Carrera Messicana 1975

Update June 2005.

Here is the story of this magnificent Lancia Montecarlo tour in Mexico:

The idea came, early July 1975,  from a Italian journalist who wanted to commemorate the 1953 Lancia victory in the Carrera Panamericana. The choice of cars was set on the new Lancia Beta HPE and Lancia Beta Montecarlo. The cars were taken straight of the production line and only did a few hundred kilometres before shipping. On 26 July 1975 the blue and the red Montecarlo spider and the yellow Beta HPE were flown from Milan by Alitalia to New York and from there with Aeromexico to Mexico City. The Lancia team consisted of journalists, a photographer and a mechanic from Lancia. The plan was to take the route of the 1953 race as a test for the new cars and a promotion for Lancia.

De 1953 race started in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, in the far south near the border with Guatemala. The transfer route from Mexico City to Tuxtla, 1367 km, was also very useful to get some kilometres on the new cars.

The same 8 stages as then would be driven and in modesty the team changed the name of this event in Carrera Messicana. The total of 3078 kilometres the three cars did in 5 days with a total driving time of 31 hrs 22 min at an average of 98,129 km/hr. They even never used the spare parts!

At least both the Montecarlos were then sold in the USA. 

	Along the roads of the original 1953 Carrera Panamericana
Monte Albán a few kilometers from Oaxaca

USA 2000

The red one, 137AS0000102, is since 2003 in Sweden imported from the USA.

Sweden June 2003	Sweden 2004	Torino 2006

This is all I know of this adventure up to now. 

If any of you have more info please mail any additions for this page to Arnoud Coenen

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© Arnoud Coenen, NL. June 2007