Speed, admiration, respect, passion, panic, death. Who knows how many more things? Each one will be able to do the exercise and answer what it generates to hear the sound of those two letters together: ‘CT’. Because you don’t even have to hear “Turismo Carretera” in full for them to surface memories of parents or grandparents with their ears glued to the radio listening to what intrepid adventure the pitucos of Caballito faced, as they were told the Gálvez brothers, or the Emiliozzi baptized as the gringos of Olavarría. Nicknamed for the ingenuity of the popular, another meaning had to speak of ‘the carafe, the empanada or the galley’ among ardent racing fans. After opening routes revolutionizing every corner of the country, they traveled to the future watching modern cars like the ‘Orange Thunder’ until slowly and tragically, the era of racetracks that today receive prototypes developed with the latest technology took hold. The evolution itself was mutating each parameter of these skills that still have the founding stone in the blood of the Argentine with the active gene of TC.
How to commemorate those 85 years of history since the 1st Grand Prix that started on August 5, 1937? A tour of different parts of the country with emblematic cars It began months ago, passing through La Pampa, Neuquén and different scenarios that were receiving the competitions of the current official tournament. But before the final act, which will be with the competition on Sunday, August 7 at the San Juan Villicum international circuit, the TC will take the streets of Buenos Aires vibrating the concrete midnight on Sunday July 31 with a dozen vehicles from the TC Museum.
They will leave in the corner of Cerrito and Av. Córdoba to travel a circuit that will take them directly to the Av. Corrientes next to the Obelisk. Once surrounded by the porteño emblem, they will return via Carlos Pellegrini to Tucumán to contour to the Colon Theater passing through Libertad and Viamonte streets just before receiving the checkered flag of the night Mini GP. Chevrolet fans will be able to see its modern symbolslike the cars Guillermo Ortelli, Agustín Canapino or Christian Ledesma represented, the glory of the nine titles of Juan Gálvez with its coupé recalling the “genuine” TC of the Vueltas and Grand Prix between mountains, plains and in any weather. The striking ‘narrow’ Falcon by Carlos Reutemann, the evolutions of the Torino 380W called Hares, the renowned ‘coloradita’ by John Manuel Bordeaux that was developed with improvements in the coupé to sustain the fast paces of modern cars or the Chevy with which it is eternally remembered Robert Mouras, among others. They will all sleep in the Vatican Square like in a closed road park full of public to appreciate them and hold together the vigil for the party that will bring together the architects of the TC inside the Theater Monday, August 1 at 7:00 p.m.. Popular artists will meet, such as Raúl Lavié and Soledad Pastorutti, in the meeting that will have Hugo Mazacanepresident of the ACTC runners’ association as host, receiving a special distinction from the Buenos Aires legislature for the validity of the category.
1920 races have passed since that 1937 GP and only 38 drivers have been able to achieve at least one championship, such as Fangio, Di Palma or Traverso and those mentioned above. Some of them represent the defiant ingenuity of the small payment compared to the knowledge of the great capital city, which has coexisted over the years among the supporters clubs that gathered support for their pilots and today they are practically extinct. However, in the midst of so many possible influences between social networks and a world that seems to go faster than the races themselves, the TC weekends continue to be an enthralling magnet that draws crowds. No less is expected in the streets of downtown, with a city of Buenos Aires playing between the nostalgia of old times and the emotion of knowing that in 2023 it will return to the official TC calendar with a race at the autodrome.
Whoever is close to these fireballs will be able to describe the feeling they arouse, because the viewer is the architect of this story of challenges between glory and tragedy. Much more can be said by those who faced the reckless adrenaline rush of riding one of those cars, risking in some cases even the highest value possible. Because death has been the toughest rival in this 85-year adventure and, perhaps, part of the reverence these pilots receive is due to that constant risk at unmatched speeds that raised the endless myth of TC.
