled out. 

Instead we got hold of a well known Swede, Mats Hammarlund, (
http://www.mhracing.com.mx ) who is running one of the top teams in the
race, and made him agree to take us on in parallel to 2 Studebakers, one LT
and one heavily modified Volvo 544 as well ( however this one much, much
more potent than ours ). Considering that his cars normally ends up in the
top 10 – it was amazing that he took us rookies on!! 

After a long session of attempts to have our Volvo inspected, we at last
took decision to buy it unseen (!!) otherwise we would not make it in time
for the race.

So end of May the seller was due to ship the car to the workshop of Mats
Hammarlund. 

Instead of being notified of a successful delivery of the car ( which
already was paid for ), the seller informed us that he had had un accident
and the car was smashed and rolled off the trailer. However he promised to
fix it (!) and deliver in one months time

with zero negotiation
power

..we crossed our fingers for that.

A month later the car was delivered to Mats Hammarlund´s work shop and the
first real inspection was made. The body was OK, rust free and good looking,
the roll cage was OK, and that was about it. The bad news was that, seats,
pedals, brakes, steering, front and rear suspension, engine was far from
“race ready”. Mats judgment was “hardly drivable at all
 “.

Mats took the car apart with the goal to put it together and make it capable
of running the 3600 km of the race. Considering the limited time, durability
was the goal rather than performance. However time was short and he had 4
more cars to prepare.

THE RACE  -   PRELUDE

3 days before the start of the race me and Peter landed in Huatulco in
southern Mexcio where the race started.

Our luggage consisted of 83 kilos of car parts and a few T-shirts and
shorts. The passage of the customs was a drama but we got away with only 75
USD of fees!

All cars were than gathered in a big parking lot. Amazing cars, Mustangs,
Studebakers, Corvettes, Maserati, Mercedes, Porsches and our old Volvo. 

We immediately took the car to “tech” and had it approved (!). Then we took
it apart and started installing a new steering column, a new head, cam
shaft, distributor and twin Webers, in order to solve the remaining issues
with the car.

All other teams were at this time either signing autographs, training for
the race or just relaxing. We ( = our mechanics ) however were working on
the car day and night to get all parts in place. 

Not only driving the race was dangerous, one of our mechanics got hit and
knocked out by a falling coconut!

2 hours before the qualification we got it all together!!!  The engine was a
little bit better ( = stronger ) but all power was delivered between 4000 –
6500 rpm. Below that was – nothing – weak as dead horse.

Well in such a situation you must love what you have. We got into the car to
take a first training drive roaring above 4000 rpm. First thing we see is a
fully wrecked Porsche 911. One of 4 cars who crashed even before the
race
..another evidence that practice before a race can be dangerous!

Well we did not crash but went straight to the qualification run. We had
very good grip ( new Yokohamas ), and the car behaved well on the road ( for
being an almost 50 year old Volvo ). The engine though was producing maybe
110-120 horsepower rather than the 160 hp we hoped for. And this only
between 4-6000 rpm

THE RACE – THE QUALIFICATION

The qualification was a 7 km run. 

Our tactics was easy – don´t ever brake in number 0,1 and 2 graded curves.
With a weak engine – speed is a valuable asset. For sharper curves, grade 3
and 4, the brakes could eventually be used.

We later learned that when going too fast into a curve, the Volvo had a
tendency to get up and run on 2 wheels. This happened a number of times but
we always came back on all four ( and not on the roof )

For being almost our first drive it turned out OK. We qualified as 54 out of
100 cars. 

Not bad for one of the least powerful cars in the race – and the least
experienced crew.

THE RACE DAY 1

Day 1 is a 650 km run from Huatulco to Oaxaca..  11 stages consisting of a
speed section and a transit section. This stage is known as the hardest one.
Starting in high temperature ( 36 degrees C ) and moving from 0 to 1500
meter altitude.

We started fully disregarding the status and age of the car and gave all we
had from the first meter. 

First 2 stages went OK, but before stage 3 we got a vapour lock and the
engine stopped. I run out, opened the hood and tried to cool the engine
pouring mineral water over the fuel pump. Success. 10 minutes later we were
moving again! 

The engine was very close to overheating all day and in the end we could not
even stop to fill gas, since the engine was so hot, we feared that we could
not get it started again in time for the next speed stage.

With some luck we managed all speed stages and made it to the last transit
to the finish line – when we run out of gas 6 km from the next gas station.

Time was short so I stopped a Mexican car and got a ride to the gas station,
got hold of a plastic canister, bought some gas, and got a ride back. 

Back at the car my partner had received a phone call from his wife which
could not be interrupted. I filled the gas and pushed him in to the
passenger seat and got going again.

We refilled the gas and speeded to the finish line. A motorcycle police saw
us and helped us through the rush hour traffic into the center of Oaxaxa and
the finishing arch.

What a day!

In the evening at the drivers meeting there was a price giving. At the
meeting I suddenly heard the number of our car from the speaker at the
meeting!!. It can´t be right I thought and didn’t dare to go to the podium.

But I was wrong, we ended up on place 37 and as number 3 in class this first
day. Amazing!

However an early success is the prelude to failure – which the rest of this
story shows.

RACE DAY 2

Having survived the first day and the engine now running cooler and better
on the higher altitude ( 1500 meters) we were even higher motivated.

Up until midday everything went perfect. Our no braking tactics, made us
pass the cars in front of us on the speed stages ( 30 seconds between the
cars ) and we hoped to gain even more positions in the race.

That was however the beginning of the end. In Mexico there are road bumps.
These are not like regularly bumps – it is like rolling a car up on the
pavement. These bumps can only be passed in a pace slower than walking.
Anything else means your car has had it.

So – at this point on a transit stage we turned round a corner in a village
– and hit one of these super bumps!!!

The front end of the car collapsed – and immediately we got a camber angle
of 15 degrees on both front wheels. The car was un drivable

The race was over for that day and nothing else than to wait for our sweeper
truck.

Riding on the back of the flatbed for 5 hours we got to the next stop in
Mexico City. Only good thing was that we did not had to navigate through
Mexico City which is a nightmare

RACE DAY 3-5

Each night we bent and welded the damaged front end to start the race – but
during the days the front end or other things ( waterpump, fanbelt,
alternator) broke down. So we could not complete one full day. The tow truck
driver became our best friend

RACE DAY 6

Again everything was fixed, the broken front end was again welded together.
However the camber was still very big and you could see that the front
wheels were tilted in a strange fashion. Running the car on straight line
was something like riding a rodeo horse

As always – there was not a question about sparing the car – full speed!

>From a position further back we overtook a number of cars on the speed
stages.

We made all speed stages but on the last transit – we brook down definitely
1,2 km from the finishing arch.

The tech director of the race had seen our strange camber angle and forbid
us to run for the last day. That was not necessary anyway – the front end
was now beyond repair and the car would not roll one single meter..

THE LAST DAY – DAY 7

We rode in our service cars with our mechanics, who were happy to have had
one night off from working on our car. 

This days adventure was that my partner Peter talked himself into the press
car for a ride to a speed stage. However the Mexican Press Director was not
happy about his company and kicked him out in the middle of the desert. Luck
for him our service car came by and found him. No seats left though in the
van, so he spent 3 hours sitting on a toolbox up to Laredo.

The other cars in our team finished 1, 2, 5, 6 in the race. A remarkable
result. The black sheep in the team was -  our car – which arrived in Laredo
on the tow truck. Final result place 69!!

SUMMARY

Out of 100 cars I think a little more than 50 made it over the finish line
in Laredo after 3600 km. Crashes and mechanical issues took a hard toll.

We had a lot of spare parts – but not the front end parts wrecked. That was
what stopped us – all other issues were repairable.

The service team we had was fantastic – putting in a lot of hours each night
on our car.

So the only thing to do is to try again – which we hope to do next year.
With a completely new and stronger front end / rear end / motor / and
gearbox. Better prepared and hopefully more successful. 

WHAT ABOUT PANTERAS???

Panteras can not run in the competition classes – however an entry in the
exhibition class would be possible!! It would be great to see a Pantera
entry next year in that class. However set that car up for a high ground
clearance!!!!

Hans Lindbohm

# 4145

Stockholm

Sweden

_______________________________________________

Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA

Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/

DeTomaso mailing list
DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso