31 replies to this topic

[Doug Nye]

Can anyone enlighten me on Argentine Fuerza Libre racing and in particular on the career of J.F.Gonzalez and his Ferrari-Chevrolet?

'The car' seems to survive with a 230 cubic inch 6-cylinder in-line engine installed (and precious little obvious surviving 'Ferrari' content beyond the centre-section chassis tubes, the instruments, possibly the brake backplates and the nose badge) but didn't Froilan achieve his considerable success in a Ferrari-Chevrolet fitted with a V8 engine?

I'm told there was a regulation change which dictated the modification from Chevy V8 to Chevy straight-6. Was there a lower capacity limit introduced, or was there a ban on V8 engines which has escaped my notice?

Or is all this a figment of my fevered imagination?

Would one of the South American racing experts put me straight on this please? Just how successful was Gonzalez in the car? I have a note from him in which he says he "was Champion three times".

Any information gratefully received...

DCN

[marhal]

Hello Doug.......

The Ferrari Corvette was the last car raced by Froilán in his sucessful career...............in his biography, Don Pepe said:

"In 1957, Pepe bought an old Ferrari chassis, of the old 1951 Formula One, those of the 1 1/2 liter............according with the argentinean journalist of the "Motor" magazine the chasis was the 0482.....Pepe put a Corvette engine (4,700 cc), feeded through 3 Weber 45-45............"


Froilan raced that car from 1957 to 1960, after that year I ignore the history of that car...........the body was modified.............in 18 races, Froilan won 13.............

About the 6 cyl engine, I don´t have any notice, in the biography only appears the V-8............

[David McKinney]

South American racing in the 1950s and 1960s is frustratingly difficult to research.
However, it seems that for the 1962 Argentine season Fuerza Libre was renamed Formula 1, and it may be that this change coincided with the banning of Corvette-powered cars, as most of the front runners seem to have used six-cylinder Chevrolet engines. However, the V8s - including the Gonzalez Ferrari - did appear in some (non-championship?) events. I have seen no mention of the Gonzalez car racing after 1962, or ever with a six-cylinder engine - though of course it might have simply been called a Chevrolet Special in later life.
Recent research shows that the Gonzalez car was not, as had been thought, 0482, which AFAIK never ran with a V12 engine, but with a four from new. The Gonzalez car was supplied with a four-cylinder engine (either 2.5 or 3.0) and raced by him in this form at least once in 1957 before the V8 Chevy went in

[Felix Muelas]

With my kindest regards to my Argentinean friends...

The best source looks like being UNA PASIÓN SOBRE RUEDAS, a book written by Roberto Carozzo with José F. González speaking...

Two pictures to warm the table...




And the results...let´s see next post if I can manage to make them visible!

[Felix Muelas]

[Doug Nye]

Felix

You are a star and a gentleman.

Gonzalez says he bought the car direct from Ferrari in 1957, and that it was not - as far as he can recall - a car which had been to Argentina before.

Comments?

DCN

[Ray Bell]

Though I have no comment on such elevated stuff as Ferrari racing history... I would be interested to know which Chev engine was used in the days of the sixes. Indeed, I'd like to know what the details of the formula were that determined their use...

Was it the old 'Blue Flame 6' of 4-bearing construction? Am I right in recalling that this got pressure feed to the big ends some time in the fifties?

Or was it simply a GMC truck engine, which had an oil pump all along?

Or was it the Chevy II engine, or of that ilk...

ie. seven main bearings, hydraulic lifters, as was the type used by Vauxhall and Holden from circa 1962/3? (Note I'm not saying they were the same... indeed, even the Vauxhall and Holden units differ, despite similar capacities!)

[cabianca]

This one is a mess to say the least. Gonzales has supposedly said the car was given to him by Ferrari. However, he said the same thing about a 375 Plus that proved to be a complete fake and engendered a scathing letter from the historic section of the FIA, condemning both Gonzalez and Gendebien who seemed to be in on the scheme to pass off the fake 375.

Years ago, collector Bob Sutherland brought a bunch of Ferrari single-seater bits that came out of Argentina. Some of them carried 0482 stampings, although there was no direct connection to the Gonzalez Chevrolet-powered car. Regarding the latter car, there was a contemporary article in Hot Rod Magazine (US) when it was racing, but I don't have the issue date. There are numerous pictures of Gonzalez in his Chevy-powered car racing in the Argentine and elsewhere.

Sutherland proceeded to build up two cars from the bits. One was numbered 0482 and was built with 1955 625A bodywork, something that serial number never carried. The other was unnumbered.

Despite some things written about the 6-cylinder car, I was not aware that it had any parts numbered 0482 and it wouldn't matter anyway, since no one has been able to link 0482 to the Gonzalez Chevrolet-powered single-seater.

The original 0482 was probably No.3 in the 1952 numbering scheme for 2 liter team cars that ran in the 52-53 WC and was also probably converted to 2.5 liters for the new formula in 1954. We do know it was fitted with a sports car 3 liter engine (tipo 735), renumbered 0482 (a somewhat common practice when a single seater was sold to a privateer, it was put into the production numbering system) and sold to Peter Whitehead in late 1954. He raced it in the Tasman series in 54-55 and elsewhere and then traded it for a 555 Super Squalo to run the Tasman in 55-56. So the car was at the factory in late 55. It definitely did not go to Argentina for the 1955 Temporada series, because Whitehead was racing it in New Zealand. How 0482 ended up in Argentina is not clear. What is clear, is that none of the 3 cars that now make claims on being the Gonzalez Ferrari-Chev have a great deal of documentation to prove their point.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by cabianca
....He raced it in the Tasman series in 54-55 and elsewhere and then traded it for a 555 Super Squalo to run the Tasman in 55-56...

Quite a feat...

The Tasman Cup series didn't begin until the first week of January, 1964.

[marhal]

Hello...


"Froilán Gonzalez, una pasión sobre ruedas" (with Roberto Carozzo), that´s the book................

I think there is a mess..............First, the "375 Plus affair" was 30 years after the Ferrari-Corvette............I don´t know if Gonzalez and Gendebien were guilty of the faked car, that´s another story............



Probably, the confussion with the 6 cyl engine is because Gonzalez had at the same time a Maserati Chasis with a Chevrolet engine (in line 6). But, he never raced that car. I ignore the following owners of those cars................


P.S.: I didn´t post the pages of the book with the Froilán career with the Ferrari-Corvette, because I don´t know to do so

[cabianca]

Ray Bell and Tasman watchers,
Am I not correct in assuming that the winter series in Oz/NZ was referred to, perhaps informally, as the Tasman Series, long before the actual Tasman Cup was established in 1964.

McKinney is correct is that 0482 was never a 1951 V-12 car but began life as a 2 liter 4C for the 52-3 F2 which was used for the WC in those years.

[Ray Bell]

I never heard the term until the Tasman Cup was announced. At least not in connection with racing.

There may have been reference at times to 'Trans Tasman' racing, but there was never a series of any kind until 1964.

[David McKinney]

Until the announcement of the New Zealand/Australia series, the word 'Tasman' was used - in Australia and New Zealand at least - only for the Sea that separates the two countries, and for the Dutch navigator whose name it takes. I clearly remember thinking when the Tasman Championship was announced in 1963 what a strange name they had come up with. If the term 'Tasman Series' was used for the NZ/Australia races before that time it would have been considered very strange by locals. And I challenge TNFers to find any contemporary print reference to a Tasman Series before the official championship.
Whatever, there was no two-nation series at the time the Whitehead Ferrari was racing. New Zealand had been running an international libre series since 1954, with Australia making no regular contribution until 1961, though by 1962 there were a series of races in both countries.
I also have to correct Michael's contention that 0482 never had Argentina-type bodywork. Whitehead raced the car with standard 500/625-type bodywork in 1955, but before the 1956 series had it rebodied in 'Argentina' style. The Gonzalez car originally ran with the same type of bodywork, developments of which can be seen in the pictures
posted by Felix. I believe the Whitehead car went to Argentina (and later to Bob Sutherland) but I have no record of it racing there

[Doug Nye]

I believe Dave is quite right - the Whitehead 625 definitely ran late in his tenure with 'Argentina'-type bodywork and on his long tour to New Zealand he also took in Southern African events, from memory including the Limpopo Handicap at Bulawayo or somesuch? There is an apparent symmetry to him exchanging the car with Ferrari for the Squalo 555 with 3.5-litre 4cyl engine that he took - together with Reg Parnell's sister car - to the Olympic Games meeting at Melbourne in late 1956 and then raced in New Zealand in early 1957, and to Gonzalez acquiring "an old 625" from Ferrari for the 1957 season...

Comparison of body fittings on the Whitehead 'Argentina'-bodied car and the Gonzalez Ferrari-Corvette is the next step. There's perhaps too much '0482' smoke coming out of Argentina to believe there's absolutely no fire here...

But the critical question so far as I am concerned is this business about Fuerza Libre regulations and the admission - or otherwise - of the large capacity V8 engines.

Was there indeed a rule change which militated against the V8s and that could persuade an owner to fit an apparently Argentine-built in-line Chevy 6cyl instead?

Was there perhaps a move to insist that only Argentine-manufactured mechanicals should be used? And - if so - when was that change made????

All this is no big deal of course - it's just a question that I have been asked and for which, frustratingly, I couldn't find an answer. But I felt I knew some blokes who could...

DCN

[O Volante]

As said many times before, the topic "Single-seater Ferraris (or Maseratis or Alfa Romeos) in South America" is indeed a VERY tricky one ... To the facts on the González car already layed out here I have hardly anything new to add - except perhaps a short remindered that there is a book about Ferraris in the Argentine: "Ferrari Argentina", by Jorge Augé Bacqué, 98 pages, 27 x 22 cm. (Another info says the correct full title is "Ferrari y Argentina. Un amor pasional", by Jorge Augé Bacque, and adds it was published by Ed. A&F in 1995).

In another thread I had asked if any TNFers had, or did know, this book, but got no positive response. Marhal, however, proposed to e-mail Sr. Augé Bacqué, and that is what I did. In fact, Augé Bacqué is the editor of a classic car magazine in Argentina called "Autos de Época" (founded 1996, published four times per year) and he confirmed that he autored "Ferrari Argentina" and that it is still available: the book features the Ferraris racing in the country, most notably the sports-car championship winning 375MM and 375+ Ferraris, but also the 500/625 based Ferrari-Corvette of Froilán González AND the 375F1 based Ferrari-Corvette of Uruguayan Oscar González!

Of course I wanted to order a copy, but to buy and get things from the Argentine is currently a little difficult and so I postponed its purchase for the time being. Sr. Augé Bacque also mentioned that he is currently researching the "Torneiro Trigular" races (1958 - 1961) in order to write a multi part article for his magazine - surely something TNFers will look forward to!

I can't close this post without a BIG thank you to Felix for making the race record of the González Ferrari-Corvette public! But, of course, that is leading to new questions: First, where and how to get the González book, and, second, is there anything said about the type and origins of González' Maserati based MN car?

[marhal]

Hello.................

I agree with everybody about the fact that investigate the Argentinian Ferraris (and Maserati too) is very tricky. The only way to do so, it´s to read the magazines of that time.................The book about Froilán is well researched, and it´s very funny to read. As far I know, the only source to get copies of that book, and the Augé Bacque´s book is at www.auto-mobilia.com.ar, or sending a e-mail to Carlos Quintana at albero@auto-mobilia.com.ar. I bought a few books from them and I am very satisfied with their attentions. Regarding the Doug´s questions, I think at that time was a change in the rules, I am not sure, but the Ferrari Corvette ran into the "Fuerza Libre" category, and the Maserati-Chevrolet (6 cyl engine) ran in the "Mecánica Nacional" (National mechanic), but I am not sure..................

[Arturo Pereira]

Gents,

the rules were changed mainly because of some economic restrictions that were imposed by the governement that made very difficult to buy foreign spare parts. Those governments also try to support the development of those spare parts here in Argentina, and they helped the automobile corpotations to locate their factories here and/or to increase the percentage of argentine spare parts.
All those tries lasted for more than a decade and included the development of a Sport Prototype named Berta LR (La Razon) that competed in some races without succes, though the car design was very good (this happened in the very early 70s).

As for the Fuerza Libre I will review some books and will post what I can find later today. The Formula Libre later in the 60s derived into an argentine Formula 1 .... another ill-fated attempt.

Arturo

[Arturo Pereira]

After some researching this is what I found:

1. the Mecanica Nacional was composed by 2 divisions: Fuerza Libre and Fuerza Limitada. The rules stated that the drivers could get any chassis they could afford, but the engine should be available in the Argentine local market (no chance for some imported engines). On the other hand, the Fuerza Libre engines had no limit to their cubic capacity. At those times, the only engines that were available here were the ones from General Motors (Chevrolet) (in Argentina since 1925) and Ford. To put it simply, you could not use a Ferrari engine since Ferrari did not have a factory installed here, but you could buy a Chevrolet engine since General Motors had installed a factory here and had a big link of dealers, even in the case that such engines were in fact imported from the US. It was a real mess, from the rules point of view. They even used dirt tracks for racing. It was really sad to see the Autodromo de Buenos Aires with almost no people watching those Mecanica Nacional races that tried to replace the international F1, mostly for economic reasons (the cars and sometimes the drivers came here on board of ships and that is the reason that 3 or 4 races "Temporadas" were organized to justify the costs).

The Mecanica Nacional derived in the argentine F1 cars (up to 4ltr engines), Formula 2 and Formula Libre since August 1961. The success of these rules lasted for a few years, till the business sunk when the people became tired of watching races with chassis that looked like the ones from the mid 50s. The first contacts with international cars after the F1 Argentine GP in 1960 came with the F3 cars and later with the F2 in the late 60s. That was the definite end of the argentine Formula 1 (aka Mecanica Nacional), as was created in the late 50s. The Mecanica Nacional continued racing at some dirt tracks till the mid 60s, even when some rear-engine cars had begun to appear.

I could not find more information about Gonzalez and his Ferrari-Chevrolet Corvette.

Arturo

[Doug Nye]

Arturo = thanks a million. Was there any capacity limitation applied to these classes as described???

DCN

[Ray Bell]

As posted by Arturo Pereira
Mecanica Nacional was composed by 2 divisions: Fuerza Libre and Fuerza Limitada......

Fuerza Libre engines had no limit to their cubic capacity.....

The Mecanica Nacional derived in the argentine F1 cars (up to 4ltr engines).....

Does that help?

[Arturo Pereira]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
Arturo = thanks a million. Was there any capacity limitation applied to these classes as described???

DCN

Don

Let me check in the Automovil Club Argentino's library. Maybe they have filed the specific rules for each division.
btw, there will be some special historic material on its way to Farnham as soon as the FedEx wise guys visit my home, which would take place tomorrow ;)

Arturo

[Doug Nye]

Zippitydoo-DAH! Thank you.

DCN

[O Volante]

I'm having here C&SC for February 2003, looking on an advert of Duncan Hamilton & Co, Ltd.: the Ferrari-Corvette of Froilán González is offered for sale (POA), and the text says "at the time of press more research is being carried out by Doug Nye as to the exact history of his most unusual GP car" ...
Well, Doug, can you say here something on the origins of the car (or rather the race record when it was a "normal" 625) or have your research results to remain confidental (what I would understand very well )?
Or perhaps somebody else out there who can detail the early history of this particular car? (Its later racing with the Corvette engine installed has already been covered elsewhere at TNF, I would think)
PS: I would also like to know more about the early history of a close relative of the Argentine Ferrari-Corvette. I mean the 625 raced with a 750 engine in New Zealand by Pat Hoare and Frank Shuter. All info is much appreciated; many, many thanks in advance!

[Doug Nye]

Did Gonzalez race a six-cylinder Ferrari-Chevrolet as well as a V8 Ferrari-Chev, that's one question.

Another is that the 6-cyl car in question has a chassis whose centre-section of about four feet of tube looks VERY much 1950s Gilco Ferrari in origin - with damage and dents to (worst case) 'suggest' age, while each end of the structure, the suspension and virtually everything else looks as if it was made last Tuesday.

I have indeed been trying to research this car's derivation for Adrian - as he saw fit to say in his ad.

I have deep suspicions that what we're probably looking at here is a "cutting from the rose bush", a built-up car based on a few bits discarded at some time from a genuine period 'entity' - other bits from which may well have been 'restored' into something else...and which may now exist in parallel. At present I haven't even excluded the possibility that even if those lengths of tube are indeed genuine period Ferrari frame tubes, are they from a monoposto...or a road car??? (Perhaps this is one of the dangers of declaring to the world that one of 'us' is currently researching a car one has for sale??? )

We had another thread on this Meccanica Nacional topic a few months ago didn't we?

Regarding Pat Hoare's 4-cyl car from NZ - Dave McKinney or Milan Fistonic will be the experts on its career there - but that car was a special, cobbled together at Maranello from all manner of bits for Hoare, and including the only known Lancia-Ferrari tail tank to have survived - as far as I know.

The car was raced by John Brown and Nigel Moores ('Willie Eckerslyke') in British VSCC events and is now part of the Dutch National Motor Museum collection at Ramsdonksveer. And it's been busted for donkey's years...having blown its engine I seem to recall during a general test day at the old Aintree club circuit, Liverpool, in the 1970s...

DCN

[O Volante]

With the appearance of the new Sub-Forum I feel tempted to bring back to public attention an unsolved question that worries me since a long, long time ...

It is the history of the famous Ferrari-Corvette used by Froilan Gonzalez to win the South American Torneiro Triangular Championship in 1958/59 and 1959/60. The car has been the subject of two treads way back in 2002 and 2003, see Argentine Fuerza Libre, Gonzalez and Ferrari-Chev and Research on Froil�n Gonzalez Ferrari-Corvette. Now I can add on this information, but also a few new questions have come up.

The Carozzo biography of Froilan Gonzaley mentioned above was very useful. It does not clarify which particular 500 car provided the chassis for the construction of the Ferrari-Corvette, but states clearly that the chassis purchased from Ferrari was of the older range, from one of the V12 cars but modified to harbour a 4 cylinder engine and fitted with an improved suspension. According to Carozzo, the Argentine Magazine 'Motor' stated at the time this chassis had the s/n 0482. Into it went a Chevrolet Corvette engine build by Bernardo Perez, enlarged to 4,700 cc, with four 45mm Weber double carburettors for 270 HP @ 6,000 rpm, later up to 350 HP.

As the race record in the first thread above shows, Gonzalez was very sucessful with this Ferrari-Corvette not only to dominate Furza Libre racing in Argentina, but also to define the standards for this racing class in Uruguay and Brazil. As it turned out, it was also the last car driven by him in a race when he won the Fuerza Libre competition at El Pinar in Uruguay at 15 May 1960, and with this his second Triangular Championship.

After that, according to Carozzo, the car was rebodied by Dante Baudena and his son Alain in 'Baufer style', that is the standard, rounded bodywork was replaced by a rather squarish one. In this form Froilan made it available to one of the upcoming Argentine drivers of the day, Alberto Rodriguez Larreta (alias 'Larry'), whos outstanding result with it was a second place in the 1961 500 Millas Argentinas at Rafaela. Finally, said Carozzo, it was sold to a car-builder from San Carlos called Cenci, who wanted to have the car to build replicas of it for racing in Argentine national racing.

Accordingly there were two reasons for the retirement and sale of the car. It was getting a little old, and mainly, there was a big change in Argentine monoposto racing. Up to 1961, there were two classes in 'Mecanica Nacional': the big unlimited, over 3,300 cc 'Fuerza libre' class and the smaller 'Fuerza limitada' up to 3,300 cc class. From the 1962 season, the unlimited class was abandonned and replaced as the big class by 'Mecanica Nacional Formula 1', limited to 4,000 cc, plus a 'Mecanica Nacional Formula 2' for smaller cars. This change was influenced by developments in Carretera racing, and ruled out the powerful Corvette engines. For the smaller 6 cylinder Chevrolet (or 8 cylinder Ford) engines that were to take over, a lighter chassis was a much better option, and that was the reason why Froilan Gonzalez and his crew developed a newer and smaller Maserati 6GCM chassis for use in Mecanica Nacional Formula 1 during the next years.

The Carozzo biography has been written in close colaboration with Froilan Gonzalez. For that reason, one has to take the given information as rather serious. However, there are a few more or less well known details that are not mentioned. For example, the first driver to race the Ferrari-Corvette after Froilan's retirement was veteran Emilio Barbalarga, who retired from the 1960 500 Millas. In early 1961 the Ferrari-Corvette was driven by Roberto Mieres to victory at Cordoba. Only then 'Larry' took over, and he raced the car also in 1962 ... And to add to the confussion, in some races with Corvette engine, but at the 500 Millas at Rafaeal apparently with a 6 cylinder Chevrolet ...

These observations are leading me to some questions to clarify the later history of 0482:

1) Who knows more about the period when Emilio Barbalarga had the car? Why did he get the car? Were did he race it, and what were the results?

2) Exactly when and why was the car rebodied by the Baudenas?

3) Who can detail the car's race record in Alberto Rodriguez Larreta's hands? One race on which I would like to know more is the 'Premio Vendimia' at Mendoza on 6 May 1962. Who can help with details?

4) The 'man called Cenci' was probably Raul Cenci, who build later race cars known by his own name. Who knows about Ferrari chassis copies build by him? Did he? And if, how many? Who raced them, and with what results?

5) The most successful 'Ferrari' in the Mecanica Nacional Formula 1 during the mid-1960s was the car of Jorge Ternengo, which was apparently destroyed in the 1967 500 Millas. It had a rather squarish bodywork; was this 0480, or a copy with Baufer style bodywork?

6) In 2003, the Gonzalez Ferrari-Corvette was offered for sale - see the second thread above. It seems to have a Corvette engine and a rather normal Ferrari bodywork. Was this the real car? How did it survive, given the above?

Many thanks for any help in advance!

Edited by O Volante, 07 November 2011 - 10:50.

[GIGLEUX]

What is strange is that 0480 and 0482 were 625 cars sold to Tony Gaze and Peter Whitehead.

[David McKinney]

Whitehead returned his to the factory, whence it was presented (I believe) to Gonzalez

[David McKinney]

The car has been the subject of two treads way back in 2002 and 2003, see Argentine Fuerza Libre, Gonzalez and Ferrari-Chev and Research on Froil�n Gonzalez Ferrari-Corvette.

If anyone is looking for these old threads, they are now both merged with this one

[David McKinney]

The Carozzo biography of Froilan Gonzaley mentioned above was very useful. It does not clarify which particular 500 car provided the chassis for the construction of the Ferrari-Corvette, but states clearly that the chassis purchased from Ferrari was of the older range, from one of the V12 cars but modified to harbour a 4 cylinder engine and fitted with an improved suspension. According to Carozzo, the Argentine Magazine 'Motor' stated at the time this chassis had the s/n 0482.

I don't think there's any doubt that 0482 was the car Whitehead raced in the Southern Hemisphere in 1955-56 (in company with Gaze's 0480). It's original (pre-Whitehead) life may have started as a 125, 166 or 375 - I have no way of knowing

After that, according to Carozzo, the car was rebodied by Dante Baudena and his son Alain in 'Baufer style', that is the standard, rounded bodywork was replaced by a rather squarish one.

Baufer came from the names of Baudena and Ferreira Basso (which is probably irrelevant)

1) Who knows more about the period when Emilio Barbalarga had the car? Why did he get the car? Were did he race it, and what were the results?

I have no note of Barbalarga's results with the car

5) The most successful 'Ferrari' in the Mecanica Nacional Formula 1 during the mid-1960s was the car of Jorge Ternengo, which was apparently destroyed in the 1967 500 Millas. It had a rather squarish bodywork; was this 0480, or a copy with Baufer style bodywork?

Ternengo's mounts are very confusing - either he drove a number of different cars some years, or the same car under different names
1964: unknown car in the Rafala 500
1966: Chevrolet (what does that mean?)
1967: Chevrolet, sometimes also called a Ferrari (assuming it's the same car)
1968: Ferrari-Tornado, Berta-Tornado
1969: Berta-Tornado, Bravi-Tornado, Maserati-Tornado
1970: Sprint Chevrolet, Trueno-Chevrolet, Berta-Tornado
1971: Baufer-Chevrolet (shared with Eduardo Pino), Berta-Tornado

I'm sure by these last years at least Ternengo's cars would have had no Ferrari heritage...

[O Volante]

Bump - and many thanks, David!

On Barbalarga and the Gonzalez Ferrari-Corvette, I have four notes:

1) At Esperanza on 4 September 1960, Barbalarga won the two Fuerza libre heats and therefore on aggregate. According to the blurred pictures with the report, this may be the Gonzalez Ferrari-Corvette. Barbalarga was also in the entry for the Fuerza libre race at the Parque Urquiza at Parana on 3 July 1960, but I have neither information about his car nor the result of this event. Earlier in 1960, Barbalarg raced a Chevrolet Wayne to finish second in his home town Marcos Juarez: this was on 15 May, the same day Gonzalez had his Ferrari-Corvette at El Pinar ...

2) A preview for the race at San Jorge on 2 October 1960 explicitly states for Barbalarga 'con el poderoso Chevrolet Corvette que pertenecio a José Froilán González'.

3) 'El Grafico' has a picture of the car crashed by Barbalarga in the first run of the 1960 500 Millas at Rafaela on 20 November 1960, which was stopped after 8 laps because of heavy rain and too many accidents. This may well be the Gonzalez Ferrari-Corvette ... It looks very damaged, and I'm not sure Barbalarga made it to the re-start next day ...

4) In January 1961, Barbalarga and the Gonzalez Ferrari-Corvette were part of the team to represent Argentina in the first round of the 1961 Torneiro Triangular at Interlagos in Brasil. In the first heat, he finished 12th but was unplaced in the second and on aggregate. A picture of part of the grid at Napoleao Ribeiro's Luik site shows Barbalarga and the Ferrari-Corvette with #52

here (First row, picture on the extreme right)

On Jorge Ternengo, I can't help much. It's not with different names, but the trouble is there were two Jorge Ternegos, son and father, and I do not know if the exploits with the front engined Ferrari-Chevy/Tornando were among the older man's last, or the young man's first races ...

Edited by O Volante, 14 November 2011 - 18:42.

[Barry Boor]

Looking at car #52 in the picture mentioned above, the car seems to have a light coloured bonnet - as it does in the picture from Cordoba 1960. Does this mean that it was probably blue and yellow?

[David McKinney]

A reasonable assumption, but I don't know that I've ever seen any colour pictures of it in South America