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The 2012 Dakar kicked off to a dramatic start Sunday as Argentina's coastal dunes overtaxed several trucks and even a quad, resulting in multiple fires. The rally is now on its third of 14 stages, covering over 3,000 miles off road in Argentina, Chile and this year, for the first time, Peru. More »
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Argentine race car driver Guido Falaschi was killed yesterday on the last lap of the Turismo Carretera Series race at the Juan Miguel Fangio track in Argentina. The 22-year-old collided with a lapped car, hit the wall and was t-boned by another vehicle. More »
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In April 1947, two wild and crazy Czechs set off from Prague in a Tatra 87 and drove 40,000 miles across Africa and South America. Přes Kordillery (“Across the Cordilleras”) is their book about the middle part of the trip: from Buenos Aires to Lima, across the world’s then-highest road. It is, as one would expect, the holy mother of road trips. More »
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There are two great moments in Argentine motoring history centered around the Nürburgring and then there’s a third, a fourth-place finish at a race you’ve never heard of. Of course it’s the latter that’s the pride and joy of Argentine car enthusiasts: the story of the Torinos at the 1969 Nürburgring 84 Hours. More »
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For all its wonders, Argentina is sorely lacking in interesting cars, and now there’s one less: last Thursday, a Ferrari 456 was destroyed in an accident in Buenos Aires. The moment of impact and its aftermath were captured by a security camera. More »
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You have to look at Antonio Berni’s 1965 sculpture El pájaro amenazador (“Threatening Bird”) for a few seconds to realize that most of its non-organic elements are old car parts, like a steering wheel serving as weird, industrial diadem. More »
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Argentina’s Andean northwest is a wonderland of absolutely epic driving roads. The fun starts in Tucumán province on Ruta Provincial 307: a mad jungle climb of 5512 feet up the Río de los Sosa gorge. More »
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Renault marks the 50th anniversary of the Renault 4 this year with a series of events around the world. It never officially made the United States — except back in 1965, when the company sent four women to drive from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska. More »
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In a land uniquely suited to simple pickup trucks, Argentines use a homebuilt contraption of Borgward, wood, and artisan panels called the Rastrojero. More »
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In 1928, five years after Chrysler's current part-owners Fiat inaugurated their stunning Lingotto plant, Chrysler's Argentine distributors opened a magnificent building to assemble, test, sell... and race cars in Buenos Aires. We went to take a look at what remains. More »
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Between 1969 and 1981, Ford Motor Argentina produced a local, four-door sedan version of the sixth generation Fairlane. Apparently, four can also mean two and a pickup bed. ¡Yeehaw! More »
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You'd expect working dogs in a country with more heads of cattle than humans to be a touch overzealous, but it's downright hilarious to see herding behavior triggered by a rental car in a roundabout. More »
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With its stupendous beef, acid trip scenery, and January summer, Argentina could be the greatest country on Earth. If it had any cars worth mentioning, that is. More »
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Planners of gentrified urban districts, take note: the perceived authenticity of a locale's hipness is greatly boosted by a stragetically placed wreck to offset all the pricey designer stores. More »
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It's not every day that one runs into an abandoned mobile crane with a cherub hanging from its hook a good six feet off its base. Lunch break or modern art? In Buenos Aires, it's hard to tell. More »
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Long distance bus travel is nothing new but the Argentines have taken it to its most opulent extreme. Combine business class airplane seats with a vast landscape at 55 mph and you get Argentina's stunning pullmans. More »
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Mate, the herbal infusion drunk all over Argentina, may seem like the ideal road drink: it's a pleasant brew of mild stimulants. It's also a scalding handful of water with a metal straw sticking out. And the roads are bumpy. More »
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Auto Union was the result of the merger of 4 German car companies formed in 1932. Few are aware during the 1960s, the German company which became Audi licensed car production in Argentina. These photos show the factory in action. More »
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Discount the license plate along with the dirt roads teeming with old European cars outside the frame and this splendid purple Nova SS could be your Uncle Bob's project car. It's certainly got enough interior space for steak. More »
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Nürburgring? What Nürburgring? Northern Argentina has less corners than the run between Bergwerk and Schwalbenschwanz. What it's got instead is straights any enthusiast of good old straightline speed would kill for. They escape the curvature of the Earth. More »
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There's not much driving to do in rural Argentina in the days of high summer. Until you realize you've run out of steak. Then it's time to fire up the vintage Renault and go hunting for a butcher. More »
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Juan Vera took his brand new Volkswagen Gol to the second floor of an Argentine parking garage in order to learn how to drive it. Bad idea. Here's a gallery of the world's worst driving lesson. More »
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The 2010 Dakar (née Paris-Dakar) Rally is well under way. The race began on January 1st and is scheduled to end on the 16th, but a flood of amazing images have already hit the wire services. Gallery time? You betcha. More »
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We thought Panama to Alaska in an elderly Aston Martin was pretty impressive… but that was before we found out about these two Argentinians driving their '81 Renault 12 from Argentina to Alaska! More »
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The LeMons Supreme Court always thinks of some location-specific penalties for each race, and South Carolina politicians Mark Sanford and Joe Wilson provided a rich vein of material for us. More »
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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. Here's why Argentina is one of our favorite DOTSBE locales! More »
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This year the Dakar Rally moved from its spiritual home in Africa to South America. That’s a good thing, as it resulted in more varied terrain, better racing and, most importantly, absolutely amazing photos. More »
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It all starts with a beam of light fired from the taillight of an '87 Renault 18 located in an Argentinian art gallery packed with jittery stimulant-inspired sculptures. Next thing you know... well, something happens, and a security guard isn't sure what to make of it. Thanks to Franzouse for the tip! More »
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You could buy a Renault-branded '65 Rambler American in Argentina well into the 1980s, which was pretty cool. But imagine being able to buy a brand-new 504 all the way until the end of the 20th century; better still, imagine dirt-road 504 hoonage with a wild-eyed nun behind the wheel! We're pretty sure the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional would have disapproved of this ad. More »
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Volkswagen has confirmed their 2010 Robust pickup was just too robust for the European market (and gas prices). Though the decision makes sense in light of current trends, we'd like to point out the VW pickup has been undergoing advanced testing and isn't completely dead, since VW will continue with planned production in Argentina for emerging markets. More »
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We love weird South American versions of North American cars, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a car with a more complicated family tree than the Renault Torino. Conceived as the result of AMC-Renault cooperation, based on the '65 Rambler American Rogue, with body redesign by Pininfarina and power by Kaiser, the Torino was built in Argentina until 1982. We really, really want one to use for Official Jalopnik Business... and now there's this '72 for sale on eBay! Make the jump for a vastly expanded gallery. [eBay Motors] More »
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After the 2008 Dakar Rally was canceled in January due to security threats, everyone wondered if and when it would return. A few days ago, this years' race was confirmed to run from April 20 to 26 in sections of Central Europe. The 3000-kilometer race will start in Budapest, head east the Romanian city of Sovata, then head back to Hungary and finish in the town of Balatonfured. That is news on its own, but the bigger more interesting news is the 2009 Rally. More »
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So you're a young Argentinian dude and you find your Renault in a bit of a pickle, road-safety-wise. Señor Prince of Darkness offers you what sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Do you take it? The Clio isn't anywhere near as cool as the '65 Rambler Rogue-based Renault Torino, so maybe the Evil One will throw in a couple of them in on the deal! More »
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This relic of Argentina's Dirty War era may once have carried movie stars, heads of state or even racing drivers. Now, alas, its hydraulically operating doors only provide cover for street produce. Actually, the long, long wheelbase 240, workhorse of South American taxidom during the malaise era, is a perfect carrier and displayer of such wares, though word is the ghosts of "disappeared" dissidents have been known to sneak an apple when the boss isn't looking. [Thanks to a tipster whose original e-mail I lost, and who should send another right away for proper credit.] More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=311852&view=rss&microfeed=true Although it's only one letter off from the iconic jellybean-shaped 1980s family phenom recently reborn with Dave on its face, the Ford Taunus was named after a mountain range. Nevertheless, this Argentine Ford spot seems to indicate that the charging Taunus was equally at home playing either bull or matador. And no, it did most certainly did not come pre-loaded with a set of Pavement eight-tracks, as both Malkmus and Cosloy were still in short pants. More »
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OK, it wasn't the fault of those poor green Falcons that the death squads drove them during Argentina's Guerra Sucia; I mean, we don't hate the ZIL just because Beria's thugs had a fleet of them in the Lubyanka parking lot, do we? Of course not. So head over to the lovingly obsessive Todo Falcon site in Argentina, where you'll find endless photographs, scanned driver's manuals, and (if you can read Spanish) interesting info about the '62 Falcon That Time Forgot. – Murilee Martin More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=244351&view=rss&microfeed=true In Argentina, car buyers could score themselves a new mid-60s Rambler clone- in the form of the Renault Torino- well into the 80s. But the Torino was a flash in the pan next to the Argentinean Ford Falcon, which was based on the early-60s US Falcon and was still rolling off the assembly line into the 90s (though it received some grille updates, it was still a '62 at heart). – Murilee Martin More »
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When we were a junior-high-aged Jalopnik, a teacher of ours said that if we could identify every reference in Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" by the next morning, we would be free from certain homework assignments for the rest of the year. We accomplished this feat. (Bear in mind that this was in the days before we had the internet on either side of our head.) And she went back on the deal, assumedly not to encourage a young Jalopnik's smart-assiness. The license plate on her Le Baron convertible read "ALON," which was her first name spelled backwards. We then started refering to her as "Alar" behind her back — an agricultural product shown to cause tumors in laboratory mice. We think this Diablo-based custom Lamborghini would cause tumors in both rodents and K Cars alike. Autoblog's got the specifics. We're going for the Kaopectate. – Davey G. Johnson More »
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One of the cars in the above illustration is a '79 Renault Torino, while the other is a '65 Rambler American. Notice any similarities? The story of the Renault Torino isn't just the usual case of a US automaker selling the tooling for an obsolete model to a South American manufacturer, nor was it a simple re-badging of a US model for license-building abroad. No, the Torino is the result of an early chapter in the twisty tale of the Renault-AMC story, which resulted in a unique-to-Argentina vehicle, based on the Rambler American Rogue but with body redesigned by Pininfarina and a Kaiser-designed engine under the hood. The Torino became a legend in Argentina, selling like crazy and having a fair bit of racing success, including a major N rburgring triumph in 1969. Torino production halted in 1982, a dark year for car freaks in Argentina. – Murilee Martin More »
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