La Carrera Panamericana

Eighty classic race cars on public roads, hitting speeds of up to 160mph in a seven-day, 2000-mile endurance race. That’s La Carrera Panamericana, now in its 18th retrospective year.

Each day the event traces a sinuous course of closed special stages and fast transit sections through central Mexico, aping some of the route of the original race held from 1950 to 1955, considered back then the most dangerous in the world.

This year's event starts in Veracruz on the humid Carribean coast, pulling in at Mexico City’s GP circuit as a curtain-raiser for the Champ Car race, and overnights at old colonial cities Puebla, Queretaro, Morelia, Aguascalientes and Zacatecas, with the finish at modern Monterrey.

The bulk of the entry comprises ’50s and ’60s American stock cars, from original Panamericana Fords and Lincolns to 'Turismo Mayor' Studebakers and Oldsmobiles to classic Europeans. Most popular shape is the 1953 Studebaker Champion Regal Starliner (designed by Raymond Loewy), on account of it being a coupe and therefore more aerodynamic, although what look like ’50s cars are often nothing more than modern NASCAR stockers in drag. And no less fabulous for that, tuned 500bhp V8s howling through the desert landscape. These beasts are created specially for the Panamericana and probably not eligible for anything else.

The supporting cast is no less appealing, ranging from Giulietta to Porsche 356, fin-tail Merc to Saab 96 two-stroke, and Volvo PV544 to Mk2 Jag, with a host of classics in between. Drivers and co-drivers are mainly amateurs, but many are PanAm regulars. There's the odd star driver too, including Jo Ramirez of McLaren in a Volvo P1800, roundly cheered at every turn.

There are ten classes depending on age of car, state of tune and authenticity, but basically they’ll create a class for whatever you want to run. Sole representative of a category for moderns this year is an Elise piloted by tattooed Chicago chica loca Rachel Larrat, harbinger of a mooted 'supercar class' that could move the Carrera image firmly into the 21st century.

Under the benign vigilance of the Federales – first to arive in the bar and last to leave – the circus progresses through sub-tropical palms up into temperate woodland, plunging into deep valleys flanked by Lost World escarpments, crosses deserts and forests of giant cacti and the barren mountains of the Mexican spine. At service halts in remote villages, poverty meets plenty as young and old spill out of shanty shacks to wave, cheer and beg for souvenirs.

There’s no holding back on the part of the contestants, with just half the original field making it from Veracruz to Monterrey unassisted. Casualties like the bullet-nose Studebaker and fire-damaged original PanAm Lincoln are trailered most of the way, the former totalled on the very first stage. Another bullet-nose 'Stoody' rolls off a bridge into a river, mercifully on its wheels; its driver Rusty Ward finished the event in similar style last year. Others fall prey to mechanical breakdown as the rate of attrition increases.

I watch the field hurtle though the Mil Cumbres section, a 21km-long version of the Nordschleife, without the Armco, between Queretaro and Morelia, and think nothing of the red E-type roadster passing by, except that the mother of its co-driver is navigating my press car. She waves as it passes. Later, we're stopped by support crews and paramedics at the end of the stage only to see the Jag’s bonnet 100ft down through the roadside pines, pointing skyward among the undergrowth. The 19-year-old is still comatose in hospital when I leave for home – a sobering reminder that the PanAm isn't to be taken lightly.

Each night the circus pauses and the local population turns out en-masse to cheer the convoy through the finishing arch. It’s a pleasure to eat out in sidewalk cafes under colonnaded baroque buildings and savour the grand old city centres. A reggae band plays in Queretaro’s main square, and at Zacatecas the PanAm entourage dances in the streets to a rag-tag brass band and sips mescal on the way. The party meets up for the day’s prizegiving (silver plates for all and sundry) and headmasterly debrief by the organiser – jailed at Queretaro for thumping an errant motorist who’d pitched him and his buddy into a wall. He’s bailed for US$8000, but if the Federales had been on the scene he’d very likely have got away with it.

After Aguascalientes, the rally route strikes up high for La Bufa, a series of fast sweeps and long straights, looping 30km over a mountain range and down to Zacatecas. First up the ascent is the Pierre De Thoisy/Pierre Schockaert Studebaker, its trajectory through my chosen bend coinciding with the perambulations of an old dog. Exit one mutt.

Eventual winners are Gabriel Perez and Angelica Fuentes in a 1959 Ford Coupe. It's the first win for a woman crew member and first for the 'Turismo Production' class. It's been an incredible journey and well worth the trip.