The straw that broke the camel's back was apparently a study that showed there wasn't a market in Europe for a vehicle with a "huge loading space," which seems to totally miss the point. After all, most people in this country buy trucks absent any overriding need for any of the space features they offer. [Forbes]

The 2009 race is scheduled to go 6,000 kilometers and run from Jan 3rd to the 18th, beginning and ending in Buenos Aires and running through both Argentina and Chile. Details on the route are thin, but the 2009 Dakar site is already up and running. Lobbying for tickets to South America has already begun in earnest, with Wert mentioning something about budgets and overlords. [Central European Details via Sportbusiness] [South American Rally via Dakar Website"</>]

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.

Related:
The Last Cortina [Internal]

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

Web Oficial de Ford Falcon en Argentina [TodoFalcon.com.ar]

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Rambler Rogue? No, Renault Torino! [internal]

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

Lamborghini Alar 777 Puts the Bull Under the Knife [Internal]

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Abomination of the Day: Dolphins Diablo [Internal]

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

So What's A Torino? [Rambler Rogue Registry]

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The Go-Anywhere Ford Falcon...From Argentina! [internal]

During the early 1970s in Argentina, before a Per n returned to the president's chair, before that Per n was succeeded by his popular but weak-willed wife, and before that wife was thrown from office by a military junta that would regularly use "disappear" as a transitive verb, a "Dodge GTX" could be had. It was so fast, it could deliver a forgotten ring on the occasion of a friend's wedding. Let's just hope the friend didn't turn out to be a dissident. [Thanks to Martin for the tip.] – Mike Spinelli

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The New Kind of Compact, In The Large Economy Size! Vintage Dodge Dart Spot [internal]

Horacio Pagani started out as the son of Argentine bakers. We wish this stupid cop-chopper would stop circling. Seriously, po-pos, either catch the perp or go home. Sheesh. Anyway, Mister Pagani, like many insane visionaries, bootstrapped himself by building trailers and racing cars. Er. Racing cars. Er, well, whatever. Anyway, if you can wade through the purple ESL prose of the linked piece, it's an interesting look at the man's ideas about automotive design and construction. Meanwhile, we're about to reach for our revolver. Really. Stop circling, dammit! – Davey G. Johnson

What the Mind Thinks, the Hand Creates [Casilda.com]

Related:
The Truth About the Pagani Zonda C12S [Internal]

While reader Tony was visiting Iguaz Falls at the Argentine/Brazilian border, he ran across this automotive anomaly in Puerto Iguaz , Argentina. Not a flower car, but not yet a woman, the Hearsachero was apparently designed to allow hastily-and-not-always-correctly embalmed bodies to air out during the funeral procession in an effort to keep the driver from being overcome by the noxious fumes of decomposing flesh exacerbated by South American heat. We're quite sorry if we just pulled a Cannibal Corpse on your evening. You might try playing some Bread or Jim Croce to cleanse the palate.

More El Caminos!

Reader Martin grew up in Argentina and tossed us over this link to a classic Argentine Ford Falcon ad. According to him, the updates to the South American Falcon were primarily cosmetic, rather than the full do-overs the Australians heaped on the machine over the years. Oh, and Dr. Wilson, we hope you'll note, the Falcon doesn't try to jump the railroad crossing in the ad.

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Ad Watch: Chevrolet Is As American As Fantasy Leagues, Steroids and Cuban Players Lying About Their Age [Internal]

A story that rivals papa Henry's Nazi medal for Things Ford Most Wants to Forget has surfaced once again. A group of former union organizers in Argentina has filed a civil suit against FoMoCo and its Argentine subsidiary claiming the men were kidnapped and tortured inside the company's plant in the dawning years of that country's military dictatorship and subsequent "Dirty War" of 1976-1983. The workers, who had filed a similar criminal suit against Ford Argentina in 2003, claim they were beaten, tortured by electric shocks and subjected to mind-fuck techniques favored by the junta of the time. (To be fair, Ford's not the only company who has faced such charges; Mercedes Benz's Argentine affiliate was accused of the same kind of anti-union violence.) See kids, those unaware of history are doomed to repeat it — and that doesn't just apply to the 1977 Pinto Cruising Wagon.

Ford Sued In Argentina Over Alleged Kidnappings, Torture [CNN]

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Let s Party While the Children Starve! [internal]