The Grand Prix of South America is to be celebrated by Bespoke Rallies with a 30-day 10,000km rally in 2018, marking 70 years since the race was first run.
Classic car tour organiser Bespoke Rallies launched the commemorative rally at Brooklands Museum last month, outlining plans to celebrate Domingo Marimon’s surprise win in 1948.
The Grand Prix of South America: Bespoke Rallies
The rally will pay homage to the original event with the route running through Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Crews will also leave Buenos Aires at midnight on October 20, 2018 – the same minute at which the original two-week long grand prix begun.
Bespoke Rallies director John Brigden said, ‘We are very excited about recreating some of the magic of that legendary event, which is still widely regarded as the greatest road race of all time, and we are receiving full cooperation from all the countries involved, which are as keen as we are to witness the reenactment.’
The original race is renowned for an epic between five-time Formula 1 world champion Juan Manuel Fangio in a Chevrolet Master and brothers Oscar and Juan Gálvez aboard Ford V8s.
Ultimately none of them won – Fangio crashed out on the 1322km-long seventh stage, while Juan Gálvez succumbed to an accident on the very last one, and his brother to disqualification for receiving outside assistance following a breakdown.
