One to Buy: ex-works 1954 Lincoln Capri Coupe 'Carrera Panamericana'
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When it comes to great 20th century road races, arguably the most formidable was the Carrera Panamericana which took place over five days and 2000-miles on Mexico’s newly opened section of the Pan-American Highway.
Faster and more dangerous than any road course event taking place in Europe at the time, the Carrera was held for just five years between 1950 and ‘54 and eventually became a formal round of the World Sportscar Championship following its 1953 inception.
Unfortunately, with an enormously high fatality rate (24 competitors and spectators lost their lives), the Carrera Pan Americana became a casualty of the reduced appetite for road racing after 1955’s infamous Le Mans disaster.
The Mexican authorities had already been under pressure to cancel on cost grounds. Thanks to a combination of lax crowd control and exponentially rising speeds (the winning car’s average had gone from 88mph in 1950 to 138mph in 1954), it seemed only a matter of time before the Carrera had its own catastrophe.
Having initially been strictly the preserve of series production road cars, 1952 saw the Carrera Panamericana opened up to purebred Prototypes. From this point, the event was split into categories for Sports and Touring cars.
That year, Lincoln’s works trio of Capris took first, second and third in the Touring class, a feat the American firm repeated in 1953. In 1954, the Capris bagged first and second in class to make Lincoln the most consistently successful manufacturer in Carrera Panamericana history.
Going under the hammer at Bonhams’ National Automobile Museum auction in Reno on June 13th is the only known survivor of Lincoln's 1954 Carrera Panamericana team: chassis 54LA9006H.
In total, six Capris were prepared for the ‘54 event over at the Long Beach shop of Bill Stroppe and Clay Smith: four race cars and two back up / practice cars. After the event, Lincoln took possession of the fleet, all of which were returned Stroppe and Smith where they were resprayed and numbered to look like Ray Crawford's class winner. The Capris were then scattered across North American Lincoln dealers to publicise the victory.
This car was acquired in rough condition by Harrah's Automobile Collection (which became the National Automobile Museum in 1989) and immediately sent to the Long Beach shop of Holman Moody-Stroppe Inc. for a comprehensive restoration. Work was completed in September 1968 at a cost of nearly $8000.
Unfortunately, despite years of searching by the National Automobile Museum, there is currently no information available as to which car was driven by which driver in the ‘54 Carrera Panamericana. However, according to Bonhams, chassis 54LA9006H “has a characteristic modification known to have been made only to the Carrera Panamericana Lincoln team cars: a pair of holes in the trunk floor where Bill Stroppe fitted two fans with ducting through the floor for brake cooling.”
”Upon arrival in Mexico, the scrutineers for Associacion Mexicana Automovilistica viewed these ingenious fittings and quickly ruled them not stock. The fans were removed for the race, but the holes that had been cut in the trunk floor remained. The car also has an original roll bar and a huge 55-gallon fuel tank in the back seat to supplement the standard 23-gallon unit.”
Truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.
