508 replies to this topic

[WonderWoman61]

Didn't AGS consider an F1 entry for 1985 originally?

[WonderWoman61]

https://www.motorspo...980s-f1-project

[WonderWoman61]

Nissan in 1982
https://www.unracedf...he-1982-season/

[HistoryFan]

Some projects from the last years - perhaps they will get a new chance in future:

 

- Panthera Asia F1: SMP director Benjamin Durand with Michael Orts

- Monaco F1 Team: Salvatore Gondalfo with Campos and Pascal Wehrlein and Alex Palou as drivers.

[WonderWoman61]

Can't believe no one has mentioned Team Dubai. Looked into buying out Jordan then were supposed to be running customer McLarens in the 2006 Season. They announced their intention to enter the 2006 Season not long after Midland did likewise.

[WonderWoman61]

Now we can add Porsche's 2026 entry, even if it had only been an engine supplier.

[WonderWoman61]

https://f1since81.wo...aco-grand-prix/

US-based Lola-Ford team for 1993? Maybe Carl Haas looking to resurrect his 1985-86 entry?

(Not sure if this is the right thread)

[GMiranda]

Sorry I hadn't seen this thread before (I'm too busy defending Pedro from being called an idiot )

Back to the GLAS story whci stood for Gonzalez Luna Auto Scuderia according to some sources but I have seen zillions of combinations for the name. The car was designed by Forghieri and the engine was Lamborghini a V12 and yes the sponsors were mexican so it was going to be a national mexican car with the González Luna family in command, with Fernando as the director. They are from Guadalajara, old money and one of them was a presidential candidate and PAN founder some time ago. They supposedly bilked many people but nobody's talking so I am not sure where the 20 million dollars figure comes, I have found estimates for less than 5 million, and much of the original money was spent in the design of the car, engine and giving first payments to a bunch of things like land where the shops would be located, equipment, etc.
It seems that the previous week before the due date, Fernando disappeared -although he was supposedly in Europe like half a month before so nobody was sure exactly when he disappeared- and some of the money with him but nobody wanted to initiate the legal proceedings aganst him so that they would not look stupid (it seems there were several major companies involved so...) and bilked. Fernando was in the US for some time but friends have told me that he was seen in Mexico since the late 90s, free as a bird. Come to think of it, I saw a picture of him at some social event in the newspaper so he must be all clear.

The interesting thing, as we say in Mexico "A thief who steals from another thief has 100 years of forgiveness", is that Fernando had a man who was his right hand guy, even served as a chauffeur if needed, an engineer, and this man had signature in all the checking accounts and knew all the transactions, and when Fernando left, this guy bilked him of some of the money, or maybe they just split it, and he went on to form a very good racing team, several times champion in Mexico, producing a few international drivers, and even invaded a supporting series of CART with a mexican team and got good results. I can not name the guy since I can't prove it, and I don't want to die yet either, but I have talked with him many times, funny guy but never explained to me how did he become a potentate when he was mostly an aide. And his explanations were full of holes.

And about the driver. González Luna was from Guadalajara so he wanted a driver from there and he originally chose/talked to Fernando Plata (Briitsh F3 class B champ sometime in the 80s) but Giovanni Aloi (who is really a horse-riding bullfighter nowadays -guess racing wasn't dangerous enough) had been in Italy in F3 or so and was one of our best prospects and his dad had some money, probably got bilked too, and he was mentioned. Of course, these two guys were never going to get a superlicense, so they were going to run the second car when one was ready, and Forghieri, we were told, was the one who suggested Mauro Baldi, a nice italian guy who had recently been WSC champ or so for Sauber-Mercedes (or maybe Schlesser beat him and the cars were already called Mercedes only). Mauro was the test driver and was going to drive until a mexican got the superlicense (we're still waiting).

The V12 got used in F1 with the Lambo but the money for the project was originally from Chrysler who owned Lamborghini then and it was also used in some WSC car but after the fiasco it seems nobody knew anything there. Forghieri didn't say much if anything, and it was all a big scam which nobody wants to talk about because they were either bilked or fooled. But in the end I think also Lamborghini went ahead and had the team for about one season and then folded it as to save face I suppose, so it wasn't only mexicans being fooled. If I find out more sometime, I will write a story about it, it is half written but never finished, too many strings untied.

May I know if you have advanced more in the GLAS/Modena/Lambo story, please?

[WonderWoman61]

https://m.youtube.co...h?v=8672zIT-dGI