History Auto racing 1894-1942

1 & 2 pictures: 1923. Buenos Aires. M. Alzaga Unzue. Ballot 3L.

3 picture. 1923. Buenos Airrs. M. Alzaga Unzue. Ballot 2LS.


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With the myths mixing with the stories, this is certainly not the only place where history can get confused sadly. There are so many nice stories but which can we truly believe as accurate.

I may have told this story before but in the mid 80s, I put an ad in Hemmings asking for any Frontenac racing car parts. Chuck Davis called on my ad and asked what Frontenac parts I had and told him none but I wanted to find some. Chuck and I became friends and we talked about old racers on a number of occasions. He told he had a number of an old guy that supposedly knew old Frontenacs and raced them. I finally got a hold of this "old Frontenac racer" and I was taking notes and asking him all sorts of questions. He told me story after story which had me completely bewildered as to if there was even a grain of truth as I had researched Frontenac a bit-I had thought. I would question him as respectfully as anyone could and he would get really mad at me and he would tell me I did not know anything and not in a nice way and I kept at it hoping to break through to one nugget I could mine but no such luck. For instance, as to the 1920 cars at Indy which is pretty well documented he had nothing correct including the color of the Monroes or the Frontenacs or drivers. When I told him that all of this stuff was pretty much common knowledge, he once again berated me for knowing absolutely nothing. I finally wound up the conversation as I had the gut feeling that he did not ever race a Frontenac (maybe some Fronty Ford for a spin or two) and that he virtually knew nothing of Frontenac. Not only that but I had such high expectations to talk to someone who was there "in the day" and all I could do with my notes was to write a personal note that it was 90% total BS sadly. I had a few other story tellers but this was sadly the worst. I told Chuck about it later and we had a good laugh.

I do thank Ratamahata for his postings as there is certainly a bunch of great info there for those that are trying to track what and where of old racing cars and I am sure there is a measure of truth as to the writings.

I have tried to follow the Packards that raced South America and wish there were more specifics as to the Packard mentioned. Back in 2000 or maybe 1999, a Packard racer was located and returned to the US and I had a great deal of fun with the car for a few years after it was returned and restored. It is now in a museum in Michigan. If you stumble on anything regarding any old Packards racing in South America I would be most appreciative. Keep up the good work by the way-thanks.

Here is a picture of me in the old Packard right after it was returned to the US at the new owners home, as he asked me to help document the car.

 

Yes, Jim... I remember when you asked me about that Packard! I'll try to get more info for you soon...

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1922. COPA "GOVERNOR OF BUENOS AIRES". CITY OF LA PLATA CIRCUIT.

MARIANO DE LA FUENTE. PACKARD

I'm researching and I noted that all the Packards in pictures from Argentina had gas tanks and the one you show it's a boattail!


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Ratamahata, yes it had a boattail from the outset with the gas tank inside the tail. When the car came back to the US I found a tag attached to the frame that showed it was built in the Packard experimental dept in what I believe was probably later 1915. The boattail was probably original to the car but it was loaded with body filler from all of the brushes with other racers. I have some pictures of Packards from South America in a file somewhere but none that were the smoking gun. The #28 car also had a twelve cylinder with similar pipes exiting both sides. Weird as the Twin Six it carried had the exhaust that exited in the valley of the block but my grandfather who worked on the car told me they were disguising it to look like the 299. Long story on that score but the picture you provided is cool and I would like to know it's history as well.

Here is a picture of the weird exhaust header identical to the one that was found on the car on its return (at least on how it exited the hood). You can see that there are not six pipes into one but just two as it kind of was a dummy in a sense to look like the 299 exhaust.

That is me waxing nostalgic I suppose to Ed Hermann the late actor (Goldie Hawn's husband in the movie Overboard). He was a great guy and was a real Packard guy who grew up not too far from where I did in Detroit. A real Packard nut. Greg Dawson the owner is in the red tie having a laugh like we did it seemed all the time. Great times with this car traveling the country going to shows for sure. I cannot locate a pic how the 299 exited that is worth a hoot so here is the first rendition of the 905 as it looked in Earl Anthony's showroom in 1917 most likely. The 299 exited the same as the 905-just a smaller engine.

 

Both cars belonged to the Argentine "playboy" "Martín Macoco Álzaga Unzue". This photo has been taken in "Paris" .- The big car, on the right, is his "Sunbean GP", modified in "France" as "monoplaza" (this car lived in "Argentina" until the late 60's and now is in the " Indianapois museum"). The other is the "Amilcar" (ending his days with supercharged Ford V8 engine and a Lancia front). All the cars in the photo were from "Martín de Alzaga Unsue" .-


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THE UNBEARABLE DOUBTS ABOUT THE AMILCAR 6 CYLINDERS IN ARGENTINA

Writen by Santino 10/22/2015

Original Link:
http://vaderetro.com.ar/las-insoportables-dudas-sobre-los-amilcar-6-cilindros-en-argentina



AMILCAR / C6 / MACOCO ALZAGA UNZUÉ



The C6 together with the 4.5-liter Sumbeam winner of the Miramas Grand Prix at the Macoco house in Paris

With the recent articles about Simon Moore's 6-cylinder Amilcar for The Automobile magazine, and mainly with his latest letter of readers about the Amilcar C6 from "Macoco" competing in the city of Mar del Plata, I could not stop him from coming to me. memory the old mystery about these models in Argentina (and surroundings ...).

My father, for a large part of his life, devoted himself to the research and restoration of different copies of this French brand. He also owned one of these Amilcar Grand Prix that arrived in Argentina and that, apparently, was owned by Martín "Macoco" of Alzaga Unzué. Unfortunately he died many years ago and left very little written on the matter. Only in some articles that he published during his years as a journalist in various thematic magazines commented on the history of this brand in the country, but also left us all his doubts, which are still the same as I have today ...



He recalled that as a child he went to a car agency on Av. Juan B. Justo and Av. Santa Fe, relatively close to his home, where there was a 6 cylinder Amilcar for sale. He fantasized that his father would buy it someday and he would assiduously go to see "his" car. He even won the trust of the salespeople who allowed him to sit inside and take the wheel to feel the power of the story. One day, like so many others, he went to see him and he was not there anymore. This had been the car of "Chuzo" González, which some experts say that was exported to Germany in the late 50s or early 60s.



And here the mysteries begin. Some years ago I am trying to find out the enigma of the Amilcar 6 cylinders that seems to very few interested, at least in Argentina. The data that I managed to achieve are not many but the theme begins more or less like this: according to the book Fuerza Libre, by Guillermo Sánchez, in 1925 there was a representation of the Amilcar house in Buenos Aires by a man named Raúl Chiesa. Apparently, a considerable number of these cars were imported and many ran on the old circuit of the town of San Martín. It is not well known if they were only small models of 4 cylinders - my father managed to find many of these - or also some 6 cylinders. According to most of the "wise monkeys" only participated in the first, but some of those copies had a compressor.

In the early 70's my father interviewed "Macoco" for Corsa magazine. From that moment he managed to establish a friendship with the dandy and according to his memories he commented that in the 20s he brought two 6 cylinders from Europe. Legend has it that one day he passed the Amilcar agency in the Champs Elysées in Paris and saw that there were two on display. When he asked for the value they answered a very high number, equivalent to a Rolls-Royce of the moment. The response from "Macoco" was: "Very good, I'm taking both ..." Nobody could ever verify the anecdote but the reality is that he had two of these Amilcar, which according to Guillermo Sánchez were a C6 and a C0. According to "Macoco", one was the one who had won the Voiturettes Grand Prix in 1925 and the other was a "replica" of the previous one. I suppose he said it for the C6 compared to the C0 for the metal benches and not for bearings. I do not know what he meant by this, but with one of the two he ran some races in Europe, among them the climb of Behovia in the Pyrenees where he came second behind a Delage 12 cylinders.

Then, when he returned to Argentina, it is not clear if he brought one or both cars. According to what I could deduce brought the two. According to "Macoco" too, but there are those who believe that he could have "confused" and only brought one. In the photo that Simon Moore published in The Automobile, he is seen running in Mar del Plata with the car he used the most and then adapted a Ford V8 engine, first a 60 and then an 85 HP. Over time this car was dematerialized in different minor categories where they were subjected to various modifications. It is also known that the last V8 was fitted with a Mc Culoch compressor and that he ended his days with a complete Lancia Augusta front axle. The last record of this car is that it was Enrique Moyano's until he died. Then, as my old man said, "the earth literally swallowed it up."

The other may have been rescued by my father following some indications of what "Macoco" remembered. But the accurate data just came in 1968 through a person who wanted to publish it for sale in the classifieds of the Corsa magazine, although that never came to pass because He passed the "filter" of the newsroom in which he worked. The car without motor was in a dismantling in Temperley, in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, with some modifications of the time and a lot of corrosion, but nothing serious. Getting the engine and its parts was the most difficult. The rest was everything.







My father went through the different workshops to which the former owner remembered that he had ordered tasks and never went through them. So time went by, going from one to another, until he came to a rectifier where for the umpteenth time he asked for that weird engine. "Ah, an old aluminum?" Asked the mechanic, "Yes, yes, that" Sanchez Ortega replied. "How lucky you are, we were just covering it with cement," the mechanic told him as he took him to the back of the workshop where there was a huge well of a lamppost. They were filling it with rubbish and steel and then pouring liquid cement on it. In the dark background you could see an engine where Amilcar was read on the caps of the camshafts.

With the help of the magician "Pichón" Rocha they managed, with blood, sweat and green tears, to make him walk. Rodolfo Iriarte, witness of this whole story, remembers that there were many unrecoverable pieces and that the engine cranks were Ford forged ones that had sold them. The only solution they found was to put Mini Cooper cranks and the pistons made to measure. This atrocity of Ford cranks was authored by Jorge Malbrán, he confessed himself, when the car was "Chuzo" and ran in the first races of the Sport Automobile Club. So this car is Gonzalez's and it was never exported to Germany as they claimed? Or was only the engine left and the rest of the car left?



But the story is more complicated. Juan Jiménez Cabrera, a Uruguayan from Montevideo, imported a C6 in his country in 1929. Here comes the third Amilcar de la discordia ... It is known that he ran several races, many of them on the Rambla Wilson of his city. In the mid-30s he sold it to Jorge Montero, who ran it some more years and also ended up adapting a Ford V8. We must understand that these engines were very complex for local mechanics and getting spare parts was very difficult or almost impossible. The option to "Americanize" the mechanics was very tempting and that way you could achieve an excellent hybrid with the power and reliability of an American engine and the benefits provided by a European Grand Prix chassis. Then nothing was learned about this car. Some hypotheses suggest that it may have been exported to Argentina but the reality is that there is no record of that.





The restoration of my father's C6 took years and many dislikes. Along with the help of his friend Desmond Peacock from England and many others in Buenos Aires they managed to make him roar. Much of the help in this work was provided by Hector "Chiquito" Solmi in the field shed in Pergamino, mainly all the work of the chassis. Once completely restored the car was spectacular and sounded that it shook the skin (when it started ...), but there was a big problem, my father was 1.90 m and the car was bordering on being a toy. The only way I could get in there was if I took out the seats. Making contortions with his prominent belly was introduced there little by little. But going out was a drama. The car ran it in some races of the Sport Automobile Club without too many achievements or satisfactions. The result was that a few years later he sold it and the C6 returned to France after 60 years. This was the last model that was in the country.

Then the doubts are: "Macoco" brought two C6 to Argentina? Was either one a C0? The one of "Chuzo" González what was it? Was it the "replica" of "Macoco" or was it the Montevideo one? Will it have been one that later brought "Macoco" and did not remember? Will Raúl Chiesa have brought another "undeclared" to his agency? Was my father's car a C6 chassis with another engine? In short, how many Amilcar 6 cylinders were on these coasts?







Everything would indicate that my father's car would be the one that was "Chuzo", mainly due to some characteristics of the body. So, the one that was exported will have been the Uruguayan? Was the second of "Macoco" exported and my father's was the Uruguayan? Or was none exported in the 1960s? I go crazy!

My father also had a CGSs that he used for many years and several projects with other 4 cylinders. Most of them returned to Europe and I am sure that they must have a more precise historical follow-up of their stories. Maybe our Amilcar Register friends can help me with this mystery of the Amilcar 6 cylinders that set foot in Argentina and once and for all I can sleep in peace.



Published in the edition number 61 (Spring 2015) of Rueda Rudge Magazine, graphic organ of the Classic Automobile Club of the Argentine Republic.



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I apologize for my flippant comment - I, too, enjoy your stories & pictures, ratamahata! So please, let them continue.

The "myths" are mostly of Macoco's making, he appears to have been a great story teller with not much interest in historical detail - don't let the truth spoil a good story! That's okay, as long as you don't take his ramblings verbatim. We can sort the chaff from the wheat, no problem. Just keep them coming!

 

No Problem! Just recently I was talking with a writer (Leon Bouvier) about Macoco's!

He said:

... I spoke with him on the phone, when he was an old man who lived in a hotel in the capital ... he had to be called from 14 to 16 hours, because afterwards he was drunk ...

... in my novel, Victoria and Silencio de Hilario, I describe that time of the Dandys of Argentina of the Bell époque.




Maybe Macoco after so many years did not remember everything ... and it may have been something presumptuous and arrogant to speak ...

exaggerating a little each story lived!




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Pictures from The "Morocco"

Macoco with Nancy Valentine & Macoco with E. Harworth.
Anyone recognize this beutiful lady E. Harworth?

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04/26/2010

The Delage of Macoco and Podesta.



Long postponed and longed for, we managed to meet Hernán and Cristián, all in Buenos Aires. While the tables around us are supposed to talk about the normal topics of a Wednesday night at a chic pizzeria in Palermo, we went through the A and the Z of the makes and models of cars.

Untimely stop in Delage to talk about the project of an Argentine collector, who is restoring a D8 120 Chapron of the elegant French brand to present it within a couple of months in the Pebble Beach Elegance Contest.

The return home passes quickly, processing the pizza and automotive alphabet soup, and the next morning, making a bit of order in the archive, these two climatic photos of a Delage D8 unmistakably emerge Letourneur & Marchand, one of when still It worked full and another when it was not complete or working. Snapshots photos to the photos and mail to the local authority and without borders of the French brand, Sergio Podestá, to know something about this car.



In the following lines Sergio's response:

"The Delage of the photos you sent me is a rare D8 100 Aerocoach bodywork Letourneur & Marchand, of which only 14 were manufactured and today it is worth an egg.

The difference between 100 and 120 is the number of horses. The number would be the amount of each model, but the 120 had 144 horses (?). Things of the time ...

This car was offered by Macoco Álzaga Unzué to my old man in 1973 (I have the letter), but he asked for a lot of money and dad later bought it for Lucho Clusellas, in 1982, for less money. The car was blown, without working and without the Cotal box. Macoco was already wrong with the twine at that time and went on resale. That's why he offered my old man the car.

Dad actually bought it for spare parts for our D8 120 Chapron 1937 that we had for daily use.

The photos you found must be from the late sixties, some years before the Macoco letter offering it.

After my dad died I sold it to Mendizábal because Cacho Pieres told me that the car was very difficult to restore and I did not have a mango for a change, I was 25 years old and it was also another time in the subject of restorations.

The car is now in the United States and the guy who has it took like 20 years to finish it. "

Thus, Sergio gets to transport us with these brief lines to a more naive and more romantic time if you want to collect, in which circulating with a Delage D8 120 through the streets of the pitucos neighborhoods of Buenos Aires was a daily task and a D8 100 100% restorable could, hopefully, end their days as a donor.

It is worth mentioning that Sergio's father, the "Bebe" Podestá was a historical member of the Classic Cars Club of Argentina. Delagista irredento, owned several of them, among others of the D8 120 Chapron false cabriolet 1939 that, after being restored, will go to Pebble Beach, the D8 120 Chapron convertible 1937 that mobilized his family in the sixties, seventies and eighties, and He participated in numerous rallies of the CAC, of this D8 100 L & M ex Macoco and of a D6 also Letourneur & Marchand, that the other radicalized Argentine Delagista, his son Sergio, enjoyed until a few years...


Claudio
03/22/2014
Interesting note and comments. I also remember seeing the first photo in "Corsa" at the time.
Obviously it is a Delage D6-70 with bodywork from Letourneur et Marchand. In "Tout les Voitures Francaises 1938 - Salon 1937" there are two vintage photos of this model, but with some differences: they have windshields "Vutotal" and the traditional radiator of the Delage of the time. This (as you can see) has a grill more similar to the Delage D8-120 of Figoni et Falaschi of 1939 that is in the Nagoya Museum.
I arrived at this note looking for information about Héctor Podesta, since I reread a note from Christian Descombres (Automobiles Classics No. 86) about the Delage D8-120 Coupe Aérosport of Letourneur et Marchand and to my surprise one of the twelve that were manufactured was owned by Podestá. It was the chassis Nº 51029 and it was the last of the six copies of the first series (Design Nº 5649). It is also mentioned that it was sold to the United States to a Mr. M. P. Crowley. This was the last Delage to which he referred.

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Fantastic history Ratamahata! Your father's work was most impressive. Thank you for sharing his legacy, and the wonderful pictures.

 

Sorry, I repost the story from another site the author was "Santino", son of the periodist.
Credits: http://vaderetro.com.ar/las-insoportables-dudas-sobre-los-amilcar-6-cilindros-en-argentina


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Thanks for the clarification. Please let Santino know that a lot of folks on the HAMB appreciate the history.

 

Hi, Jim! I found some pictures!! Only one Packard belonged to Alejandro Schoega had the boattail body, was the first Packard in Argentina in a oficial race...


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Alejandro Schoega

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Ratamahata I am familiar with the Schoega car and some believe there is some connection to the #28 car but I am not convinced. When the #28 car was returned to the US there was a curator of a museum in your neck of the woods that did some research and came up with the Schoega car. The exit of the exhaust kind of throws me and I would certainly like to see the hood up. I would guess the other side does not have an exhaust pipe but admittedly a guess. Thanks for the info though. Someday a picture with the distinctive hood of the #28 car etc will show up-I hope. Thanks again for this and your postings-good stuff.

 

Take a look at the link below! A list of races disputed in Argentina with position, racers and brands...

http://www.informulas.facundogalella.com/nuestro-automovilismo-mecanica-nacional-carreras-1899-1941/

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Thanks Ratamahata. Some of those names ring bells and other do not. Years ago the owner of the #28 car and myself went thru a bunch of stuff and it is hard to tell without a picture. Packards were a good brand and probably a number of them raced but I would guess most were modified "stock" chassis/engine etc. There may have even been a few Twin Six cars as Packard built quite a few into the 20s and of course some made their way to your neck of the woods. Thanks for the info though-helpful as someday I want to write a piece on Packard racing from the period.

 

1921. Campeonato de la Milla. A. Schoega


1921. Gran Premio Nacional. M. De la Fuente


1922. Campeonato de carretera de la provincia de Córdoba. M. De la Fuente.


1924. GP Córdoba. Eduardo Luro


1923. Circuito Audax Córdoba. Eduardo Luro.


1924. Circuito de la Plata. Tomás Duggan.

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Information about the pictures...

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Thanks for all of the info and pictures Ratamahata. Somewhere I have a file on Packard racing south of our borders and I am your information will come in handy. Someday I hope to write a more definitive history of Packard racing and my knowledge of racing south of our borders is sorely lacking. I don't really intend on any real accuracy with what took place in South America but I certainly want to at least touch on it. I appreciate your efforts in documenting history and I am sure I am not the only one appreciative here on the HAMB. Thanks again

 

Thanks Jim... Maybe will find some more info about the Packard. Another places to take in count are Brazil, Chile or Uruguay...

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Thanks I believe it may have some ties to Uruguay although I have not heard any leads to Brazil or Chile. The ties that I have heard are Argentina and Paraguay and Uruguay. Thanks.

 

Starting to get an office in order again. Messers Helck, Gotschke and Marjoram keeping a watchful eye.


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This photo by Sports Car Digest is of Brian Blain's 1912 Packard at the Rolex Monterey Mortorsports Reunion.

 

The best I can post these days is my "mongrel" 1932(?) Miller-Schofield/Ford. We had a great race the weekend before last with Peter Giddings and his 1931 Alfa Romeo 2300C "Monza". The second photo shows Dr. John Miller in his "Flat Nosed" Morgan (Yes VARA lets some later cars run withe us). At the start John challenged me for the first turn. He "Lifted", I didn't. I went on to the win!

 

love it!

 

My friend owned this Packard & when it came up for sale, I put the seller & Brian together. After Brian bought it, he commissioned me to put it into it's "Racing Trim"

 

Good grief, I go away for a few days and the HAMB goes nuts with cool information! Thanks for posting.