About ten years ago, I was browsing a street vendor's merch in Rosarito Mexico. By pure chance, I found a post card featuring the image above (and below in higher resolution). The back of the card simply read, "III La PanAmericana." That's all I ... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Wow...A lot of "interesting" things going on there. Looks like the canopy is form a WWII fighter. Besides that I dont know. Im intrested to see the back more.
So instead of "shotgun" you would call "tail gunner"? I think I see a vent pipe on the left rear fender, so I am assuming it is equipped with a crapper, for those long stretches when you just don't have time to stop. "Pilot to co-pilot, take over I gotta hit the head".
This car is very bizarre to say the least... Canopy's from a Consolidated-Vultee BT-13 Trainer... Here's a pic of the front from the Life magazine photo archive. Looks like the front end's based on late '40s Lincoln (with plenty of other bits!)
Wow that thing means business. And if thats the front that froghawk posted, that thing was a serious creation with a crap load of work. Man we need more photos.
Best part of all--that canopy boosts the cruising altitude to at least 10,000 feet! Seriously, though, a TON of work went into this thing. Not sure if it was north or south of the border, but based on Sled's amazing ongoing catalog of cars he finds in Mexico--and also the fact that the Orbitron survived--I'm making a prediction: This thing is probably still down there, somewhere, unless it drove off a cliff, or went down under enemy fire, or was donated to the Smithsonian by Jimmy Doolittle's heirs. The jokes write themselves ... .
Apparently there's a 1/43th scale diecast kit of it... A google search for "carrera panamericana 1953 lincoln cadillac special" turns up one full shot of the actual car but I couldn't access it. Sure would like to know more details about this one...
I see a lot of 49-51is Ford trim and accessories!! I would call it the J.C. Whitney PanAmericana Esp.
I remember the rear 3/4 picture from publications back in the day, but I've never seen the front before. Amazing!
Ijole! Uno carro loco esto! I think it's amazing that there's a model of this piece of Mexican madness. As a kid, I thought the Carrera was one of the wildest races ever conceived - I've seen some great footage of the event over the years. It's too bad the terrific cost of lives of so many participants ended it.
Not too hard to believe, there were models of the 1950 Caddilac La Monstre that ran at Le Mans in 1950. Don't laugh too hard, it finishied 11th.
Amazing work. Batman should call Barris and ask for a better automobile. There's a nice pic in Flickr but we can't see it: Also found this link in a diecast forum that says: "The car was really a special based on Lincoln and Cadillac, with an aircraft canopy. The official entry list shows this car entered as the "Ham Special", and was entered by Jose Ham Gunam and Armando Santamaria of Mexico. The car did finish the race, but took longer than the class limit on time."
The rules for racing PanAm in 1953... Witch part this guys didn't understand? ? Will have this printed in my garage, oh yeah!
Ay carumba!! More info please. Fact is stranger than fiction,but someone put a ton of effort into this one, Thanks for the post, Cat
Wow that's pretty crazy.. It looks like one of those drawings in the Kanter catalogs but in real life..
Yeah! You guys who lives closer to Mr. Barris ask him if he's benn in Mexico in 1953 and his influences! The first picture, in a more apropriate size. There's a lot to be seen here.
I wouldn't; Briggs was a personal friend and I always admired his exploits. Obviously, a model maker had decided that some of these weird and wonderful machines were worthy of replication, which I think is pretty damned cool.