Ford Coupe Turismo de Carretera
Was Juan Manuel Fangio the greatest racecar driver of all time? He was World Champion five times (1951, 1954 to 1957) and his career winning percentage of 46.2-percent in Formula One is better than anyone else by a sizeable margin (Alberto Ascari, 39.4; Jim Clark, 34.3; Michael Schumacher, 29.6; Jackie Stewart, 27.0; Ayrton Senna, 25.3). Fangio’s greatest achievements have been widely discussed in the world of motorsports, but his beginnings are less well known.
Born in Argentina in 1911, and bored with the standard curriculum in school, Fangio spent his childhood studying auto mechanics. His racing debut was in the 1939 Turismo de Carretera (TC). He won the event in 1940 and 1941 behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Coupe, and these back-to-back TC championships launched his racing career. But what exactly was the Turismo de Carretera? The simple answer is this: insanity on four wheels.
Picture this. Young men blasting down poorly built open roads through the Argentine countryside in homebuilt jalopies; no seat belts, no roll bars, no safety equipment whatsoever. Combine youth, speed, testosterone, danger and marathon races of more than 1,000 kilometers through towns lined with Argentinian masses and you had an epic happening. And did I mention that the two-man teams did not stop to rest? Refueling was accomplished “midflight.” Team members ran alongside the cars at sharp slow turns and threw five-gallon metal cans of fuel to the co-pilot. The co-pilot in turn refueled the fuel tank via a mammoth Monza-style fuel cap located behind his seat. Once emptied, the five-gallon can was thrown clear of the vehicle. This procedure was repeated until the 80-gallon fuel tank was completely full.
The races of the Turismo de Carretera were not confined to 1,000 kilometers. No indeed! The 1948 event (Grand Prix of TC South America) featured 14 punishing stages with competitors hurling their machines from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Caracas, Venezuela, a distance of 9,579 kilometers. In short, the earliest installments of the Turismo de Carretera were the ultimate endurance road races of any lifetime.
Gino Londi was born in November of 1936. He grew up in Buenos Aires, and like so many young men of that country he has never forgotten the roar of the cars racing though his town, or the radio announcers’ chronicles of the event round-the-clock. Londi said, “It seems I was born like many other people of Argentina with a great passion for cars…especially racing cars.
“My wonderful father got me my first scale model, a 1937 Mercedes racecar, when I was just one year old, and from that point on I was hooked. By the time I was 10 my dad was taking me to all the races, and I still remember seeing the Alfa Romeos, Maseratis, Ferraris, Simca Gordinis and all the great drivers like Fangio, Farina, Ascari, Villoresi and Wimmille. I grew up loving all types of racing cars, including formula cars and sports cars, but the ultimate for me was always the cars of the Turismo de Carretera.”
Londi’s passion for the TC led him, with the support of his dad, to buy a 1928 Chevrolet, when Gino was just 15 years old. Tempted by racing but faced with reality, Londi chose to enroll in automotive school, graduating as an automotive technician in 1953. He later attended automotive engineering school with a special focus on building and preparing competition vehicles. By age 19, Londi had opened his first automotive shop in Buenos Aires, specializing in Ford, Lincoln and Mercury automobiles.
Londi said, “During this time I also decided to build my absolute dream car; a Ford Coupe Turismo de Carretera like the ones that Fangio, Galvez and many other great drivers had driven in the famous Argentine road race. I originally bought a ’38 Ford, but what I really wanted was a 1940 Ford Coupe. This turned out to be a challenge, and I had difficulty locating a ’40 Ford. But, while I was searching, I started building a 59AB Ford Flathead engine with a racing cam, a triple-carburetor aluminum intake manifold and RABA aluminum heads. RABA was a high-performance manufacturer in Argentina that made high quality components. Three years passed and I finally was able to buy the 1940 Coupe that had occupied so much of my brain. However, a short time later my visa papers came through and I immigrated to the United States in 1960, leaving my unfinished dream behind.”
Through the years Londi has competed in numerous vintage events, racing many cars, but the figment that has eluded him for more than 62 years has been that first drive in his very own 1940 Ford Coupe Turismo de Carretera.
At age 76, Londi decided it was time to make his dream come true. In November of 2012, he finally bought himself a birthday present to satiate his enduring automotive hunger. He purchased a 1940 Ford Coupe and started to make things happen in the garage/workshop behind his home in Covina, California. He built his car on a stock Ford chassis with 15-inch Ford wheels in the exact same way as on the earliest competitors of the Turismo de Carretera. Londi drilled the brakes for cooling and modified the suspension to allow for two shock absorbers per wheel. For power he chose a Ford 59AB unit with original RABA aluminum heads gulping through triple Ford 97 carbs on an original RABA aluminum intake manifold. Gearshifts are accomplished by way of a 1939 Ford floor shift housing with 1940 Ford synchronized gears. Londi modified the body in the old TC style with a dropped nose, a special hood and racing fenders.
Londi finished the car in January of 2014. At 77 years of age, his fantasy has now become a reality, and his first drive was both joyous and tearful.
Londi said, “There are no vintage events to race the car in, but I will start it up every day of my life, occasionally drive it around the block, and simply enjoy looking at it in my garage.” There it will certainly be in excellent company. For on Londi’s workshop desk sits the very same scale model of the Mercedes racer his father gave him in 1937, along with a signed photograph of his dear lifelong friend, Juan Manuel Fangio.
