Question of the Week: What Car Would You Race at La Carrera Panamericana?
Welcome to the BaT Question of the Week! For those unfamiliar, here are the rules: we ask an automotive-themed question, and the author of our favorite answer from the comments is awarded a $25 credit to the BaT Gear Store.
This year’s La Carrera Panamericana race finally kicks off this weekend! The original race was created to celebrate Mexico’s newly completed stretch of the Pan-American Highway. It ran for five consecutive years in the early 1950s, and in that short time it went down in history as one of the most dangerous and backbreaking road rallies ever. Today’s iteration covers much of the original route, and while safety is much increased, driving the event still takes a whole lot of chutzpah.
So this week we’re challenging you to show us what you’d run to tackle this brutal trek: What car would you race at La Carrera Panamericana?
You’ll find everything from big American iron to scrappy European machines cutting it up along Mexico’s highways, with classes including the Panamerican Car Group (1940 to 1954) and the Historic Car Group for those built from 1955 to 1985.
Exceptions for late-model entrants have been made in recent years, but our only stipulation is that you keep your answers to cars built from 1940 to 1985 for this week’s thought experiment. With that, the choice is yours!
We’ll leave you with this flyby compilation for some additional conversation fodder.
What car would you race at La Carrera Panamericana?
Tell us your suggestions in the comments, and give a thumbs-up to any nominations that grab your attention. We’ll announce the winner on Monday.
