Team Lincolns in the 1954 Mexican Road Race
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The LINCOLN LINK LINKINGThe TOGETHER LINCOLN ALL ELEMENTS OF THE LINCOLN MOTORLINK CAR HERITAGE Team Lincolns in the 1954 Mexican Road Race Photo courtesy of Roger Clements, Perris, California PUBLISHED SEMI-YEARLY Volume VI, number 2 • wInter, 2008 the lincoln link La Carrera Panamericana LINCOLN TRIUMPHS IN THE “MEXICAN ROAD Race” by Bill Culver, Guest Editor THE LEGEND IS BORN and fiestas than for industrial Meanwhile, at the Ford HERE ARE A LOT progress. In its effort to Motor Company headquarters in of ways to say it. Some modernize, it had launched an Dearborn, the years leading up would call it destiny; ambitious program to complete to 1950 were tumultuous. The some would say fate. a highway from Ciudad Juarez in relationship between Henry Ford Some would think it was the north (across the Rio Grande and his gifted son, Edsel, has Tthe serendipitous convergence from El Paso, Texas) to El been documented many times by and alignment of the stars and Ocotal in the south, a tiny village various authors; it was tragic at planets. However you put it, on the mountainous border of best. Edsel essentially introduced the events which created the Guatemala, a distance originally the concept of “design” to Ford “Road Race Lincolns” were estimated at 2,178 miles (in Motor Company, and his taste in magically timed, considering later years actually measured styling is forever memorialized that two totally different at 1,908 miles)! Dubbed the by the original sensational cultures independently created “Pan American Highway,” the Continentals, the first of which those events which meshed and artery was to be completed in were sold to the public in 1940. resulted in Lincoln becoming a 1950, and Mexico announced an But Lincoln was quickly losing “legend in its own time”! inaugural and celebratory road ground to Cadillac and the other race. But this was not just to be luxury models in terms of design IN THE BEGINNING any race. It was to be a grueling and mechanical advances. In In 1950, Mexico was a contest stretching the entire 1948, Lincoln was still using its country known more for siestas distance of the highway! old flathead V-12 engine and the traditional “fat-fendered” design on its bodies. During this period, Henry and Edsel were in conflict over advances in styling and mechanics that Edsel wanted to bring to the company’s products, advances that were adamantly opposed by Henry. Edsel died in 1943 from cancer resulting from stomach ulcers. Henry Ford II was discharged from the military and made a vice president. Henry reassumed the presidency, but finally stepped down in 1945 at the insistence of the Ford family. He died April 7, 1947, at the age of 83. The new 1949 Lincolns, besides being more advanced in styling, incorporated new and The 1950 race route was shown in this map that appeared in Road & Track magazine. innovative mechanical features, 2 volume vi, number 2 including a large and powerful flathead (L-head) V-8 engine of 336.7 cubic inches producing 152 bhp. This engine had already been tested as a workhorse, having been featured in the larger Ford trucks beginning in 1948. The new cars also featured independent front suspension for the first time, and the General Motors Hydramatic was offered as an option in mid- year. The “baby” Lincoln had a wheelbase of 121 inches, while the Cosmopolitan was stretched over a wheelbase of 125 inches. Clearly, Lincoln had made a giant step into the future! It should be noted, however, that Cadillac had thrown down the gauntlet, and Lincoln immediately faced the challenge of Cadillac’s new overhead-valve, high- compression V-8 engine in 1949. In 1950, the second year of the body style, the Lincoln was basically unchanged, as wheelbase Johnny Mantz and Bill Stroppe blast out of the impound and power remained the same. area at Tuxtla for the last leg of the 1950 race. The Cosmopolitan fastback sedan and the “baby” Lincoln convertible were dropped from animals! Between the cities of a Talbot Lago, and a Hotchkiss. the lineup. Toluca and Puebla, the entrants The American cars consisted of would cross two great mountain twenty-two Cadillacs, seventeen 1950: THE FIRST RACE ranges reaching altitudes of Buicks, thirteen Oldsmobiles, he first race was scheduled for 10,000 feet and more! The route four Chevrolets, sixteen Lincolns, May 5–10, 1950. This race, was paved all the way, save for eleven Mercurys, eight Fords, T the Carrera Panamericana the last 107 miles in the State three Chryslers, two DeSotos, Mexico, or “Mexican Road of Chiapas, where the road was nine Hudsons, eight Nashes, Race,” would extend for six described as “a good gravel seven Packards, four Studebakers consecutive days, requiring surface.” The race was to begin and a Cord. Of the 132 entrants, entrants to endure hours of high- on May 5, 1950. only 55 crossed the finish line, speed driving over mountains, To entice entrants, Mexico 20 of which were Americans. Of through canyons, jungles and offered elegant trophies and the Lincolns entered, eleven were deserts, and directly through cash purses. The 1950 race 1949’s, three were 1950’s, and old colonial towns and modern attracted 132 entries, 59 of one was a 1947. industrial centers. “Through” which were from the U.S. The In the 1950 race, foreign them meant careening through remainder came from Colombia, and American cars raced directly the towns on narrow streets Venezuela, Guatemala, Italy, against each other; there were winding tortuously around Peru, France, The Republic of no classes established. Entries houses and buildings, with only China, and El Salvador. Only were required to be stock, but piled hay bales as protection for six cars were non-U.S. makes: cylinders could be rebored entrants, spectators and loose two Alfas, a Delahaye, a Jaguar, on 1949 and 1950 models to 3 the lincoln link thirty thousandths, while earlier models could be rebored to sixty thousandths. The rear seat could be removed to carry an extra gas tank or spare parts or tools; an open exhaust was forbidden. Hubcaps and fender skirts could also be removed. LINCOLNS ENTER THE RACE s fate would have it, Bob Estes Ford of Inglewood, A California, entered a ’49 Lincoln with Johnny Mantz as driver and Bill Stroppe as assistant driver (Entry No. 38). A total of fifteen Lincolns were entered in the first road race, all private entries. On the first leg of the 1950 race, which ended in Chihuahua, Mantz recorded a time over 233 During the 1951 race, Walt Faulkner (far left) awaits the completion of an oil change miles of 2:21:13 and an average so he can get back on the road. speed of 98.991 miles per hour! A 1950 Cadillac with its newer the only Guatemalan entry, and 1951: THE SECOND YEAR design engine was first on that apparently took his eyes off the he pressure for mechanical leg, with an average speed of road for a moment as he arrived advancement increased in 100.425 miles per hour and an at a grade crossing. T 1951 with the introduction elapsed time of 2:19:12, only Herschel McGriff won the of Chrysler’s “hemi” engine. two minutes faster than the race in a 1950 Oldsmobile 88 Stuck in the third year of Lincoln. Mantz remained in the coupe, with an average speed the body style cycle, Lincoln money on each leg until the of 78.421 mph. He collected a incorporated a few minor styling seventh. On that day, his brakes purse of over $17,000.00. changes for 1951, and although failed and he had to cross the Despite the brake problems, it reportedly increased the brake last mountain range using only the 1949 Lincoln entered by horsepower to 154, Lincoln won th engine compression for braking. Mantz and Stroppe placed 9 the Mobilgas Economy Run that He was put to bed that night overall, 52 minutes from first year, with an average of 25.448 and copilot Stroppe worked on place. Six of the other fifteen miles per gallon. the car until the early morning Lincolns entered also placed, In the meantime, the Mexican th th th th th hours. in 13 , 19 , 20 , 25 34 government had changed the th Contestants learned early in and 49 places. Mantz, who race somewhat for 1951. The the first leg of that first race that was already known as the 1949 direction was reversed, from the stakes would be high, and Pacific Coast AAA big car racing south to north. This time the that any mistake of judgment champion, and Stroppe, who had race would begin later in the on the part of a driver could be already won the 1950 Mobilgas year, on November 20, 1951. fatal. On the first day, of the Economy Run, would become Mechanical rules had changed race, car number 112 wiped racing legends as the 1950’s to specify only that a four- out at 105 miles per hour, progressed. Lincoln’s investment passenger closed vehicle had to only 19 miles from the starting in the mechanical improvements be powered by its original engine line, rolling over six times and for the 1949 Lincoln had paid type with a stock camshaft. Many fatally injuring driver Enrique off, and Ford was hard at work entries, therefore, resorted to Hachmeister. He was driving on the major changes to be multiple carburetors and high- a 1949 Lincoln Cosmopolitan, wrought for the 1952 series. compression cylinder heads. 4 volume vi, number 2 Participants were required to Road & Track magazine road-tested a stock 1953 Lincoln, seen here (left) drag-rac- wear protective helmets for the ing Ray Crawford’s entry from the 1952 Carrera Panamericana.