Ivan Vicario Martin
Among the constellation of stars that shone at the last Goodwood Festival of Speed, one particularly stood out for us. We talk about spectacular Huayra Pronello-Ford an Argentine racing car who, to date, had never left the country of Juan Manuel Fangio.
The history of this car begins in 1969, when the category of Sport Prototypes was born in the albiceleste country. that's when Ford entrusts Heriberto Pronello, a native engineer from Córdoba, with the design and construction of a car for that category. Precisely the mechanics with which it was equipped was a 8-liter displacement V5 of the oval brand that yielded nothing less than 430 hp power.
The car, practically unknown outside of Argentina, debuted in with Carlos Pascualini and the former pilot of F1 Charles Reutemann. Only two units were manufactured, which would stop running that same year due to the high cost of development. Of course, along the way he left his stamp, well it was the fastest sport prototype, both in the race and in qualifying, in almost all the races he took part in.
BACK TO LIFE OF THE HUAYRA PRONELLO-FORD
In 2005, the businessman Ricardo Zeziola recovered one of the Huayra, chassis 002, on which he carried out restoration work for five years. In this way, in 2010, the car rolled again with a level of finish even higher than that of the original models that ran 40 years ago.
During the Festival of Speed weekend, he was scheduled to do the famous climb at Goodwood House Gardens from Friday to Sunday. Finally, he could not do it on Saturday due to the cancellation of activities due to bad weather conditions. In any case, received the recognition of the fans. In addition, it was mentioned as "Say hello to your new favorite car you didn't know existed" (Say hello to your new favorite car you didn't know existed).
AMONG THE MOST VALUABLE
Its owner and restorer, Ricardo Zeziola, couldn't fit in the excitement seeing how the Huayra had been selected for be inside Brooklands Paddock, along with the most valuable cars of the event. Group 2, assigned for the track start of the Huayra Pronello-Ford as Sport-Prototype, was formed by the cars of the Centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 75 years of the NASCAR category. In fact, in one of the exits, she left behind the Le Mans Winning Mazda 787B in 1981.
The Huayra Pronello-Ford made the climb on Friday with the normal configuration of the car. On Sunday, he incorporated a long tail in the two batches he carried out. His participation in the Festival of Speed has been the finishing touch since his arrival in Europe, where he has also been honored at the Argentine Embassy in London. Besides, its aerodynamic design was studied at the Catesby Tunnel. We are talking about a life-size wind tunnel built in an old railway tunnel from 1897.
Photos courtesy of Gabriel de Meurville.
