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Estanislao Reverter's Goggomobil, a microcar in key years

Although it does not look like a sporty vehicle at all, the little Goggomobil came to have an official competition team in Spain through the manufacturer MUNISA. A story that intersected with that of Estanislao Reverter, who during two of the most decisive years in his sports career successfully piloted this model in various tests.

Thanks to the careful and laborious process of restoring the Alpinche, the Estanislao Reverter Foundation has managed to place the memory of this pilot among the headlines of classics in recent months. However, the Orensano's career goes far beyond that creation. Based on mixing an Alpine A110 with the engine of a Porsche 911, amalgamating everything with parts from different sources and his own mechanical ingenuity. In fact, his track record spans two decades. Starting with the FASA-Renault Trophy in 1955 to end up winning four of the six races entered during 1975. Always driving with skill, but also showing a methodical interest in mechanics.

To the point of working hours and hours on it, taking time away from the necessary physical rest during the rallies themselves. In addition, his instinct for driving also catered to the more technical aspects. In this way, when he began to go to Montecarlo in 1958, he noticed how the best squads work in navigation. Thanks to that observed everything related to the scoring system managed by the co-pilots. Learning from it to be a pioneer of this practice in Spain. Thus, Reverter was not only a pilot gifted with talent behind the wheel. He was also a careful mechanic and race manager, focused on spreading and professionalizing the practice of rallying in Spain.

Rallyes in which he competed aboard more than twenty different models. From iconic racing cars like the Lancia Fulvia HF or the Alfa Giulia Sprint GTA to small models ideal for hill racing like the BMW 700 or the Authi Mini. And that's without counting his Alpinche, the 911 R that he used from 1968 to 1971 or the FIAT Abarth 1000 thanks to which he finished third in the 1965 Spanish Rally Championship. An excellent sporting panoply where, curiously, stands out during two of his best and most important years in competition a simple Goggomobil. Something even more striking when, researching his record and comparing license plates, it is verified how Reverter also competed with an official unit of the brand after doing it with his own.

GOGGOMOBIL, AN UNEXPECTED SPORTSMANSHIP

With about 430 kilos in the versions that moved around 400cc, the Goggomobil was an urban microche with little power but at the same time very light. If to this was added its more than brief size, not a few pilots saw in it an interesting and affordable model for racing on slopes or twisty sections. Evidently, its 20CV in the most performance variants They did not ensure anything on the straights or against machines born by and for the competition. But, if they were in the right hands, they could give surprises to cars with a much larger budget.

In fact, this didn't just happen with the Goggomobiles. Far from it, one of the reasons why the 1954 Mille Miglia is most remembered is because of the entry of seven Iso Isettas, reaching the end of test five. It is true that in the last places, but managing to finish as almost half of those who started in Brescia did not. Besides, going to the history of Montecarlo we can see the three victories of the Mini Cooper S in the sixties against much more powerful cars. And even the class victory of a Official Team Trabant in 1970! And that's not to mention the Goggomobil created by Ramón Arnalot and Salvador Cañellas in 1968.

One of the most spectacular handmade mounts in Spanish motorsport. Using as a base a Goggomobil 400 to which the three-cylinder engine of a DKW van was incorporated. If you add to this the widened axles, the air intakes and the three exhausts for Bultaco Metralla 250 the appearance is the most resounding. Some would even say Martian. Due to which this model piloted by Cañellas received the name of OVNI.

One of the Isettas at the 1954 Mille Miglia. Photo: BMW Press

Thus, although the appearance of the Goggomobiles in Reverter's career may be surprising, the truth is that it is not something entirely strange. Even less when Reverter himself managed the sales of the model in the provinces of Orense and Pontevedra as a MUNISA dealer. The Vizcaya company that, since 1962, manufactured at its facilities in Mungía the national version of this German microcar presented in 1958. A model that had an ephemeral niche in the Spanish scene. Since, as families were able to access the popular 600, the market for microcars was left as a post-war memory and its scarcity.

Among the microcars after the Second World War, the Goggomobil was one of the most prominent. Photography: R.M. Sotheby's

KEY YEARS FOR ESTANISLAO REVERTER

Placing the Goggomobil within Reverter's career, it is striking how its use during 1963 and 1964 coincides with one of his most decisive sporting stages. To begin with, of those he had already participated four times in the Monte Carlo Rally. What's more, in 1958 he had been third in the Spanish Rally Championship. Losing it in the last test in the middle of a series of confusing operations. All of them favorable to the victory of the military Jaime Milans del Bosch. Precisely that same character who, in 1981, changed rally cars for tanks during the coup led by Tejero.

At this point, by the way, it is worth remembering once again the multifaceted nature of Reverter. And it is that, beyond motoring, he was a deputy in the constituent courts for the UCD. Just as he participated in the drafting of the preliminary draft of the Statute of Autonomy for Galicia. Returning to rallying, in 1964 luck turned its back on him again in the Spanish Championship. Losing it in the last test -Rallye Dos Cataluñas- due to the breakage of his Ford Lotus Cortina. A fatality that relegated him to second place. Jaime Juncosa being first with a FIAT Abarth 1000 that, according to most sources, seems to have been acquired by Reverter himself a few months before.

Revert to the Vota ao Minho of 1963

Thus, during that same 1964 Ford offered him to move to England to be a pilot of the official team. An offer that clearly demonstrates to what extent Reverter was a pilot to watch, although he finally declined it to continue in Galicia attached to his family and businesses. With all this context, it's hard not to think about the paradox of how the Cortina preparation was combined with other models much simpler. Those among which the Goggomobil stands out for its exoticism and unexpected personality.

Plaque from 1963 guarded at the Estanislao Reverter Foundation

THE GOGGOMOBIL IN THE REVERTER RACE

Let's go by parts. Or, specifically, for years. For starters, in 1963 he ran a unit from his own dealership with license plate OR-9558. Since there is no specific data on whether its engine was tricked in some way, the most normal thing is to think that the twin cylinder of that Goggomobil would yield something less than 20CV. What is given by the serial units. That's the way it is, Reverter and his co-driver Manuel Sanjurjo managed to be first in their class both in the Volta ao Minho Rally and in La Toja. Not bad at all, since just those two victories were the only participations of Reverter with the Goggomobil that year.

Thanks to this, the official MUNISA team offered Reverter one of its units in 1964. According to the photographic records and the fact that its license plate BI-58832 is from Bilbao like MUNISA itself, everything indicates that this unit is the which is now deposited in the Estanislao Reverter Foundation. In the official record of Reverter compiled by his own Foundation, only one participation with this model is indicated. The one given in second edition of the Rías Bajas Rally. Where Reverter was twelfth while Jorge Soromenho's Porsche 356 took the victory.

Official team unit with Bilbao license plate

After all this, the following season would bring Reverter third place in the Spanish Rally Championship. As well as the participation in the 1.000 Kilometers of Monza aboard a FIAT Abarth 1000 and obtaining the sports merit medal awarded by the National Sports Delegation. a turning point from which more performance cars appeared in the career of this pilot and businessman. Obviously their legendary Alpinche among them. Although he would always remain as a curious and audacious memory of those two seasons in which Estanislao Reverter could be seen linking curves aboard some simple but spirited Goggomobil.

Images: Estanislao Reverter Foundation / BMW Press / RM Sotheby's

P.D. One of the mysteries that the Reverter Goggomobiles are still hiding has to do with two photographs. EIn them he appears together with the co-driver Gumersindo González in the unit of the official team. Obviously this would not be strange if it weren't for the fact that they carry the plate with the number 66 of the Rallye RACE. A test that Reverter won in 1958 and 1959, although the participation with a Goggomobil in said test does not appear in the record collected by the Estanislao Reverter Foundation. Undoubtedly a small loose end on which it will be necessary tocontinue investigating

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Written by Miguel Sánchez

Through the news from La Escudería, we will travel the winding roads of Maranello listening to the roar of the Italian V12; We will travel Route66 in search of the power of the great American engines; we will get lost in the narrow English lanes tracking the elegance of their sports cars; We will speed up the braking in the curves of the Monte Carlo Rally and we will even get dusty in a garage while rescuing lost jewels.

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